Looking for a no BS answer

[evilsofa]

Arma2 is more of a throughput hungry application.. it will not be playable with even a moderately fragmented HDD.. there is nothing i can do about that other than an SSD and that's just not going to happen.

Do you mean something else when you say fragmented? You can defragment and keep defragmented easily with MyDefrag (freeware).

 

[Shadowssong]

I love how the OP asks for "no BS" and people think that means "let's spout verbal diarrhea for some 20-odd posts." Honestly, if you can't help, STFU.

Lol what do you expect when sonda is the first person to reply?

 

[kniah]

edit: also i'm running with a 500w antec PSU right now but planned on a larger one with the quadcore..550-650w max.. i just don't believe that a 1000w PSU is really more than just bragging rights for the most part.. I've built some pretty hairy servers in my day for MIT and even with a dozen scsi drives a 500w was more than enough for stable operation

Your 500W Antec should be enough for any C2Q and single gpu card, including the 5870.

 

[RumpleForeSkin]

Do you mean something else when you say fragmented? You can defragment and keep defragmented easily with MyDefrag (freeware).

I use O&O personally.. i like that it defrags as my screensaver ;D.

but yeah the only real fix for the smoothest gameplay in Arma2 is an SSD or dedicated array for the game. i have a partition for steam right now and it has seemed to improve things a bit but it just feels like with all of the shaders in the game( whether on low/disabled or high) i'm dragging my rifle through molasses so i just leave things as high as i can stomache.

 

[Mr. K6]

I use O&O personally.. i like that it defrags as my screensaver ;D.

but yeah the only real fix for the smoothest gameplay in Arma2 is an SSD or dedicated array for the game. i have a partition for steam right now and it has seemed to improve things a bit but it just feels like with all of the shaders in the game( whether on low/disabled or high) i'm dragging my rifle through molasses so i just leave things as high as i can stomache.

I'm amazed that the game is this difficult to play. On my system, I just played the demo with everything cranked at 2560x1600 and I got an average of 30-40FPS, totally smooth. You might try overclocking your CPU a little more.

 

[ut66]

"I had a 9700pro for 5 years before it was just plain outclassed and i like that kind of return in my investment"

HD5870. get it now, or wait for the price drop. Anything else is silly.

 

[needmorecarnitine]

whichever one you can get for a great price.

say $120 or less for a 4870 1GB or 5770 (yes, that is what a 5770 is worth to me) or $140 or less for a 4890. Keep checking the hot deals forums. The older series are likely to come up sooner and more often on sale. Might have to wait a while for the newer cards to drop but they will soon. Maybe not price reductions but with rebates and cashback. Maybe even a 5850 (for $200 or so) if you can wait two months or so.

In general, I would prefer the newer gen cards if you can wait for good deals.

 

[RumpleForeSkin]

I'm amazed that the game is this difficult to play. On my system, I just played the demo with everything cranked at 2560x1600 and I got an average of 30-40FPS, totally smooth. You might try overclocking your CPU a little more.

the CPU is already clocked at 3GHZ!! the damned this is only 2.3 stock so i'm not comfortable going too much more ( AC Freezer7 pro )

so from what i've garnered here i think that the 5850 is going to be the winner. it'll take a couple fo months but the wait will be worth it

on a side note, the demo does actually run pretty well using default settings, but that is with a 1400m viewdistance.. that is a death sentence if trying to fly or engage armor. personally at least 2000m minimum is needed but the bloom lighting and motion blur is kicking my ass

 

[JaguarSKX]

I would go with either the HD 4870 or the HD 4890 if DX11 isn't really important to you. Both are priced very well. The HD 4870 is priced below the HD 5770 so that the remaining stock can be sold. Last time I checked the HD 4870s were selling for around $125. I assume Black Friday specials will allow you to grab one for $99, but that's over a month away.

The HD 4890 is priced right to bridge the gap between the HD 5770 and HD 5850. Once these cards are nearly gone I expect (and others too) AMD to release the HD 5830 video cards which are GPUs that failed to meet HD 5850 standards. Currently the HD 4890 is good value card as well given the performance, it's just not as cheap as the slower HD 4870.

The HD 5770 is a good card if you want a DX11 card. As many have stated before me, it's performance is a little slower than the more mature HD 4870 and it is also priced a little higher. It's also a good card if you want to build a "green PC" since it consumes a little less power than the HD 4870, or if you want a quieter video card. However, this is not the card to buy if you want the best bang for your buck. But as video drivers mature for the HD 5xxx series you can expect incremental improvements over the next several months.

Personally, I am looking to buy the HD 5850 for my primary rig. I am considering the HD 5770 for my HTPC if I decide I really want to play games on my HDTV, but that's not until next year. I currently have a passively cooled 9600GT which is more than adequate for my HTPC usage.

 

[RumpleForeSkin]

I'm amazed that the game is this difficult to play. On my system, I just played the demo with everything cranked at 2560x1600 and I got an average of 30-40FPS, totally smooth. You might try overclocking your CPU a little more.

also.. looking at your sig... i bet the game runs like butter fully cranked, you've got $2500 worth of hardware there... why would you post that if you read my initial post with the system i'm talking about? How does that game running smooth on hardware that i already said i was not going to be aquiring relevent to this discussion?

Think people.. that was the BS answer i already asked to not recieve.

 

[Mr. K6]

the CPU is already clocked at 3GHZ!! the damned this is only 2.3 stock so i'm not comfortable going too much more ( AC Freezer7 pro )

so from what i've garnered here i think that the 5850 is going to be the winner. it'll take a couple fo months but the wait will be worth it

on a side note, the demo does actually run pretty well using default settings, but that is with a 1400m viewdistance.. that is a death sentence if trying to fly or engage armor. personally at least 2000m minimum is needed but the bloom lighting and motion blur is kicking my ass

By you're "not comfortable" do you mean you just haven't done it? As long as temps are <60C under load, and you keep the volts under ~1.45V, push that chip as hard as you can. The IP35 Pro is a damn good motherboard, that CPU should be able to do 3.5GHz (500x7) with a little tweaking. Your system isn't that weak by gaming standards; probably the weakest part is the 8800GTS, which you already want to replace. However, increasing the CPU clock speed will definitely help with the view distance choking.

also.. looking at your sig... i bet the game runs like butter fully cranked, you've got $2500 worth of hardware there... why would you post that if you read my initial post with the system i'm talking about? How does that game running smooth on hardware that i already said i was not going to be aquiring relevent to this discussion?

Think people.. that was the BS answer i already asked to not recieve.

Actually it's only about $1000, less if you ignore the non-critical components. I probably should have elaborated, but as far as gaming is concerned, our systems aren't that different. There shouldn't be as large of a discrepancy in performance as we're seeing. My guess is that you just need to push yours further. I still think going with the 5850 is an excellent choice though, it really will serve you for some time.

 

[RumpleForeSkin]

I have pushed this CPu to 3.2 in the past. There were some stability issues at that speed though. kept getting BSDs and randomly the raid array would fail at boot. i noticed when i clocked it back down to 3.04 it was alright.. The Mushkin DDR2 is pretty tolerable to OCing but to go too high is a little scary.. Like i said i really don't have the scratch to get a new rig so killing the one i have is not worth the risk


yeah so the system wouldn't POST at 3.5.. the memory was trying to run at 1000MHz i couldn't seem to get the ratio any lower than 1:1 so it is a nogo without some faster RAM..or a more knowledgeable (that just doesn't look like it's spelled right) OC'er to go over my BIOS settings

yeah i know memory is cheap but I've built enough systems to know that "this little $50" and "that little $50" quickly turns into alot. so yeah i guess it's wait till the 5850's are available and save up for it

 

[MrFoo]

I am in the same market for a card. I have a 4850, but I want to give that to my wife. I am thinking a used 4890 if I can get a deal, or I'll just get another 4850 and wait a while.