Should I rush to 5870?

S

Snowypup

n00b
Joined
Nov 21, 2007
Messages
40
My rig:

ASUS P5Q Deluxe
ATi 4890 1Gig
Q6600 QUAD CPU 2.4GHz (stock)
4 Gigs Ram
Vista 64 bit
1920x1200

I'm asking this cause I always game at 1920x1200 with maxed settings, which is usually great. But as soon as I pump up the AA on those kind of settings it gets laggy, understandable I guess. I'm playing RE5 right now and with my native res, maxed settings and AA only on x2, the FPS hovers around 40 during the action.

I don't know if it's a good example or not but basically I want a high FPS with the way I prefer to max out games lol. So do you think the 5870 is a solid upgrade for me or should I wait for a further generation. Or perhaps just wait for a price drop? I just hope those cards don't get really hot. My 4890 idles at 50 and maxes out at 65-70 with 30-40% fans.
 
I don't think you should wait for the next generation. The 5870 offers a great performance increase over the 4890. If I were you and wanted to squeeze a few more FPS out of my rig, I'd do one of three things.

1. Sell the 4890 and put that $ towards a 5870.
2. Buy another 4890 for Crossfire.
3. Keep the 4890 and wait for the 5870 X2.

I'm leaning towards 1. You could always buy another 5870 and Crossfire them when the cards are cheaper. Always waiting for the next gen though is dooming yourself. There'll always be something better. When you have the money, just go for it.
 
It's your CPU, overclock that sucker. When I was running a 4850 I had no problems with RE5 maxed settings 19x12 with 2xAA. I was averaging fps in the high 50's according to the built-in benchmark and a 4890 is quite a bit faster than my old 4850. The same settings on my 5870 i'm getting well over 100fps. That's with my Q6600 running at 3.2GHz
 
first, overclock your cpu. Find out what is possible with your current setup.


Then, wait at least until the new Nvidia gpus come out. The 5870 could be a sub $200 card within 6-8 months. By then you will see cards with better coolers and better drivers to decide if it is worth it.
 
Yeah as others have said your CPU is holding you back more than your 4890. I'm running a Q6600 with a GTX 260 core 216 atm and at stock speeds the CPU seriously hinders performance. Once I knocked my CPU up to 3.2 things became much, much smoother; however it's hard to say what you'll be able to get without knowing if you have a B3 vs G0, or if you even have an aftermarket cooler. If you have a G0 you *should* be able to hit ~3ghz at/below stock voltage with the stock cooler.
 
+1 CPU overclock. Even the worst Q6600 can do 3.0-3.2 OC on air.
 
I guess it's more of a price/performance issue and what your budget is. Personally, I think the 5870 is overkill at 1920x1200 (as in even Crysis cranked -> 40 FPS +). A 5850 is probably the sweet spot for 1920x1200 (especially is you're an overclocker). That said, the stock Q6600 is holding you back, overclock it at least past 3.0GHz.
 
Snowypup said:
My rig:

ASUS P5Q Deluxe
ATi 4890 1Gig
Q6600 QUAD CPU 2.4GHz (stock)
4 Gigs Ram
Vista 64 bit
1920x1200

I'm asking this cause I always game at 1920x1200 with maxed settings, which is usually great. But as soon as I pump up the AA on those kind of settings it gets laggy, understandable I guess. I'm playing RE5 right now and with my native res, maxed settings and AA only on x2, the FPS hovers around 40 during the action.

I don't know if it's a good example or not but basically I want a high FPS with the way I prefer to max out games lol. So do you think the 5870 is a solid upgrade for me or should I wait for a further generation. Or perhaps just wait for a price drop? I just hope those cards don't get really hot. My 4890 idles at 50 and maxes out at 65-70 with 30-40% fans.
Click to expand...

first like said above OC your cpu, invest in a third party cooler

seconded is to OC your 4890. if its stock you should get another 100mh or better.

third, can't believe this wasn't suggested, if your not planning on going to multiple monitors then get a second 4890 for your rig. two 4890 will beat a 5890. you already have one and there are LOTS of people trying to sell theirs off right now. You should be able to get one for a buck twenty five or so.

do the above and you will see a hell of a difference.

Now if you want to go multi monitor want to keep a single GPU that bad spring for it. otherwise the above will hold you for a long time
 
I'm going to be a parrot and suggest you o/c your chip first. You should be able to hit 3.0 with nothing more than an fsb change. If it doesn't improve your gameplay, then consider other options.

@ Valset. How do you like your 28" Hannspree? I'm thinking of grabbing one.
 
If you want a 5870, I wouldn't be against it but it would probably be seriously bottlenecked by the CPU at stock speeds. Your first upgrade should be to buy a good heatsink and OC that chip to at least 3.2 Ghz+. You'll notice a difference in games. And you should also OC your 4890 if you haven't already. You'll probably be able to hit 925+ on core, minimum.
 
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lodingi said:
I'm going to be a parrot and suggest you o/c your chip first. You should be able to hit 3.0 with nothing more than an fsb change. If it doesn't improve your gameplay, then consider other options.

@ Valset. How do you like your 28" Hannspree? I'm thinking of grabbing one.
Click to expand...

very good gaming monitor, looks good, so so for movies. I am seriously thinking about getting another two of these for my 5870 2gb card when it comes out. don't get one though if you have a Nvidia card, I have to reinstall the reg hack to get it to scale right. Nvidia is not going to address this bug or they would have done so by now. other than that it has a fast response time (I am very sensitive to this) excellent blacks and sharp contrast.
 
Overclocking your CPU will not make any difference as far as enabling AA in games. AA is handled entirely on the video card. That said, if you OC your CPU you'll definitely notice an improvement in CPU limited games. You can use 'task manager' to see which games are CPU limited for you.

Also, since you bump up the quality settings in games, you are probably putting more load on your video card than your CPU. So at your high resolution with high quality settings, overclocking your CPU might not make as much difference as if you were playing at lower res & lower quality settings.
 
I agree as well that you should definately overclock the cpu to at least 3ghz.
 
If you have a 4890 just wait... as I've learned the margin for difference inbetween series doesn't justify price. Either buy another 4890 and crossfire or just wait for the 6xxx series.. I'm really hoping for another go at the 9800 pro
 
Wait until you see official GTX380 benchmarks. Unofficial benchmarks should be coming out early December.
 
Dayum looks like I'll be getting it, thx guys. I'm sure that future cards can only improve on upon heating issues, right? And I make plenty of pocket money so I don't mind blowing dough on this. But is this common? For the next generation to always give a significant improvement? If so this is usually what? Every 4-5 months? I'm only interested in a single card that can age really well. For example, will the 5870 be one of the best DX. 11 cards? Or is that a bad question >.<.

As for my CPU I'll OC it tonight. I never knew it would help so much, I also have a Scythe Ninja cooler slapped onto it so I'm sure I'll be fine heatwise. I never really OCed because I heard it had some bad effects like reducing it's own lifespan. Is there anything I should know before I newb my way into it? Like do I have to change voltage or anything like that. I assume this is done within bio's.

Lastly I have some small concerns. I have a 620HX Corsair power supply for my rig, would I have to worry anytime soon about getting more watts for these new power hungry cards. I'm also using two hard drive's and possibly a third in the future. Oh yea last thing, instead of buying the 5870 right away should I wait for some pimped out version done by someone such as Vaporware? So it could run cooler of course.

PS: OCing the cpu seems complicated.. T_T
 
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You are seriously bottlenecked by that CPU. Not only that, but there is no point going to a 4890 at that resolution period. I mean it is always nice to have more power, but 4890 is pretty powerful. A lot of what you think is GPU lag is CPU lag. I would get that CPU up to at least 3.0 GHz and reevaluate.
 
LittleMeEgo said:
Overclocking your CPU will not make any difference as far as enabling AA in games. AA is handled entirely on the video card. That said, if you OC your CPU you'll definitely notice an improvement in CPU limited games. You can use 'task manager' to see which games are CPU limited for you.
Click to expand...

Not entirely true. If you read Kyle's article on cpu scaling, there were games where AA couldn't be enabled at stock speeds. Once the cpu was oc'd, Kyle was able to enable AA & increase game settings.
 
Like the other have said.. O/C that CPU... if not it will become angry and frustrated and might even go postal on you! :D

Not sure why people are only recoomending 3.0Ghz.... maybe on the stock cooler.. but any decent aftermarket cooler is good for 3.4+ Ghz...

Personally, I would shoot for at least 3.6Ghz which is usually pretty easy to do with a
Q6600.
 
Snowypup said:
Lastly I have some small concerns. I have a 620HX Corsair power supply for my rig, would I have to worry anytime soon about getting more watts for these new power hungry cards. I'm also using two hard drive's and possibly a third in the future. Oh yea last thing, instead of buying the 5870 right away should I wait for some pimped out version done by someone such as Vaporware? So it could run cooler of course.

PS: OCing the cpu seems complicated.. T_T
Click to expand...

That power supply is more than enough for your setup. The 5870 doesn't even use that much more than a 4890. Also I would see how you like your performance after bumping the cpu up. 2.4Ghz is sad panda. I bet there's plenty of guys here that will be more than willing to help on giving you some settings to change on your p5q.
 
cyclone3d said:
Like the other have said.. O/C that CPU... if not it will become angry and frustrated and might even go postal on you! :D

Not sure why people are only recoomending 3.0Ghz.... maybe on the stock cooler.. but any decent aftermarket cooler is good for 3.4+ Ghz...

Personally, I would shoot for at least 3.6Ghz which is usually pretty easy to do with a
Q6600.
Click to expand...

I personally think 3.6GHz is optomistic. I've built several Q6600 rigs and 3GHz is a good starting point. If it gets there easily then shoot for 3.2 and go from there. I've only had one that was stable at 3.6GHz with voltages I consider within reason
 
I have a big tower case and a Scythe Ninja attached onto it, so I should be golden for 3.2/3.4.

So far for OC it seems like it's different for every PC because of different hardware, is this right? I'm googling around for guides but I don't trust them because one guide will mention something while another doesn't. So can someone help meh? I R Nub. I'll list my rig again, I'm not sure if you need screenshots from my cpu-z or bios. Through CPU-Z I've noticed it's speed stepping, if it means anything important.


ASUS P5Q Deluxe
4 Gigs Ram
620HX Corsair Power Supply
 
Change your FSB to 333 that will get you to 3GHz. You may need to also adjust your DRAM speed as not to overclock it. Some people like overclocking the ram, I don't, especially not when you're new to OCing. You may also need to bump your core voltage (vcore) up a notch or two.
 
If you're only going to 3.0 you most likely won't need to increase the core voltage, but if you are having trouble keeping it running at 3.0 then follow Ramon's advice and increase it.
 
cyclone3d said:
Like the other have said.. O/C that CPU... if not it will become angry and frustrated and might even go postal on you! :D

Not sure why people are only recoomending 3.0Ghz.... maybe on the stock cooler.. but any decent aftermarket cooler is good for 3.4+ Ghz...

Personally, I would shoot for at least 3.6Ghz which is usually pretty easy to do with a
Q6600.
Click to expand...

3.0 is a good starting point. It's also attainable without a voltage bump and I wouldn't go higher on stock cooling. As for 3.6 being easy, not always true. My Q6600 can only do 3.3 stable.
 
Here's a simple test - raise your AA to 4x or 8x. If you don't see a decrease, then you are 100% CPU-limited. If you only see slight decreases...still CPU-limited. Point is if you aren't seeing significant drops then your GPU is not being fully utilized. Take note of the numbers so you have a reference point later.

Blackstone makes a good point on the FPS drops during action - it may not always be GPU-related, but go ahead with testing AA in increments first.
 
Snowypup said:
I have a big tower case and a Scythe Ninja attached onto it, so I should be golden for 3.2/3.4.

So far for OC it seems like it's different for every PC because of different hardware, is this right? I'm googling around for guides but I don't trust them because one guide will mention something while another doesn't. So can someone help meh? I R Nub. I'll list my rig again, I'm not sure if you need screenshots from my cpu-z or bios. Through CPU-Z I've noticed it's speed stepping, if it means anything important.


ASUS P5Q Deluxe
4 Gigs Ram
620HX Corsair Power Supply
Click to expand...

In BIOS
1. Lock your PCIE bus to 100mhz
2. Set your Memory Divider to 1:1
3. You can leave voltages to auto for now
4. Set your FSB to 333
5. Save and exit

In Windows
1. Get CPU-Z, Coretemp, and Prime 95
2. Get them all running, check your overclock in CPU-Z (it will likely show your CPU at a lower speed/multiplier until it's under load because of power saving, this is normal)
3. Get them running and on coretemp make sure your CPU does go > 75 degrees if your CPU is a G0 stepping, or > 65 if it's a B3
4. Watch as your GPU performs a lot better than you thought possible

If all else fails:
1. Come here for questions
2. Cry in a corner
 
Snowypup re: overclocking... Just don't bump your voltage too much over the rated voltage. Some is fine, but not too much. Overclocking is not an exact science and does take patience. Depending on what games you play, it might be enough to let you delay buying a new CPU/Mobo/RAM combo for a while while prices drop. But you do want a balanced system. Having a slow CPU with a fast video card means you aren't pushing your video card as much in CPU limited games.
 
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