Pull the trigger on a 5850 on my system?

E

eLus1ve

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 19, 2004
Messages
294
Here are my current specs:
Core 2 Duo E6600
eVga 680i A1
eVga 8800GTS 640MB x2 SLI
4GB (2GBx2) G.Skill PC-8500 1066MHz
Windows 7 x64

I can't seem to achieve a decent FPS in HL2 mods(L4D2, TF2) and I'm suspecting the video cards are the culprits bottlenecking my system. Should I look into investing in a 5850? I'm looking into upgrading my whole system but not for about 6 months or so.
 
what res/settings? HL2/source isn't very demanding by today's standards.

if you can, i'd suggest waiting until you do the system overhaul, as nvidia's new cards should be out by then.
 
I was running 1680x1050/medium but I was barely able to run it without extreme choppyness. Now I'm running 1024x768/medium but the choppyness are still there, just not as severe.
 
Your PC should easily run HL2, especially at 1680 res.
Try it with one graphics card to see if you have a problem with SLI

Failing that, grab a spare hard drive and put Windows in it, then see how well it runs.
Then you'll know if your Windows is borked.
 
also i would wait. on the 25th ati is releasing the 5830 wich is comparable to a 4890 for the $200 range. also the 8800 should easily run HL2. the game is old tech so there might be a problem somewhere. Give what Nenu said a shot. not alot of games Scale well with SLI/Crossfire.
 
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If your Core 2 Duo is running stock (2.4 GHz), it's that plus SLI that is holding you back.

SLI creates extra processing overhead versus running a single card. Try disabling SLI and see what happens. You could also try overclocking your CPU.

Christ, I ran TF2 on an Athlon X2 at 2.4 GHz and a 7900GT at 1280x960 with everything high except textures. It should run like a dream on your system, because your GPU is twice as powerful, and your CPU should be about %30 faster. But that exta boost the Core2 line gives you is eaten-up by SLI.

Your system would leave a 5850 starved.
 
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I'm gonna attempt my first overclocking tonight after leaving my system at factory settings for 3 years now. Wish me luck :D
 
you might as well upgrade the core of your system before you start worrying about getting a new GPU

with that same $300 on a video card you could get i5 + mb

but you'd still need RAM and it'd cost you a few bucks over your budget

but i5 750 + MB + RAM for $450 is doable

better investment in the long run
 
eLus1ve said:
I'm gonna attempt my first overclocking tonight after leaving my system at factory settings for 3 years now. Wish me luck :D
Click to expand...

Good luck :)

If you're not satisfied with your performance after you overclock, you should disable SLI in your control panel. This will reduce the processing needs even further.
 
My overclocking experience went extremely well. I followed this guide( http://pc.ign.com/articles/747/747606p2.html ) step by step and I literally did this without even resetting the cmos once. I didn't get too crazy but here are my final stats:

2.4Ghz -> 3.4Ghz
MEM 783Mhz -> 900Mhz
Ram had default timing already at 5-5-5-15 and I left it there.
Video 513/1187/735 -> 650/1507/930
Upped the voltages by very little.

There's drastic performance increase now, and it's not placebo. :D
 
eLus1ve said:
My overclocking experience went extremely well. I followed this guide( http://pc.ign.com/articles/747/747606p2.html ) step by step and I literally did this without even resetting the cmos once. I didn't get too crazy but here are my final stats:

2.4Ghz -> 3.4Ghz
MEM 783Mhz -> 900Mhz
Ram had default timing already at 5-5-5-15 and I left it there.
Video 513/1187/735 -> 650/1507/930
Upped the voltages by very little.

There's drastic performance increase now, and it's not placebo. :D
Click to expand...

Excellent man! Enjoy your gaming.
 
Nice work! I actually bought a 5850 for use with an E2180 @ 3.2 and the performance was good but not really much better than my 4850. Then I got a Q9550 which I run at 3.7 and performance improved dramatically. It's important to match CPU and video card. Seems like now your E6600 is where it needs to be to drive 2 8800s.
 
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