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5970... time for an upgrade?!

L

lobo

n00b
Joined
Nov 18, 2011
Messages
3
With the recent release of Skyrim, ATI has broken my heart when it comes to dual GPU cards. Games never play as they should when they're released (and I'm an early adopter) and then there are always niggling problems for a while.

I want a single GPU solution and I'm wondering if there's one that will keep my system viable for the next year or so (particularly through the Diablo 3 release)? Below are my system stats and I'd appreciate any advice (short of telling me to buy a new mobo or CPU):

i7 950 (OC at 3.3)
Radeon 5970
12 Gigs of Ram
Running Win7 64-Bit
 
lobo said:
I want a single GPU solution and I'm wondering if there's one that will keep my system viable for the next year or so)?
Click to expand...

I would greatly advise you to wait two more months for the next gen cards (supposingly will be out by then). But if you want it now and can't wait just get an EVGA classified GTX 580 (if money is no option that is).

My 5970 is been great to me till Rage and Skyrim. But Skyrim is playable and it's not totally destroying my experience, FUS ROH DAH!
 
I would hold off as long as you can till Radeon 7k or Kepler series are released, Christams to march time frame.

If you have to have one now, a Radeon 6950 such as the 2gb XFX XXX(830 core clock) Dual fan model are insanely good cards for thier price, great overclockers and they cool very well. A GTX560Ti are very good value for thier money, as are GTX570, I would find the highest clocked non reference cooler you can though for what you can afford. If you want the best that can be had, a 580 3gb model is simply the best there is right now for a single chip/single card solution.

The best value cards are still GTX460 1gb 336 shader model, Radeon 6850/6870, GTX560Ti or Radeon 6950, the higher cards are better yes, but broken on a dollar to performance ratio, they simply are not as good bang for buck :) Tie goes to reference or overclocked Radeon 6950 nearly matching its 6970 brother
which nearly matches GTX570 in pretty much everything, or GTX560TI overclocked of course for the same reason, less costly and can match the GTX570 given the right clocks.
I have never been a user of dual cards nor SLI crossfire, mainly due to the fact I hate Nvidia for many reasons, dont care how good thier cards are "supposed to be" to many bad experiences with them. Main reason being is if a single card has issues, dual cards will have as many if not more, no matter if thier 2 single cards or an X2 style card. but this is just my opinion :)
 
lobo said:
I want a single GPU solution and I'm wondering if there's one that will keep my system viable for the next year or so (particularly through the Diablo 3 release)? Below are my system stats and I'd appreciate any advice (short of telling me to buy a new mobo or CPU):

i7 950 (OC at 3.3)
Radeon 5970
12 Gigs of Ram
Running Win7 64-Bit
Click to expand...

I wouldn't worry about Diablo 3. The beta runs great on my older and slower system. C2D 3GHz, 4GB, HD4890. Albeit it's a beta but still gives a hint on what's to expect. Blizzard games are rarely demanding high specs either.
 
Generally speaking Blizzard is one of the few that makes games almost any system can play regardless of specs, course if you wanted to get the most from it, having that cpu run at 3.6 can help it really fly through things.

With your system I do not see there being a problem with much of anything. You are using a dual GPU card, they obviously can have more issues more often then thier single GPU brothers.

A good 6950, 6970 or GTX570, 580 would give the closest comparable performance to that card, of course may not be quite as fast, but they do DX11 better, and at least you wouldn`t have to worry about scaling issues :p

I would still hold off though if you can, Radeon 7k Nvidia 600 series are looking to give a pretty large jump in multiple regards, especially thier high end ones, they might very well be a worthy upgrade, where a single card now isnt directly from a performance standpoint to the 5970
 
You can run Skyrim at ultra settings with a 6850/ gtx460 1gb but you need a 2500k to run at ultra settings not a faster gpu.

You cpu is the problem @ 3.3.

Read the Tomshardware review for Skyrim performance.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skyrim-performance-benchmark,3074-9.html

48 avg 40 minimum with a 6850 is just fine for this game with a 2500k.

EVen a 5970 with crossfire disabled should be able to beat a 6850.

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Thanks for the advice. Maybe I shouldn't complain about Skyrim because I'm currently getting 55-75 FPS stable with settings that I'm happy with.

I'm glad to hear that people think this PC will be enough for Diablo 3 and I probably should just wait for the 7-series.

I'd overclock my 950 to 3.6... but I'm somewhat of a n00b. Someone else overclocked to 3.3 for me and I have no idea how to go about getting speeds beyond that. Is it hard to do?
 
Overclocking is easy but time consuming if you want to do it properly, just make sure you use a good cooler if you're aiming for high overclocks so the temps don't get too hot.

My rig was the first I ever built and I never knew a thing about overclocking, this guide was a good starting point for me to learn about overclocking:

http://www.overclock.net/t/538439/guide-to-overclocking-the-core-i7-920-or-930-to-4-0ghz

Reading that plus some other articles will give you a good understanding about how to begin overclocking your CPU.
 
What motherboard are you using OP? I know my X58 Gigabyte has overclocking software that can take my 950 all the way to 3.8ghz!

See if you're motherboard manufacturer has a similar overclocking utility...I think most do now a days.

As far as a new GPU goes just run your current card with one GPU...still gives you a 6850 and that's more than enough power for most games out!

As others have said, if you want to upgrade wait until the newer GPU's come out!
 
lots of research, but can be done as long as you have a good cooler.

I also notice for benchmarks, the did not show the Phenom II x4 @ 4.0Ghz, which can easily be done.
They also did not show a 6870.

I have both a 955 running at 4.06Ghz and Radeon 6870 1gb at 965 core mem at 1138 and the cam flies, it plays very smoothly with everything set to high all ticks on, FXAA, 4xAA/8xAF 1920 res, looks very awesome, very rarely I do experience some lag spikes, which most of these benchmark numbers do not show at all(but is very relevant)

A 5970 if I recall is basically dual 5850 cores, 5870 memory or something like that, with DX11 6k series are faster, but as far as "grunt" the 5k series does have more shaders, so I would say it should be around 6870 levels at least with on core "disabled" Plenty enough power for any game out there currently as long as you do not expect to run everything smoothly if you jack all the settings to thier highest.
 
Actually, I'm already running at 3.6ghz (according to the 'system' tab in my control panel). Guess I don't need overclocking beyond that?
 
ummmm that 3.6 you are seing is turbo-boost, it auto clocks cores when x extra power is needed and x cores are not being used effectively, its not the same thing as the cpu running completely at 3.6
 
Naw man that 5970 is still a badass card.

You have the same CPU as I do....Turn that shit up!!!!!.

4ghz should be easily obtainable. Shit I hit 4.6ghz!!

Basically Skyrim loves CPU's....the more Mhz the more power.
 
He did state that he has no idea how to do so, not to mention what cooler he is using etc to maybe see if there is a possible limit of what he may be able to achieve safely FYI :)
 
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