[Guide] Budget PR Build - ECO graphics cards compared

[WeeGeez]

Although this guide does not cover laptops specifically it may still help identify a suitable one by means of the comparison chart provided.

* Note: A CPU less than 2ghz is unquestionably unsuitable regardless of quality setting. More is needed.

Preamble, prologue, preface
Players who don't already have a PC and want to buy / build one (or already have a basic entry system), may not know minimum hardware for PR to run well on max visual settings. To buy parts, wait for them to arrive, test, be disappointed by results and return said purchase, wastes time & money. The most critical part that can make or break PR experience is the video processor. This guide establishes a 'baseline' low cost PR capable PC and compares a selection of low power, entry-level video cards. In the end AMD ends up being the better choice, specifically the AMD HD 7750, which is relatively ubiquitous / cheap second hand.

The guide is not too scientific but certainly better than nothing for those who want to put together cheap systems for themselves and/or for friends, essentially boosting player base numbers.

The rated power limit of the PCI-E slot on all motherboards into which cards are inserted, is 75Watts. Some entry-level cards do not require external power, this can be a bonus for players on a shoe string budget because money saved not buying power supply can be spent on graphics and/or other parts like a 3Ghz+ CPU (highly recommended). Another scenario where this is ideal is; pre-built OEM machines that lack bigger supplies (e.g. HP Compaq 4300, Fujitsu Esprimo E500, Dell Optiplex d04s, HP 4300 SFF, HP Pro Slimline 3300, Thinkcentre M83, ThinkCentre E73, Lenovo 2561 etc) - here, the addition of one <75w card alone is satisfactory to run PR at 'best' visual settings at a medium resolution.

Radeon HD7750 Low Profile (Pictured, Above)

As long as its 75 or less, the system can potentally be powered by a 250w PSU and not a 750w monster.

Spoiler for :

*cough* small form factor pr machine *cough*

After extensive tests with lots of of entry level, low power <75w gpus, a general pattern was seen and a rule of thumb established that chosen GPU should:

• be newer than 2012
• have minimum of 8 Render output units (ROPs) and
• have 40GB/s memory bandwidth

There is alot of 'mid-range' rubbish, even today, out there that will struggle to push consistant rates in PR.
While its true that there are models made before 2012 that match said criteria, these are not low power.
8 Rops is sensible for 19" monitor on full settings. 16 affords headroom margin.
Second hand prices between 8 and 16 can be negligible so I recommend 16 ROP cards.

For those that don't already know; a greater monitor size has greater coresponding demand on any given card.
An adequate 19" monitor serves as a datum from which cards on this page are based. Don't expect a miracle on a 24" or higher. Its possible to downscale game resolution settng to a lower one when playing on a larger screen. i.e. play at 19" native resolution on a 24" screen if push comes to shove.

Skip to "Recommendations" section for TL/DR if uninterested in testing details.

Tests
Although many more cards were tested, 3 were shortlisted and shown as examples here on the basis that they were more accessible to the tester (lowest cost) at the time of tests. They were carefully chosen.

Keep in mind the motherboard used was rather old and was again seleted because of its availability to the tester. A newer motherboard may improve rates and/or compensate for lower performing CPU. (+/- 10fps at most).

Test Method
Test system and nvidia driver kept constant as cards were changed.
Same driver meant cards were automatically detected after swap/restart.
Driver 340.43 was ideal as it covered all the cards or DUT (devices under test).
3 project reality maps were tested per card, two were 4km, and one 1km for a varied test.
Routes taken on each map kept similar.
Helicopter trans was chosen: the speed of flying better exposes frame rates as the scenery passes by. Higher elevation also exposes more objects to draw and at further distances; essentially, helicopter = worse case scenario

Game play, filmed with camera external to PC to better represent real-world performance.
Frame rates are shown onscreen during filming.

The results should give an idea of each card based on the following settings:
Resolution: 1024 x 1028 (1.3MP) equivalent (4:3 19" monitor)
In-game Anti Aliasing at 8x. (app-controlled in nvidia control panel).
Larger Resolutions will cripple these cards, unless settings are turned down to compensate.
In-game MSAA setting changes had negligible impact on results - because multi-sampling anti aliasing costs little performance.

Test system specs & cost All prices are item+delivery.
32-Bit OS - 64bit OS will bring negligiblel improvement as far as 32bit PR is concerned. Proof
2.9Ghz AMD Athlon II X2 CPU (45watt TDP) £18
4Gb 800Mhz DDR2 Ram £15 / $20
Dedicated sound card (optional) £30 / $38
250watts small form factor power supply £8 / $10
2009 AM2+/AM3 Socket Motherboard* + Heatsink £11 / $15

Total cost: £52.50.
(excluding optional soundcard, monitor†, keyboard, laser mouse; 1600 dpi recommended for balls-on accuracy)
† Monitor isn't essential, most TVs can accept PC display via HDMI / VGA.

*Some chipsets with intel socket can be seen to consume upto 512MB for Southbridge/ low level devices, if paired with 1024MB+ video cards on a 32bit OS this may cause problems. 64bit OS are exempt from this. nForce chipsets are among the worst designed.


The cards Tested / DUT
9800GT Green Edition, G92 chip, released March 2009
factory under-clocked so TDP = 75w (normal 9800GT = 106w)
£17

GT 430, fermi, released October 2010
TDP = 49w
£14

GT 730, kepler, released June 2014
TDP = 23w
£12.19 (lucky bid)

As we can see, a broad selection (G92, Fermi, Kepler resp.):



Update
There are now two sets of results. Original results, followed by updated results. The reason for this is that patch v1.5.4.5 added a PREF BETA option; when enabled it affects performance enough to warrant a re test.


Results (PR v1.4 with PERF BETA OFF):

(lowest observed frame rate)

Video reference (PR v1.4 with PERF BETA OFF):

Spoiler for video:

Merging 3 videos into one YT video per map was considered, however there is no free software I could find that does that.
Bamyan:


Vadso:


Asad Kahl:

Results (PR v1.5.4.5 with PERF BETA ON):

(lowest observed frame rate)

Video reference (PR v1.5.4.5 with PERF BETA ON):

Spoiler for video:

Bamyan:


Vadso:


Asad Kahl:

Addendum: a third set of results (not shown) using a different motherboard showed increase of 10fps, therefore all results shown are likely worst case scenario.PERF BETA is on by default as of latest patch.

Conclusion:
The tests as demonstrated on this system, suggest that entry-level cards haven't changed much since 2009 (re: frame rate), but instead have progressed to be more economical (and smaller), with each successor drawing less power. Out of the three cards, the GT430 is the more worthwhile (though not ideal). 16fps was the lowest observed rate, on Vadso while flying over dense urban town with 9800GT. On all cards, playing as INF sees frame rates top out at 45fps (higher with PERF BETA). Its known that smoke grenades can lock up low-end systems majorly, but that was not the case here. Although it was possible to fly helicopters on these occasions, it was on an offline server; once many players are rendered on the field, this will likely cost some fps and flying probably would become impossible with PERF BETA off, for ground combat however: no problem on or off. Surprisingly maps with dense vegetation, maps such as fools road and Wanda Shan (Chinese 4km w/ wind turbines), even with PERF BETA off, frame rates remained around 40-45 during flight. Vegetation is well optimized. There was no pattern regarding Video Memory Type, its said that GDDR is typically better than DDR but in this instance nothing is correlate-able.

Recommendations
In closing, here are some suggested honest, low cost, mid range, low power cards adequate for PR at 60fps constant at 1024x1280:

nvidia GT 640/740 (GDDR5), GT 650 (non Ti version) & GT 750 (any version)
Any corresponding card by ATI i.e. R7 250 or Radeon 7750. See green squares in chart for an idea.

Average price ranges from £15 to 50 (Second hand) as of January 2019. ($19 - 60)
All other sub 75 watt cards (i.e. GT 240, GTS 450 Eco*, GT 440, GT 620, 710) will not maintain 60fps at resolution of 1024 x 1280 or higher (subject to scene / specific map areas). For example the low power GTS 450 is capable of 60fps however it's noisy, the fan is overworked and wear out sooner - this card and others 'borderline adequate' are marked with orange squares in the chart below..

Chart to compare other cards (ascend by performance):
nvidia | ATI | Intel

| AMD A10 5700K = GT 730 (the one tested)

Finally, max power draw of test system with 75w video card, paired with 45watt CPU.
Note: CPU higher than 75w not advisable on 250w supply


1U Power Supplies
- Power rating (watts) made evident in model numer, otherwise it is provided.
- Some are abundant on auction sites).

FSP 220-60LE
FSP 270-60LE
FSP 300-701UJ
FSP 350-601U

KENTEK 250 Watt
Elanpower RP-2005-00, 250w

ENP-7025C, 250w
ENP-2320, 200w
ENP-2322, 220w
SPI270LE, 270w

T-WIN PS-1S400EP, 400w

[WeeGeez]

Reserved

[agus92]

Very cool, now do one with Post Scriptum

Now seriously,if you ever repeat the experiment, remember to disable the camera's autofocus.

[WeeGeez]

do one with Post Scriptum

Didn't go too well

Spoiler for :

[PLODDITHANLEY]

Nice guide.

[WeeGeez]

I doubt it would be feesible to have second hand stuff shipped out to remote islands, in your case Caledonia. lol

Your PC may have arrived either by plane or canoe.

[PLODDITHANLEY]

Not there anymore. Gtx970 by plane.

[WeeGeez]

Gtx970 by plane.

[WeeGeez]

UPDATE:
Got a used GT 640 v2 OEM for £17, low power variant with GDDR5. Frame rates are identical to those seen with GT 730.


GT 640 has 80GB/s Memory bandwidth contrast to the 730 which has only 14GB/s, GDDR5 and DDR3 respectively.
It appears memory type has nothing to offer on this sytem, something also observed on previous cards.

[PLODDITHANLEY]

Something must be screwed if you're showing the same FPS from all below 75w cards. I think it is generally accepted that a gtx750 will out perform lower models. You must have a bottleneck.

[WeeGeez]

Possibly. It could be the motherboard. However consider the chart below.



I tested a GT 710 and it generally was worse. It's not even on the chart. Also consider differences between mid range cards alone lay soley in superficial features, such as G-Sync, 3D vision, CUDA, Streamline, Vulkan, max resolution, display port, features that will only benefit newer games. For such low tier cards, imo, most of these features are useless marketing buzzwords.

The GT 640 and the GTX 650 are the exact same card except for a moderate frequency difference and the type of memory and other superficial differences - source

and that

it is cheaper to manufacture a single chip and cripple it in some way for different product lines then it is to make different silicon for every product. source

For bus powered cards over the years, its probable a limiter exists at BIOS/firmware level that restricts power (irrespective of a cards peak power). Voltages appear to be halved (see graph).
I noticed some newer GTX 750 (non-Ti) <75watts variants, for reasons unknown, have connectors still soldered. The presence of connectors on a low wattage card suggests they may be un capped if going by the logic:
No connector = capped voltage
connector = un capped
If true, this means these cards are the first ever, unrestricted, bus powered cards. Because 60watt isn't far of 75 slot limit, this makes sense, lock step with advances in lithography / transistor miniaturization.

the GTX 650 does in fact not pull anywhere near enough power to need the PCIe connector. The GTX 650 Ti pulls considerably more power and it could get away with not using the connector if Nvidia wanted it to (the same is true for the Radeon 7770 and the Radeon 7750s that have the connector). (source)

To summarize: (OK means low power)
GT x10 and GT x20 - Avoid like the plague
GT x30 and GT x40 - OK but only at low resolutions. Remember: ROPs 8 minimum.
where x = 4/6/7/9 or 10

GTX 450 and earlier not ok / GTX 650* and above ok *64 watt
GTX 650 Ti and earlier not ok / GTX 750 Ti** ok **60 watt

There are SC and OC variants of the 650 and 750, those have connectors. Again, same chipset but uncapped voltage.

As long as its under 75w, the system can be powered by a 270w slim PSU and not a 750w monster.

Spoiler for \"psu\":

*cough* small form factor pr machine *cough*

If anyone is sure what may cause 46% GPU with low FPS usage leave a message, until proven otherwise its likely FW cap. The only other culprit is maybe CPU bottleneck but at 3.6Ghz aided with dedicated sound card, its unlikely Imo.

[PLODDITHANLEY]

I see you're running on a 32 bit OS. My wife's PC E8600 (3.16), HD6870, but with 32bit OS Will barely run PR it won't even load Kashan anymore. My 10 year old 64bit laptop however is ok P8600 (2.4), cheap SSD, 4GB ram and a 9600M GT, however load times are very long and low graphics with smoke induced slideshow.

I have come to the conclusion PR really needs a 64bit OS with a 4GB minimum.

My main PC is 2500k @ 4.3, 16GB, Samsung Evo SSD, gtx970.

What gt730 did you use as there is 3 main versions.

[WeeGeez]

Nah, PR should run fine on 32bit, as I remember it. I played for years on 32bit. The engine is ancient.
Theres a bloody picture in OP of the GT 730 used. Its 'equivalent' to AMD A10 5700K on the chart.

==================================================

Updated Guide to reflect PERF BETA. Improvements so major new tests were in order.
9800GT or 730 GT can't be tested because they've since been sold.

[saXoni]

Shouldn't you be looking at CPUs instead of GPUs?

[WeeGeez]

True Sax, problem with better CPUs is they're going to be newer = newer sockets = newer motherboard and before you know it, a compatible stick of ram for such a system costs as much as the entire system in the guide example. (£52.50). In any event should you spend this much on ram, may as well go all the way, right? This guide is the polar opposite of that, cheap-as-possible.

In my experience, a suitable low cost, small form factor GPU was PITA to pin down. What prompted me to make this guide was the realization that not all low tier parts made today can handle PR. I don't understand why manufacturers insist on putting out garbage like low tier GT x10 and x20 (and AMD equivalent) cards. Its unethical and a waste of resources. they're as good as if not worse than embedded solutions. Its alarming how much retailers try to sell them for (like £65 for a GT 710? wtf) I wouldn't have made past, costly, mistakes if I had this guide back then. Nobody has come forth with a guide. Comparison websites are too vague, leaving you irritable should whatever budget parts turn out to be unsatisfactory..

Lastly, and @Ploddit. I want to report that your right in that the system I used was a bit off, though not by much. By using an alternative motherboard, this time an intel board (of similar age) fitted with E8600, the fps increased by 10 (I only tested vadso).

[akilmaf]

I've not even read the details of your post but man thanks a lot for your great work! How can I thank you without reading it? Well, I've been looking for a PC to play PR without problems. I am not a gamer but I am in love with PR! I just don't want to pay for a system that has too high specs for PR. I am a father of 2 kids so I don't have time to dig in for a fair system. You just gave us all a great shortcut to skip this stressful process and just make a choice.

That's why I would like to thank you a lot! Writing this now before I forget to appreciate your effort. Thanks again!

[WeeGeez]

Thanks,

Although the guide was somewhat tedious, it should grant people with smaller budgets to play and in turn permit a much needed player base boost for the mod.
The affordability vs re-playability aspect of PR simply cannot be ignored, let alone the time that has went into it.

Your post is what I always looked forward to.