6950 CF and Core 2 Q9770

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PCGamer10000

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Would two 6950s in CF with a Core 2 QX9770 running at stock speeds be a large bottleneck for the following games at 1280x800 and 2560x1600?

Witcher 2, Skyrim, Rage, Deadspace 2, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Portal 2, and Red Faction Armageddon

This is the system I am looking at upgrading:

Intel Quad Core 2 Extreme QX9770 3.2Ghz
Asus P5E3 Premium Wifi-AP
4 GB DDR3 Dual Channel Corsair 1600Mhz
300GB Western Digital VelociRaptor 10000rpm
300GB Seagate IDE
Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium and Logitech Z-5500 5.1
Thermaltake Toughpower 1200 watt
Coolermaster CM Stacker case w/glass side panel
Windows 7 64-bit
16x Pioneer DVD-ROM
HIS Radeon HD 5870
30" 2560x1600 Monitor
 
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overclock the Qx9770, and you should be good.

if you don't ALREADY have it, it's not worth "upgrading" to that instead of a newer architecture.
 
risqu3 said:
overclock the Qx9770, and you should be good.

if you don't ALREADY have it, it's not worth "upgrading" to that instead of a newer architecture.
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i agree with risqu3. if you dont already have it then just spend the money on core i7 2600k. its not worth spending money on a dead yesteryears tech.
 
I think he's saying that's the system he has and is wondering if upgrading from his currently listed 5870 to CF 6950s is worth it.
 
I would say yes. Better crossfire scaling and you should be able to get a good price for the 5870s. Might as well.
 
canmanone said:
i agree with risqu3. if you dont already have it then just spend the money on core i7 2600k. its not worth spending money on a dead yesteryears tech.
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I am thinking of upgrading the whole system but the 1155 platform is bandwidth limited because each pci-express slot does not do x16.

Any motherboards solve this problem?
 
PCGamer10000 said:
I am thinking of upgrading the whole system but the 1155 platform is bandwidth limited because each pci-express slot does not do x16.

Any motherboards solve this problem?
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if you care for 2-3% difference, i say go for it.
 
if you are playing at 2560x1600 then just get a 6950 2gb crossfire setup. sure a QX9770 would hold it back a bit but your cpu is enough to give good framerates in every game and that res is very gpu demanding. later down the road you can upgrade to Sandy Bridge E once things shake out after it and Bulldozer are released.
 
cannondale06 said:
if you are playing at 2560x1600 then just get a 6950 2gb crossfire setup. sure a QX9770 would hold it back a bit but your cpu is enough to give good framerates in every game and that res is very gpu demanding. later down the road you can upgrade to Sandy Bridge E once things shake out after it and Bulldozer are released.
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If were to invest 550.00 on two 6950s then I would want to go for another year before upgrading the whole system. How much of a bottleneck would the core 2 be with Crysis 2 DX11 with tessellation?
 
PCGamer10000 said:
If were to invest 550.00 on two 6950s then I would want to go for another year before upgrading the whole system. How much of a bottleneck would the core 2 be with Crysis 2 DX11 with tessellation?
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any numbers or percentages would just be pure guessing from me. still at 2560x1600 on max settings I would say your cpu is not much of a bottleneck at all. I would certainly oc it as much as I could but again even at stock speeds it will not be a noticeable bottleneck as for as playability.
 
Stock q9700 + 2 6950's @ 2500x1600 = no bottleneck.
q9700 @ 3.7 + 2 6950's @ 1900x1080 = no bottleneck
Stock 2500k + 2 6950's @ 2500x 1600 = no bottleneck
Stock 2500k + 2 6950's @ 1900x1080 = no bottleneck

You will be fine.
 
PCGamer10000 said:
If were to invest 550.00 on two 6950s then I would want to go for another year before upgrading the whole system. How much of a bottleneck would the core 2 be with Crysis 2 DX11 with tessellation?
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Crysis 2 DX11 w/ Tessellation brings my 2x6970 to their knees at barely playable framerates. Nvidia is apparently much better with that game.
 
happymedium said:
Stock q9700 + 2 6950's @ 2500x1600 = no bottleneck.
q9700 @ 3.7 + 2 6950's @ 1900x1080 = no bottleneck
Stock 2500k + 2 6950's @ 2500x 1600 = no bottleneck
Stock 2500k + 2 6950's @ 1900x1080 = no bottleneck

You will be fine.
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Crossfire those cards and overclock the CPU to 4GHz. It will not bottleneck your performance.
 
Iching said:
Crossfire those cards and overclock the CPU to 4GHz. It will not bottleneck your performance.
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He does not need to overclock, hes using 2500x1600 resolution. Not saying overclocking might not help in some games but he should be fine.
 
PCGamer10000 said:
If were to invest 550.00 on two 6950s then I would want to go for another year before upgrading the whole system. How much of a bottleneck would the core 2 be with Crysis 2 DX11 with tessellation?
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At 2500x1600 the 6950's would be the bottleneck not your cpu.
 
happymedium said:
At 2500x1600 the 6950's would be the bottleneck not your cpu.
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This. You might need to back off more so on the AA in game(s) to get playable frame rates on some of those games @ 2560x1600.

And the 1280x800 resolution will make it easy to max out your AA's, CSAA's, and MSAA's etc. still providing high playable frame rates on those games. ;)
 
DDR3 is cheap right now, grab all the memory your board can support.
 
canmanone said:
i agree with risqu3. if you dont already have it then just spend the money on core i7 2600k. its not worth spending money on a dead yesteryears tech.
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The 2600k is no faster than the 2500k in games, and is in many games slower clock for clock, everyone really needs to stop recommending that for builds revolving around games.

Also that system will do great with CF 6950. That processor is the equal or better of a phenom II clock for clock, and there are plenty of 3-4ghz overclocked phenom II systems with crossfire.

My home system in my signature is hooked to a Dell 30 inch, and the GTX590 is still the bottleneck in any game I play that stresses GPUs (especially witcher 2). I think its performance is pretty much the same as CF 6950s.
 
QuiteSufficient said:
The 2600k is no faster than the 2500k in games, and is in many games slower clock for clock, everyone really needs to stop recommending that for builds revolving around games.

Also that system will do great with CF 6950. That processor is the equal or better of a phenom II clock for clock, and there are plenty of 3-4ghz overclocked phenom II systems with crossfire.

My home system in my signature is hooked to a Dell 30 inch, and the GTX590 is still the bottleneck in any game I play that stresses GPUs (especially witcher 2). I think its performance is pretty much the same as CF 6950s.
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Give links where 2600K is slower from 2500K in many games.
 
Only in games where hyper-threading degrades performance. There aren't that many of those.
 
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