New GPU for 2560x1600 gaming..

ToMMyGuN

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 9, 2008
Messages
327
Hello gents,

I just salvaged a gateway xhd3000 from a nice fellow in california (i live in WI), and I have found out the hard way that my trusty old 8800gts 512 isn't up to the task of pushing those 4.1 mega pixels in a gaming situation.

So, what card should I look into? I know I should wait for the hd6000 series' (or s's? damn grammar) launch on monday, but would a midrange card (5 or 6850, or 460gtx) suit my new monitor? Anyone here game on a 30 incher that could chime in on what fps you are getting in BFBC2 or any newer games, and what card you are using?

Thanks in Advance!
 
Nothing short of a dual GPU if you want to run mostly high settings. A good friend of mine has a Dell 30" and runs most of today's games at native res with a 4870x2, except he finds it lacking in consistent frame rates. If you have a deep pocket, look into a 480 SLI or a 5970. If you can wait, see what the 69x0 series brings us!

Edit: He gets, at mostly high settings (no bloom/habo), 2x/16x about 50 to 70fps on average, heavy combat is down towards 30's and 40's, but it runs pretty good when paired with a 4ghz q9550
 
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No one card can handle 2560x1600 comfortably at the moment. If you want the best performance at high resolution, get 480 SLi.
 
I have been gaming with 8800GTS 512MB (G92) @ 25x16 for almost 3 years with no problems. Of course, you need to sometimes lower the res to 19x12, but "no one card can handle 25x16" is just not true.
 
I have been gaming with 8800GTS 512MB (G92) @ 25x16 for almost 3 years with no problems. Of course, you need to sometimes lower the res to 19x12, but "no one card can handle 25x16" is just not true.
if you are lowering the res then you are not gaming at 2560x1600 with "no problems".
 
Need crossfire or sli if you want good frame rates with that resolution.
 
I have been gaming with 8800GTS 512MB (G92) @ 25x16 for almost 3 years with no problems. Of course, you need to sometimes lower the res to 19x12, but "no one card can handle 25x16" is just not true.

There's a difference between handling a resolution... and handling it. Most people who spring for a 30" in the interest of gaming aren't going to be happy with low/medium settings. You're an exception. ;)

480 SLI or something along those lines.
 
Aside from Crysis and Metro 2033 (which lets face it as actual games they do not rank very high in terms of popularity), can the GTX 480 and 5870 really not run games at 2560x1600? The numbers I've seen show otherwise. Hard's reviews for instance show both of them capable of running at high - max settings at that resolution.
 
Aside from Crysis and Metro 2033 (which lets face it as actual games they do not rank very high in terms of popularity), can the GTX 480 and 5870 really not run games at 2560x1600? The numbers I've seen show otherwise. Hard's reviews for instance show both of them capable of running at high - max settings at that resolution.

It should be able to run them, just not with much AA/AF (if at all) if you want to maintain higher frame rates.
 
a 5870 is basically a 4870x2 with lower idle power, so yes, a 5870 can game at 2560x1600.
for your buying decision look at games that a 1GB 460 has less than 60fps and decide if a 470/480/5870 will improve that number a lot ( meaning the game is VGA limited) or not improve at all ( meaning the game is CPU limited).
Thinking that a 2560x1600 gaming card has a longer life span ( you start with 8xAA and 3 years later is still playing newer titles without AA since at 2560x1600 AA is less crucial for image quality) you may wait for the next Radeon series, even if you are not inclined to go ATI, since the new Radeons will lower prices of all cards on the market today. Expect some serious drops on prices of anything above $200.
Right now a 5970 starts at $599, a 480 at $439, the former giving more shader muscle and the later offering larger video memory.
Run away from multiVGA builds, unless you especifically need the MOBO for other reasons: heat, power, size and airflow suffer too much on multiVGA setups to compensate for the price/performance advantage that currently SLI 460s and CF 5850s have.
Or start salve some serious money for a 6970, like i did before the 4870x2 launch.
 
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I have to agree with geok1ng on this one, I really would like to steer clear of 2 physical cards due to the limitations of my *small* mid-tower (Lian Li A05-B).

Of course I will wait until tomorrow (fingers crossed) for the new AMD flavor of gpus, but I am siding towards a powerful single slot option.

One other question is this - I have an e6600 at 3.0 ghz, and I am wondering if this is also a problem/bottleneck? Will this get me by, or should I be looking at building a new system in general? (current rig in sig).
 
It's going to be a bit of a limitation...moving up to a 4+ghz e8400 or a 4ghz q9550 would help a bit too.
 
No one card can handle 2560x1600 comfortably at the moment. If you want the best performance at high resolution, get 480 SLi.

Well actually that's untrue. A 5970 can handle it. But it's technically a dual gpu on 1 card. The 6000 series should result in price cuts on old hardware. A 6900 series might be able to handle the 30" monitor with a single gpu. Note also that AMD has bumped up the series number by 100. So the 6970 is actually a single gpu solution. Yeah, i know, it's confusing.

I have to agree with geok1ng on this one, I really would like to steer clear of 2 physical cards due to the limitations of my *small* mid-tower (Lian Li A05-B).

Of course I will wait until tomorrow (fingers crossed) for the new AMD flavor of gpus, but I am siding towards a powerful single slot option.

One other question is this - I have an e6600 at 3.0 ghz, and I am wondering if this is also a problem/bottleneck? Will this get me by, or should I be looking at building a new system in general? (current rig in sig).

Ideally you would bump your OC to 3.6 ghz or better so as not to bottleneck the gpu.

Aside from Crysis and Metro 2033 (which lets face it as actual games they do not rank very high in terms of popularity), can the GTX 480 and 5870 really not run games at 2560x1600? The numbers I've seen show otherwise. Hard's reviews for instance show both of them capable of running at high - max settings at that resolution.

For gaming purposes yeah the single 480 or 5870 would be adequate but you'd have to sacrifice AA at a 30" resolution. I'd go for SLI or CFX for best performance but that's just me.
 
I am hearing mixed messages, so let's be productive and define "handle"

I know alot of you expect more, but lets be liberal and say that 30FPS is playable ("handled").

Let's use Bad company 2 as our benchmark - Everything on High with AA at 8x and HBAO on.

So, at 2650 x 1600, 30FPS (in fire fights) with High/8xAA/HBAO on is "handled".

What cards can deliver this "handilage"? :)
 
6870 should be good for that if the performance rumors hold true. Running at the highest settings 2 6870s may be required for some of the more demanding games. On nvidia side I'd say nothing shy of a 480 or 480 SLi. The mid range GTX 460 is not ideal to drive 30 inch displays with settings at high. 460 Sli may not be a bad idea. But wait to see what AMD 6000 is going to offer, and how that changes the pricing and market.
 
any way you look at it, wait and see will be good for you in the very short term. Prices should be going down with AMD 6xxx releases, and more choices will be available that shouldn't break the bank either due to the release. Give it a "chill pill" for a couple of weeks and you should be further ahead than you would be going with w/e today.
 
Screw SLI/Crossfire. Just get one GTX480 or wait for the new ATI 69XX card. My GTX480 runs ALL games at 2560X1600 with everything maxed flawlessly. Throw a second card in there and it turns to a stutter fest. I think microstutter is more apparent on these bigger monitors therefore one gpu runs everything with no lag or no stutter...
 
A single GTX 480 will do 'okay' but it does not handle 2560x1600 the way I want it to. Hell, two of them don't exactly handle it the way I want them to. It depends on what you can live with. I want AA and I want alot of it so I got two for the time being and it's pretty good but for awhile I ran with a single 480 and had the other in another machine and it was passable.

A single 5870 felt like it was having trouble even at 1920x1200 so I wouldn't go near one for 2560x1600.
 
A single 5870 or 480 will produce the handilage you described. ;)

yep, or 4870x2 if youre on a budget and your psu can handle it. i also scored an XHD3000 (got it free from a friend and fixed it) and my 4870x2 runs everything superbly. i dont really care for AA since it uses so much more gpu power and the difference is negligible, if not unnoticeable, at this resolution. im downgrading to a 5850 though, and im hopefully going to get near 5870 performance after i overclock it.

toms charts are pretty good for quick reference, and id say anything 5850 or above will be satisfactory, but would recommend 5870 or above if you want to be a little future-proof and able to turn up the details a little in the meantime.
 
yep, or 4870x2 if youre on a budget and your psu can handle it. i also scored an XHD3000 (got it free from a friend and fixed it) and my 4870x2 runs everything superbly. i dont really care for AA since it uses so much more gpu power and the difference is negligible, if not unnoticeable, at this resolution. im downgrading to a 5850 though, and im hopefully going to get near 5870 performance after i overclock it.

Haha I wish I got this one for free! I ended up getting a killer price, but it wasn't free haha. I had to fix the TCON / controller board as you had too, but I used the reflow oven at the ECE department here in madison :)

Well that is good news about the 5870 / 480 (Thanks Mr. Wolf!). As I stated before, I will of course wait until the new 6XXX series is out, I just wanted to feel out the waters. I think I will shell out a little bit more cash on an E8400 and see how high I can push it (I hope it goes up to 4.0ghz with my Freezer pro!)

Thanks All!
 
in some games an e8400 will be a downgrade since it only has 2 cores. can you get the Q6600 any higher, like 3.4 or 3.6GHz? i dont think that putting money into a basically equivalent or worse cpu is a good idea. if you can get a Q8XXX for a decent price (microcenter maybe?) that might be worthwhile, but the Q9XXXs are way too expensive, might as well just upgrade to P55 or X58. unless youre planning on going with a 5970 or better, i think a Q6600 should still be ok. if not then it would be best to upgrade the whole system.
 
An E8400 is not an upgrade on a quadcore Q6600. Just get yourself a good aftermarket cooler and see if you can push your clocks higher on what you've already got.
 
Well actually that's untrue. A 5970 can handle it. But it's technically a dual gpu on 1 card. The 6000 series should result in price cuts on old hardware. A 6900 series might be able to handle the 30" monitor with a single gpu. Note also that AMD has bumped up the series number by 100. So the 6970 is actually a single gpu solution. Yeah, i know, it's confusing.

It all depends on your definition of "handle."

Before I upgraded to 480 SLi, I had 470 SLi, and I was never quite satisfied with their performance at 2560x1600.. 480 SLi provide a much smoother, steadier framerate than 470 SLi from my experience; even when the latter is significantly overclocked.

And if you look at the benchmarks (especially the ones at HardOCP), the 5970 (and even 5870 Crossfire) have a lot of framerate dips compared to the 480s at high resolutions.
 
in some games an e8400 will be a downgrade since it only has 2 cores. can you get the Q6600 any higher, like 3.4 or 3.6GHz? i dont think that putting money into a basically equivalent or worse cpu is a good idea. if you can get a Q8XXX for a decent price (microcenter maybe?) that might be worthwhile, but the Q9XXXs are way too expensive, might as well just upgrade to P55 or X58. unless youre planning on going with a 5970 or better, i think a Q6600 should still be ok. if not then it would be best to upgrade the whole system.

I didn't think that, from a price to performance ratio perspective, a quad core had any real advantages in gaming applications. What games are optimized for 4 cores?
 
I didn't think that, from a price to performance ratio perspective, a quad core had any real advantages in gaming applications. What games are optimized for 4 cores?

Most of the newer releases can easily take advantage of quad-cores. Even your example, Bad Company 2, loves quads. Lost Planet 2 shows gains with up to 6 cores, and most U3 based games will scale up. World in Conflict also shows some good gains when upping the core count.
 
I didn't think that, from a price to performance ratio perspective, a quad core had any real advantages in gaming applications. What games are optimized for 4 cores?
here just a few plus there is Ghostbusters, Resident Evil 5, Dirt 2, Red Faction Guerrilla, Anno 1404, Bad Company 2, Lost Planet 2 and several others that use and in some cases need a quad for best experience.

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,...rks-75-percent-boost-for-quad-cores/Practice/

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,...ead-of-Core-2-Quad-in-CPU-benchmarks/Reviews/

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,...System-Requirements-and-Screenshots/Practice/

and not all quads are created equal...http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/gaming_the_core_debate,3.html
 
Well if the game is multi-threaded like BFBC2, FC2, SupCom 2, GTA4, Splinter Cell Conviction, ME2, and WIC, then yes totally worth the $100 if you can OC the Q6600 to at least 3.2Ghz.

If the game isn't that well multi-threaded like Crysis, MW2, JC2, Metro 2033, SC2, and STALKER, then no, not worth the $100.

thats a quote from danny bui in another thread yesterday where a guy was asking if he should upgrade from an e8400 to a q6600.
 
I wish Tom's had a chart for 2560x1600. Now that would make things alot simpler!
 
Im gaming at 2560X1600 with a Tri-Crossfire set-up: 5970 + 5870 (all at 1000/1200), and I can play 90% of the games I have with 16AF and 8AA. But sadly, some of the newest games can't go over 4AA with 16AF.

IMHO, and for me and for my taste, 4AA is usually enough at 2560X1600, and all my games are working fine with that.
 
Im gaming at 2560X1600 with a Tri-Crossfire set-up: 5970 + 5870 (all at 1000/1200), and I can play 90% of the games I have with 16AF and 8AA. But sadly, some of the newest games can't go over 4AA with 16AF.

IMHO, and for me and for my taste, 4AA is usually enough at 2560X1600, and all my games are working fine with that.

The only thing that scares me about multiGPU setups is the price. Heat and noise are also troubling, but from a college student perspective, price is my main obstacle. I would love to get a 5970 and just be done with it, but damn, 450-500 bucks is hard to drop into my aging system.

Hopefully AMD will work some magic with their 6000 series!
 
if youre worried about money, im telling you now that 4870x2 is the best choice. it is the cheapest single card that will run 25x16 ok by over $100. as long as you dont need eyefinity or dx11, and your psu is over 500W, you should be fine. :) you can get one used for under $200. if you do get one though, you need to replace the tim and thermal pads as it will decrease the noise by well over half, and in batman AA it also reduced my gpu temp from 99C max to about 75C max. ill try to get you some framerate results from mine if you want. what do you prefer, as the only way i have right now is tf2 where i have the real-time fps displayed in the corner.
 
The only thing that scares me about multiGPU setups is the price. Heat and noise are also troubling, but from a college student perspective, price is my main obstacle. I would love to get a 5970 and just be done with it, but damn, 450-500 bucks is hard to drop into my aging system.

Hopefully AMD will work some magic with their 6000 series!

What is your projected budget? I'd say 460 1GB SLI could do the trick for you if you don't want to spend a lot.
 
I have a HD 5970 @ 2560X1600 and I wish I had more power. I like my eye candy though.
 
if youre worried about money, im telling you now that 4870x2 is the best choice. it is the cheapest single card that will run 25x16 ok by over $100. as long as you dont need eyefinity or dx11, and your psu is over 500W, you should be fine. :) you can get one used for under $200. if you do get one though, you need to replace the tim and thermal pads as it will decrease the noise by well over half, and in batman AA it also reduced my gpu temp from 99C max to about 75C max. ill try to get you some framerate results from mine if you want. what do you prefer, as the only way i have right now is tf2 where i have the real-time fps displayed in the corner.

a single 4870x2 will have trouble at that res and full AA in some games. alot of others it will run full settings fine. BC2 is the new crisys in my book. with 2 of em in CFX and full AA, i get maybe 15-20 fps. not playable
 
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