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Please recommend an upgrade

W

wrxdrunkie

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 23, 2007
Messages
461
I am primarily looking to upgrade the gpu to play batman arkham asylum, the new mass effect, crysis, and maybe some MW2 with as much eye candy/smoothness as possible.

edit*
I was originally getting a gpu to put into my SFF q6600 pc.

I am now building a bigger gaming rig, i5 processor, ram, mobo.

Wondering what you guys might recommend, I game on my 40 inch 1920x1080tv and on a samsung syncmaster 2343, 2048×1152 native resolution.



Thanks guys!!!
 
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I would say get ati 5850 or 260gtx
 
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If that's the Coolmax I'm thinking of, that Coolmax is barely capable of 600W of power under the most ideal conditions. I would not recommend the HD 5850 at all. If you want to stick with that low quality PSU, I would recommend no more than the HD 5770.
 
It probably is that coolmax you are thinking of, I had a coolmaster 750w ps that crapped out on me in a little over a year, I needed something quick and picked the coolmax up at fry's.

So far so good (fingers crossed)

It is disappointing about the fact that this power supply wont work with the 5850,
 
I would get a 4890 for a nice upgrade. They are fairly cheap if you can get it at $160
but hurry because soon the whole 4000 series will be replaced by the 5000 series.
 
I just made the move from 8800GT to HD4890, even nVidia title such as borderlands is improved in term of performance. Also, I noticed the change on color vibrance both 2D and 3D and I can say I like HD 4890's than my old 8800GT
IMO,
8800GTS G92 ---> GTX260 = Big upgrade
8800GTS G92 ---> HD 4890 = even Bigger upgrade.
 
wrxdrunkie said:
from what I have read the 4890 is a small upgrade from the 8800, thoughts?
Click to expand...

No it's quite a bit of a jump. Since you'd like to play Batman I'd suggest hanging on to your 8800 and grab an Nvidia GTX 260 or 275, and use the 8800 for physx. If you can't do that then a 5770, 4870, or 4890 would all be nice bumps for your system.

Your CPU is going to be holding you back a bit at only 2.4ghz. I had a Q6600 myself and even with a GTX 260 my framerates saw a very nice increase going from 2.4 to 3.2ghz. I'm not saying you have to OC, but just be aware that most modern cards are going to be held back a lot until you hit 3ghz or so. After that they're only held back a little until ~3.6.

Check out this article here on [H]:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/05/19/real_world_gameplay_cpu_scaling/
 
Agree with Slava - 5850 or GTX260..both will play those games though the 5850 gives you dx11, if you care about win 7...:eek::eek::eek: GL m8!!!!!
 
mrrogers747 said:
No it's quite a bit of a jump. Since you'd like to play Batman I'd suggest hanging on to your 8800 and grab an Nvidia GTX 260 or 275, and use the 8800 for physx. If you can't do that then a 5770, 4870, or 4890 would all be nice bumps for your system.

Your CPU is going to be holding you back a bit at only 2.4ghz. I had a Q6600 myself and even with a GTX 260 my framerates saw a very nice increase going from 2.4 to 3.2ghz. I'm not saying you have to OC, but just be aware that most modern cards are going to be held back a lot until you hit 3ghz or so. After that they're only held back a little until ~3.6.

Check out this article here on [H]:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/05/19/real_world_gameplay_cpu_scaling/
Click to expand...


..I think there is a law that says Intel mobos are not allowed to be OCed.. or have PHysX :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: All hail the force!!!
 
thanks for the input!

My new MB no longer supports sli :( so I will not be able to do the 8800 for physx thing.

maybe the 4890 and a new higher clocked cpu? I don't really want to fool with overclocking, because a) I want to keep it simple b) my MB won't handle it, I am fairly certain.


What do you think of a dual core 3ghz processor? I would be trying to spend around 150 since I will be buying the 4890 as well.

I know this is a really dumb question, but the specs of my mb says it "supports 95W Thermal design power, intel core 2 quad processors with 1333/1066 mhz" Does it have to be 95W? I assume a 65W processor would be compatible as well?

I do have and love windows 7, but I know I will not be able to find a 5850, and I just can not bring myself to pay more than the MSRP :( I know I am hard headed, shoulda jumped on the bandwagon early.
 
I just sold my 8800gt for $70 and picked up a 4890 for about $130 and from the benchmarks that I have been seeing I am looking at close to 2x the performance. I know yours is the 8800GTS but I can only imagine you would still see a pretty hefty increase in performance.
 
wrxdrunkie said:
thanks for the input!

My new MB no longer supports sli :( so I will not be able to do the 8800 for physx thing.

maybe the 4890 and a new higher clocked cpu? I don't really want to fool with overclocking, because a) I want to keep it simple b) my MB won't handle it, I am fairly certain.


What do you think of a dual core 3ghz processor? I would be trying to spend around 150 since I will be buying the 4890 as well.

I know this is a really dumb question, but the specs of my mb says it "supports 95W Thermal design power, intel core 2 quad processors with 1333/1066 mhz" Does it have to be 95W? I assume a 65W processor would be compatible as well?

I do have and love windows 7, but I know I will not be able to find a 5850, and I just can not bring myself to pay more than the MSRP :( I know I am hard headed, shoulda jumped on the bandwagon early.
Click to expand...

Your motherboard will likely work with the 45nm Chips after a BIOS update, but do some research first and see if other people are having problems with your specific board and that CPU (I'm assuming you're talking about an E8400).

I'd honestly say it wouldn't be worth it to ditch a Q6600 for a dual core(even if it's a higher clock speed) unless you don't do much encoding and can sell your Q6600, in which case it'd likely only cost you a couple bucks out of pocket. Also with an E8400 you will likely be able to clock it up to 3.4-3.5ghz with just the stock cooler if you were so inclined.

The 4890 is a great card. My personal upgrade path was 8800GTS->GTX 260->5870. The 8800 to the 260 was damn near double the framerates, in your case a 4890 is a bit faster than a 260, so it will likely be an even bigger jump.
 
A few thoughts:

1) It's a small form factor PC, which means you are probably worried about power and cooling. If that is true, I would suggest something out of the 5XXX series due to the die shrink giving better power management. But this is only if you are worried about power and cooling
2) The PSU isn't that great, however running my overclocked (3.8Ghz Dual core) and 2 8800 GTS G92s I'm still pulling only 350Watts through it. You aren't going to be pulling anything near 600Watts unless you overclock and overclock a 5970. I'm not recommending you keep that POS powersupply, I'm just bringing reality into how much you are actually pulling.
3) The G92 -> 57XX is not going to be worthwhile. The GTS 250 is faster in some, slower in others than the 5770. The GTS 250 is a clock speed increased G92. If you wouldn't buy a GTS 250 because it isn't enough of a bump, don't buy a 5770.
4) PhysX. It's nice and great and all. Also, you don't need your motherboard to support SLI for it. Infact if you want it to be a dedicated PhysX card you can't have it SLIed. All you need is the extra PCI-E slot. However before you start thinking that I'm in favor of this let me ask you a question. How many hours do you really think you are going to get out of Batman? It's not WoW, FFXI, Evercrack, Aion, CoH, WAR or any other MMO where you could actually play for years. If it was one of those games it might make sense. If it was a FPS like Counter-strike or CoD it might even make sense. But I just can't see myself or anyone playing a single game for years to justify keeping the card instead of selling the G92 for 75$ and using that money towards a new video card.

5) I am worried about your CPU. If you could do a heads up swap used Q6600 for used E8400(/500/600) it would probably be a good thing.

6) I'd go with a 5850 or GTX 275 or 4890 depending on current market prices. You could go upto a 5870 if you are an AA fan, however they are currently overpriced and hard to find.
 
A 4890 is probably the best bang-for-your-buck video upgrade. You should also grab a motherboard and a new PSU and overclock your CPU. It's foolish to want to waste another $200+ instead of spending an hour to learn how to overclock.
 
first of all, thanks for all the suggestions.

vengence you were a lot of help, thanks!

I tried overclocking, I tried with my P5N32e- SLI


I was never getting anywhere close to the clocks that some got, I wasted way more than 1 hour trying to OC, I think its foolish to do the same thing over and over and expect different results. I know I could learn, but not by piecing together advise from every which way.

I would also be spending more than 200 dollars to get a quality MB and PS for the OC,

Maybe I am foolish but I was thinking its more foolish to invest in OC again, when I have already failed at doing it.

I agree about batman, I would prolly only play that for maybe 15 hours.
 
So it looks like I will be upgrading more than I planned. I have invested in a new PS, new MB and possibly CPU, I have been reading up at tom's hardware and I noticed for one of their budget builds they went with 2 4850s in crossfire. Would I be better off performance wise with going with a less expensive card setup in crossfire? Toms hardware was able to get 2 4850s for $190. I cant seem to find anything for that good of a price. Is the timing just bad right now for a good budget gaming build? GPU wise?


So funny how quickly plans change when upgrading a part
 
I'd rather a single 4890 than dual 4850's, the price is a bit less and you should have lower power draw and less complexity. The 4850's are about as powerful as the GTS250 while the 4890 is similar to the GTX275. That's a farily large performance gap with one GPU, and I would always go for the single card solution over the double card.
 
wrxdrunkie said:
So it looks like I will be upgrading more than I planned. I have invested in a new PS, new MB and possibly CPU, I have been reading up at tom's hardware and I noticed for one of their budget builds they went with 2 4850s in crossfire. Would I be better off performance wise with going with a less expensive card setup in crossfire? Toms hardware was able to get 2 4850s for $190. I cant seem to find anything for that good of a price. Is the timing just bad right now for a good budget gaming build? GPU wise?
So funny how quickly plans change when upgrading a part
Click to expand...
Considering how much video card prices have dropped, SLI/CF aren't nearly as economical as they used to be. I'd take a single-GPU over a multi-GPU set-up anyway. Here's a pretty godlike deal on a 4890 - http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1718547. The 4890 is a fantastic "bang-for-your-buck" deal right now.
 
That's a killer deal, if I wasn't holding out for fermi I would have grabbed that and swapped out my 275.
 
I keep having this what if idea in my head.

I am now building a new pc, i5 processor, new mb, big case.

I am just thinking that maybe I should go 5850 or 5870 if I end up having to pay $200 for the 4890.

The graphics card will probably be a christmas present, and it is harder for regulard shoppers to find these good deals.

Plus with the 4890, if I ever decide to crossfire, I have to do it with the 4xxx, and seeing as these are becoming harder and harder to find, I might not benefit from the abaility to crossfire down the road, or will have to pay a premium to do so.

If I get a 5xxx series card however, I can upgrade to another 5xxx series card down the line when prices are dropping.

But then again if I could find 4890s for $150, I could get 2 for the price of 1 5850.


Opinions?

Funny how drastically a build changes from what you orignally had planned, I was originally talking about spending $250, now I am looking at spending more than double that. LOL

I would jump on the $145 CC deal now but have been buying christmas gifts and we all know how that goes.

Thanks!
 
wrxdrunkie said:
I keep having this what if idea in my head.

I am now building a new pc, i5 processor, new mb, big case.

I am just thinking that maybe I should go 5850 or 5870 if I end up having to pay $200 for the 4890.

The graphics card will probably be a christmas present, and it is harder for regulard shoppers to find these good deals.

Plus with the 4890, if I ever decide to crossfire, I have to do it with the 4xxx, and seeing as these are becoming harder and harder to find, I might not benefit from the abaility to crossfire down the road, or will have to pay a premium to do so.

If I get a 5xxx series card however, I can upgrade to another 5xxx series card down the line when prices are dropping.

But then again if I could find 4890s for $150, I could get 2 for the price of 1 5850.


Opinions?

Funny how drastically a build changes from what you orignally had planned, I was originally talking about spending $250, now I am looking at spending more than double that. LOL

I would jump on the $145 CC deal now but have been buying christmas gifts and we all know how that goes.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
If cash isn't an issue, I would get a 5850 or 5870.
 
wrxdrunkie said:
When do you guys think, if ever, the 5850 will go back down to its msrp?
Click to expand...

After TSMC fixes the yield issues and the increase in supply works its way through the channel partners and back into the retail market. In other words, 2 weeks after they stop being sold out.
 
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