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Graphics card upgrade

A

aCuria

n00b
Joined
Dec 19, 2009
Messages
12
I would like to play at 2560x1600, min 60fps, 4v4maps included. would a faster GPU achieve this, or is SC2 hopelessly CPU limited? I wont want to upgrade to find that its actually CPU limited, and get little performance gain.

2560x1600
4870/512
i7 920/3.66
HX-1000
9Gb DDR3
 
aCuria said:
I would like to play at 2560x1600, min 60fps, 4v4maps included. would a faster GPU achieve this, or is SC2 hopelessly CPU limited? I wont want to upgrade to find that its actually CPU limited, and get little performance gain.

2560x1600
4870/512
i7 920/3.66
HX-1000
9Gb DDR3
Click to expand...
More CPU never hurts. I'm not familiar with SC2 or the 4870 other than what I've read through reviews, and from the few benchmarks Ive seen, I would say IF ANYTHING you're CPU limited. SC2 isn't very graphically demanding is it?

If I had money I'd be running 480/580 sli. :)
 
I read you have an i7 920 @ 3.66Ghz, so your position CPU wise is pretty ample. The problem rests with 2560X1600 resolution and a 4870 512MB graphics card. Are you looking to upgrade your graphics card in general or for the game in question alone? Beside that are you looking to have the graphics settings maxxed in game along with running at 2560X1600 ? Is 60 Fps a requirement or just a magic number? 512MB is a major limitation for a GPU while pushing such a resolution, especially once AA is applied.

Best of luck!?
 
there's a good way to figure this out...

What's your framerate at 1680x1050? Now what is it at 1920x1200? How about 2560x1600? If the framerate is dropping as you go higher then it is probably GPU limited. If it isn't then I'd start looking at your CPU. Odds are you are looking at a severe GPU limitation though due to lack of Vram...
 
You stated 4v4... is that skirmish against AI or multiplayer online/LAN? All the power in the world isn't gonna save you against another opponent with a crappy computer that's happy with 20 frames per second or less. Hey! It's nice to see your not looking to bog other people down though :) When it comes to multiplayer titles and a RTS, I always try to obey at least one rule. The most powerful PC hosts and if another PC is considerably slower than the rest, don't allow it to play. Having your gameplay experience ruined do to an inept computer is aggrivating, especially when you plunked down cash for a desired level of performance to have your experience heavily degraded from a software snyc-lock and anothers gutless computer
 
eric_bazile said:
You stated 4v4... is that skirmish against AI or multiplayer online/LAN? All the power in the world isn't gonna save you against another opponent with a crappy computer that's happy with 20 frames per second or less. Hey! It's nice to see your not looking to bog other people down though :) When it comes to multiplayer titles and a RTS, I always try to obey at least one rule. The most powerful PC hosts and if another PC is considerably slower than the rest, don't allow it to play. Having your gameplay experience ruined do to an inept computer is aggrivating, especially when you plunked down cash for a desired level of performance to have your experience heavily degraded from a software snyc-lock and anothers gutless computer
Click to expand...

SC2 handles it better than older titles imo. The lag issue is less pronounced. CNC4 handles this the best: anyone whose framerate drops below a certain level is kicked from the game!
 
eric_bazile said:
I read you have an i7 920 @ 3.66Ghz, so your position CPU wise is pretty ample. The problem rests with 2560X1600 resolution and a 4870 512MB graphics card. Are you looking to upgrade your graphics card in general or for the game in question alone? Beside that are you looking to have the graphics settings maxxed in game along with running at 2560X1600 ? Is 60 Fps a requirement or just a magic number? 512MB is a major limitation for a GPU while pushing such a resolution, especially once AA is applied.

Best of luck!?
Click to expand...

I am looking to upgrade in general. I have an older rig with a dead videocard, hope to put the 4870 in that one and get a new one for this rig.
 
novadaemon said:
there's a good way to figure this out...

What's your framerate at 1680x1050? Now what is it at 1920x1200? How about 2560x1600? If the framerate is dropping as you go higher then it is probably GPU limited. If it isn't then I'd start looking at your CPU. Odds are you are looking at a severe GPU limitation though due to lack of Vram...
Click to expand...

I never understood this vram thing fully. under the WEI page, it says I have 3500mb of vram, 512 dedicated vram. I suppose its using some of my main memory to compensate for the lack of ram on the videocard?
 
aCuria said:
I am looking to upgrade in general. I have an older rig with a dead videocard, hope to put the 4870 in that one and get a new one for this rig.
Click to expand...

In that case your only limitation is the money you want to spend.My opinion is that SC2 is not a graphically intense game compared to some other titles out there. There's an overwhelming amount of reviews sites on the web that bench all the current generations of cards and show their capabilities on many of the modern game titles. And likewise generally use an overclocked i7 (close to your current OC speed) in the process so results should match relative to what you'd obtain out of your system.
 
aCuria said:
I know this, i cant max it out at the moment. Nice link though, it shows me that anything faster than the 5850 doesn't increase performance @ high or above at my resolution... Does this mean its CPU limited?
Click to expand...

Most likely. SC2 shows through CPU utilization that it's only optimized for 2 processing cores. That 100% utilization off one of the cores is most likely the rendering thread while the other percentage is the remainder of the program oscillating amongst the other cores. I'd state that in review of the charts the i7 at that speed with the game at that res is at it's peek cause scaling from one card to another (each more powerful than the last) after the 5850 just goes straight down the toilet. Plug those GPUs into a vastly more powerful system (greater single threaded performance per core etc.) and you'll see the graph start to distinctively resemble a staircase again.
 
Last edited:
Your CPU is fine. What power supply do you have?
You're probably looking at either a GTX 580 or a Radeon 6970. Both which release soon.
 
eric_bazile said:
Most likely. SC2 shows through CPU utilization that it's only optimized for 2 processing cores. That 100% utilization off one of the cores is most likely the rendering thread while the other percentage is the remainder of the program oscillating amongst the other cores. I'd state that in review of the charts the i7 at that speed with the game at that res is at it's peek cause scaling from one card to another (each more powerful than the last) after the 5850 just goes straight down the toilet. Plug those GPUs into a vastly more powerful system (greater single threaded performance per core etc.) and you'll see the graph start to distinctively resemble a staircase again.
Click to expand...

Is there a point in going for anything more powerful than the 5850 then? My system has pretty much been bottlenecked by this resolution since the C2D/7900 days. Back then, going for the fastest parts would not have helped much. Looks like I am in the same situation today.
 
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