Is a graphics card upgrade enough?

Joined
Sep 8, 2007
Messages
697
I'm planning to purchase a 30" Monitor in the next few weeks. What I'm wondering is if buying a new graphics card (GTX580 or 6970) is enough allow me play current and upcoming games at high settings at that kind of resolution, or would the CPU be a bottleneck?

If so, is it something that overclocking could solve, or would a new system be neccesary in the end.

Some of the games I play/will be playing:
Shogun 2 Total war
Witcher 2
Civilization 5
Arkham City/Arkham Asylum
BF3
SWTOR
Guild Wars 2

My current system is:
Q9650
Asus P5Q-E
6GB DDR 2 RAM
GTX 280
 
BF3 at 2560x1600 high options would need a stronger CPU and a stronger GPU. Probably a 2500k or 2600k and SLI 580s / xfire 6970s.
 
I dreaded/expected as much, but hope always dies last. :)

So which is currently considered to have the best bang for the buck between SLI 580s and 6970s?
 
I dreaded/expected as much, but hope always dies last. :)

So which is currently considered to have the best bang for the buck between SLI 580s and 6970s?

I'm not sure, but if you really want to spend that much money you should think about getting a 590 or 6990 instead. That way you'll have a future upgrade path (ie, another 590 or 6990 instead of having to get two new cards.)
 
30" at what resolution? :p

There is only one. 30" HDTVs don't exist that I know of (28 or 32 normally), and unlike 27", there aren't two resolutions - 2560x1600 is all you get.

Good work on the monitor OP, but if you want to run high detail, you'll need some serious power. As a minimum I would say either:
2x HD6950 2GB ($500, 350-400W, 4x 6-pin)
2x HD6970 2GB ($650, 400-500W, 2x 6-pin, 2x 8-pin)
1x HD6990 4GB ($750, 350W, 2x 8-pin)
2x GTX580 1.5GB ($900, 500W, 2x 6-pin, 2x 8-pin, or sometimes, 4x 8-pin)
2x GTX580 3GB ($1200, 520W, 4x 8-pin)

IMO, don't bother with the GTX590, as it's very slow for how expensive it is. The HD6990 is faster, cheaper and more efficient.

I run two HD6970s with a 3008WFP and it's enough for most things, but even I have to concede that I need to turn a few things off in Battlefield 3 for it to run smoothly at Ultra (namely both AA types, and AO turned completely off), and that's just the beta, retail could be worse. Imagine using half that much power. If you can drop $1000 on the monitor, be ready to follow suit with your graphics hardware.
 
A quick search of my favorite pricing portal says I can get an:

XFX 6970 for 290 Euros.
XFX 6990 is 590 Euros
ASUS EAH6990/3DI4S/4GD5 for 570 euros

I generally try and stick to XFX or EVGA for my graphics cards due to the good support/Warranty/customer cooler support. Not so sure about Asus...

How would the performance compare between 2 6970s or 1 6990? I've heard often enough also about games having issues with Crossfire/SLI...?


The GTX 580 would cost me around 400 Euros, the 590 is about 100 Euros more than the 6990.... Think I'll be going AMD this time around...

And the 1000 for the monitor comes from my overtime... theres no way I could afford it without having a huge pile of OT stacked up which doesn't get income taxed.
 
Should have really spotted the 'In Berlin' part of the username. For that, either the XFX HD6990 or the pair of XFX HD6970s is going to be best. As long as you have a reasonably tall case, and a properly laid out motherboard (i.e. there are two or more other slots inbetween your main PCIe 16x slots, rather than just one), then the pair of HD6970s is the way to go. They're slightly faster, and they'll be substantially quieter. If your case is a bit cramped for height but has some length, or if you don't have a properly laid out motherboard for crossfire, the HD6990 will be a lot less fuss.
 
I've got an 800D, so space shouldn't be an issue, I'm already reading around the Mobo forum for a mobo with space. Such as the ASUS P8Z68-V
 
Personal choice, just make sure you get this sort of layout:
P67A-UD4.jpg


and NOT this sort of layout:
gigabyte-ga-ex58-ud4_iph3w2079782.jpg


Two cards will still fit in the latter, but they'll be starved for air, and thus run very hot and loud!
 
Back
Top