Should I buy a 2GB graphics card for Factorio?

[jonbrave]

I am doubtless a Luddite compared to many of you. My PC is a 5(?) year old Windows 7, 8GB RAM, SSD, i5-2500 3.3GHz CPU, NVidia GeForce GTS 450 with 1GB VRAM, 24-inch monitor 1920x1200.

I am perfectly happy with this. It does everything I want at good speed.

Most of my games are 2D, turn-based, non-RTS. And the gfx are fine.

I love Factorio. With it hitting 1.0, I decided it was time to try to set "high resolution sprites" in the settings. It rejected my 1GB card as being pathetic, and said I would need 2GB. I haven't seen this in other games I have (you should be able to see my list of games here if you want).

Looking around I see something like an NVidia "GT710 GV-N710D5-2GL 2 GB GDDR5" for about $55.

If I buy this, will I be bowled over by the impressive HD sprites? Or will I go "Oh, that's all", and wonder why I bothered? I don't think it will make my gaming any faster(?).

Is there any point asking someone if they'd care to upload comparative screenshots of low- versus high-res in Factorio?

[Lou Tenant]

No. No No No. Never buy GT Graphic Cards for Games.
Buy a used GTX 970, 780 or 680. Or an Amd RX 580 / 570. All these card will handle Factorio easily.

And the Sprite resolution isn't that noticable. I have to compare screenshots to realy notice.

[juliejayne]

The HD is better, but will you be blown away by it? Probably not, especially if you have settled with what you have.

If you are tight on cash, hold on, but you will find that more and more games start asking you for 2GB or more of Vram.

When you do upgrade, be sure that you PC can handle the extra graphics card. I think that you would appreciate the better graphics but that is just me.

[Huperspace]

your pc is 10-2 (intel 10xxx now, your 2xxx old, each year new cpu) = 7+ years old.
you pc would be enough for a GTX 1650TI but only if you increase ram to 16gb or more.
Ram is super cheap now. 16gb for 60$ but don't know about the old DDR3. GPU is not around 150$ or 100$ used.
don't go lower, else a complete new pc from a discounter around 500$ does more than double the perf than your old one.

[Huperspace]

your PC is already almost 10 years old, CPU and GPU are from Oct 2010.
I would prefere to buy a complete new one around 400-500€ from discounter.

[jonbrave]

Thank you all for your comments. By the sounds of it I won't get a life-changing experience from Factorio hi-res, and may well be better waiting till I feel I need to change the whole PC!

I don't know if it's actually 10 years old, maybe it's like 7 and I bought a non-up-to-date gfx card for price at the time.

Although I'm sure you will dis me/say I'm talking rubbish, I do actually know what I'm doing/what I want to some extent. Have been programming all my life, not gfx-y things. This machine has been wonderful, silent (vital to me), and unlike most others never had any hardware fault.

I do things like run VirtualBox and compile. As a comparison, I have a recent, decent HP development laptop with i7 + 16GB RAM (and SSD). And this 8GB maybe-10-year-old desktop still outperforms it in practice, comfortably! Same with other people's PCs I have looked at. I have never found that new machines' "more than double the perf" etc. ever come out anywhere near that for my real-world usage, no matter what the hype! :)

So I do respect what you have all told me, thank you very much. If I ever have ~$500 to spend I will reconsider! :)

[Drizzt]

+1 for owning almost every Zachtronics game (Eliza has charm - but no programming so i understand ;-))

and agreed the hi res graphics are nice, but i played factorio for hundreds of hours or more on an i3 laptop with 4GB and integrated graphics (so everything set to minimum) and it was still the best thing ever - so definitely no need to rush, and you will likely be pleased with the new graphics when you eventually get to see them :-)

[jonbrave]

P.S.
BTW I just happened across a post in another thread:

Escrito originalmente por Modran:

I run the game on a 7 years old wrinkled potato: i5-4670, iGPU, 8GB RAM;
nevertheless I can have HR sprites, animated trees and water and have 60 fps most of the time in my midgame factory.

For the record, I too get 60 fps in midgame with run/scroll fine. But not his hi-res, I guess he has integrated GPU and gets to use 2GB from the main memory where I have to use the NVidia card's 1GB limit?

[jonbrave]

@Drizzt Thank you, a fellow Luddite/troglodyte! ;-)

[DCYW]

It is running fine on Intel graphics.

[Drizzt]

maybe it (Windows or the game) will let you change the graphics adapter to run off the i5 integrated graphics? since that should be able to grab more memory

....and yes indeed ;-) (still use my first ever smart phone from 2011, and at least 1 dos machine hanging around)

[jonbrave]

@Drizzt
I don't think this has an integrated gfx? (I do software, I know about as much as my cat does about hardware ;-) ) When I look on this PC in Device Manager I see only the NVidia, so I assume I don't have any alternative integrated GPU on this one, unlike say on my lappy? Or is that not possible??!! Does my i5 actually mean I do have one, and maybe it's disabled from BIOS?? That would make my day...!

[DCYW]

Escrito originalmente por jonbrave:

@Drizzt
I don't think this has an integrated gfx? (I do software, I know about as much as my cat does about hardware ;-) ) When I look on this PC in Device Manager I see only the NVidia, so I assume I don't have any alternative integrated GPU on this one, unlike say on my lappy? Or is that not possible??!!

It does work on Intel graphics, on low settings.

[jonbrave]

@DCYW
I'm sorry if this is obvious to anyone else, but do you mean I do have an integrated GPU on this i5 PC, even if I can't see it from Windows?!

[DCYW]

Escrito originalmente por jonbrave:

@DCYW
I'm sorry if this is obvious to anyone else, but do you mean I do have an integrated GPU on this i5 PC, even if I can't see it?!

Yes, at least a 4400 series above in minimal settings on I5 Integrated .

I am using 12GB of DDR3 RAM in total on Intel Integrated Graphics.

[Drizzt]

ok - some clarity needed here - your i5 (since they are not all the same) looks like it has intel HD 2000 graphics (rather than the 3000+ which can handle gaming better) - however - for starters your monitor is currently plugged into your graphics card and so switching over won't help at the moment - if you have a spare monitor you could try plugging it into the monitor port on your motherboard and then going into display settings to see if it will let you drive it from the onboard (i'm also software, so while i can sort out my hardware, i'm not so good at talking others through it lol)

Edit: it is possible that it is also set to be disabled in the bios when it detects a discrete graphics card - but i would try plugging a monitor into it first :-)

Also, while it will likely be able to grab more memory, i don't know how the 2000 series will do with the hi res graphics - but at least you may be able to give it a try :-)

Edit2: also, it may not handle DX11, which the high res graphics may need - but i'm not certain