GPU Upgrade Options from HD 5850, <11", 1080P?

friend'scatdied

[H]ard|Gawd
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Feb 20, 2005
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I'm wondering what my next best steps are upgrading from an HD 5850. I've changed the rest of my home retreat system and am now running at i5-2500k @ 4.5GHz with 8GB of DDR3-1600 (Corsair Vengeance).

Power supply is an Antec EA-650W: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371044
Other load on the PSU includes a 1TB 7200RPM HDD, 64GB SSD, Corsair H60, 4 fans. Board is the Gigabyte Z68MA.

I game at 1080P. My raison d'être is BF3. Ideally, I'd like to be able to max out settings with 4x AA and 16x AF.

My 5850 can hit ~1000MHz on the core and ~1200-1250MHz on the memory. Is there a worthwhile single-card upgrade (must be less than or equal to 11") or should I skip out this generation?

FWIW I am not particularly impressed with the benchmarks of the 6950 or GTX 570 (or 6970). I am uncertain if I will see enough of an improvement?
 
To get a major upgrade from an HD5850 you really need to be considering crossfire or SLI. Maybe switch the 5850 out for a pair of 6870s or 6950s? To get the best performance in BF3 at that resolution you will need such a system.
 
To get a major upgrade from an HD5850 you really need to be considering crossfire or SLI. Maybe switch the 5850 out for a pair of 6870s or 6950s? To get the best performance in BF3 at that resolution you will need such a system.

Is it worth the investment assuming I can only get $120-130 for the 5850? At a net outlay of over $150 (i.e. over $270 on a new card or cards) I'd be willing instead to drop the AA to 2x or 0x, even though that wouldn't be ideal at all. I'm hoping by release there might be optimizations for BF3 either in Catalyst or by DICE.

My level of FPS comfort is 50+, but I am apprehensive my 5850 @ 1000/1250 (roughly similar to the 5870 @ 970/1250) might dip below the 40s more often than I would like.
 
You won't be seeing 50fps at ultra in the full game, not at 1080p on a single HD5850.
 
You won't be seeing 50fps at ultra in the full game, not at 1080p on a single HD5850.

MY GOD I just took a look at some benchmarks (have been out of the loop). Guess the days of BFBC2 IQ-to-performance ratios are gone, and Metro 2033-ish quality-for-the-FPS have taken over.:eek: What a shame.

What do you imagine would be the minimum card I'd need to run at 1080P Ultra, 2x-4x AA, 50FPS+? I may have to reallocate my budget.. might as well hold out for a used deal and suck it up with medium-high settings til them.

I've also been considering picking up a 2nd 5850 for ~$130ish, if that might work.
 
Battlefield 3 isn't dramatically more demanding than Bad Company 2 at this stage, because the Alpha and Beta aren't fully-featured graphics-wise. It's impossible to call what you'd need for the game in its full form, but a pair of HD6870s or GTX560 Tis should be a good place to start with 1080p.
 
Battlefield 3 isn't dramatically more demanding than Bad Company 2 at this stage, because the Alpha and Beta aren't fully-featured graphics-wise. It's impossible to call what you'd need for the game in its full form, but a pair of HD6870s or GTX560 Tis should be a good place to start with 1080p.

I can imagine, but swapping the GPUs would be too much of a hassle for me right now. I was thinking of picking up a 5850 while they're cheap, getting both to 1000/1250, and hoping for the best. I know that 6000 series scaling is better, but I'm willing to forgo that for the switching costs and hassle. If I was going CFX/SLI I'd rather not buy 2 new cards; I'd much rather sell my 5850 and get a single higher-end new card.
 
1Ghz on an HD5850? Wow, I didn't realise you could get them that high with a 725mhz default clock. With that sort of overclocks in crossfire you'd be pushing HD6870CF territory anyway. You'd be drawing a lot of power though, maybe about 450-500W for the graphics alone.
 
With 1ghz core on that 5850 you should getting past 5870 performance. It should play fine with some settings lowered. Upgrade when the next generation of cards appear.
 
Well I was lucky enough to get a GTX 480 gratis from a very kind fellow on the forums. I overclocked it to 850/1700/2050MHz on the stock voltage (can go higher if I raise the voltage and presently the temps are at around 50'C-60'C load thanks to the Zalman VF3000F, but don't really want to chance it since I've got no warranty). Unigine Heaven 2.5 gets a 1330 at 1680x1050 + 4x AA. Should be around GTX 580 performance if not better at this level I think.

At this point if BF3 doesn't run the way I want it to with this setup by the time it's released and some driver optimizations come around, I don't really care. Would be ridiculous to have to upgrade this for 1080P when there doesn't seem to be much better at the moment. -_-
 
Well I was lucky enough to get a GTX 480 gratis from a very kind fellow on the forums. I overclocked it to 850/1700/2050MHz on the stock voltage (can go higher if I raise the voltage and presently the temps are at around 50'C-60'C load thanks to the Zalman VF3000F, but don't really want to chance it since I've got no warranty). Unigine Heaven 2.5 gets a 1330 at 1680x1050 + 4x AA. Should be around GTX 580 performance if not better at this level I think.

At this point if BF3 doesn't run the way I want it to with this setup by the time it's released and some driver optimizations come around, I don't really care. Would be ridiculous to have to upgrade this for 1080P when there doesn't seem to be much better at the moment. -_-

You should be fine. DICE is recommending a single GTX 580 to max settings at 1080p, so you should be good to go with that 480.
 
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