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Single 5870 not strong enough?

B

Bmxant

n00b
Joined
Aug 14, 2010
Messages
44
Ever since I've upgraded to a Dell U2711, my performance has really taken a big hit. I've been trying to decide on what to upgrade, but when you have a limited budget, and some older parts, it makes things tough. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Q6600 @ 3.0 (Doesn't like anything higher, could be at my psu's limit)
5870 (Stock)
Gigabyte P35-DS3L
2xGB Corsair XMS + 1GB Kingston (Bleh, I know)
90GB Vertex 2
1TB WD Black
PC Power & Cooling 510w Deluxe (Still going strong after 7 or so years.....maybe lol)

I do game a lot, so I'm not just trying to max out one game in particular.

Some tell me the single 5870 is fine, but others say no way.

Thanks.
 
at 2560x1400 res, the HD5870 is likely VRAM limited at times :(

Though those shouldn't be very common. In general, the HD5870 is still rather powerful, near the bottom of top tier cards, and just above mainstream high end cards.
 
Do you have AA enabled? I'd agree the 5870 is VRAM limited at these high resolutions. I know I've experienced it myself.
 
jeremyshaw said:
at 2560x1400 res, the HD5870 is likely VRAM limited at times :(

Though those shouldn't be very common. In general, the HD5870 is still rather powerful, near the bottom of top tier cards, and just above mainstream high end cards.
Click to expand...

If he has the 2 gb version, he should be fine for the most part. To the OP, If you're not liking your performance, well I'd say unlocked 6950.
 
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Thanks for the replies, much appreciated. My card is the 1gb version.

rUmX: I stick between 2-4x AA
 
I see Spare, didn't think about that.

tosgamer: I've had bad luck with overclocking video cards in the past. I don't have the best luck. (I've had too many cards croak with minor oc's)
 
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You need to start saving up for everything. First is the psu, then the gpu or cpu. The 6600 is ancient now. You want to aim for a 2500K at some point. A 2 gb GPU is pretty much going to be required going forward. The 6950 is that budget card atm.
 
Wouldn't the 6950 be a downgrade? As for upgrading to a 2500k, it doesn't seem that I have much of a choice at this point. I'll grab a good psu soon just to get that out of the way.
 
Bmxant said:
Wouldn't the 6950 be a downgrade? As for upgrading to a 2500k, it doesn't seem that I have much of a choice at this point. I'll grab a good psu soon just to get that out of the way.
Click to expand...

6950 is +/- 10% faster (if you can tell aside from becnhmarks). A lot more if you are Vram Limited, check your GPU usage or GPU-Z to see if you are Vram limited or not.

I'd be careful on the older PSU, they lose efficiency every year. I would NOT recommend an OC on your 5870 with it.


Y.
 
It seems there's no way to check the Vram usage on the 5XXX series, but the GPU usage was between 65-75% on BFBC2, all high, 1xMSAA 16xAF, average framerate is around 40, with some harsh drops every once and a while, depends on the map.
 
Another 5870 should solve your problems, but it's more than likely your PSU won't handle it. I'm not sure how much a 6950 would help, because even with 1gb per card I can run games somewhat fine at 2xAA. I've barely tried bad company after i got my 3 monitors but when using 2xaa and all max settings I was getting close to 60 fps. And I have the same cpu.
 
I'd love to get a second card, but my mobo doesn't support crossfire. I think I'm going to go ahead and order the Corsair Gold 850w Modular psu, good choice?
 
Bmxant said:
It seems there's no way to check the Vram usage on the 5XXX series, but the GPU usage was between 65-75% on BFBC2, all high, 1xMSAA 16xAF, average framerate is around 40, with some harsh drops every once and a while, depends on the map.
Click to expand...

You are seeing your CPU limitiations. The 5870 is a great card but at that resolution its gonna chug. If it were me id start with a good PSU and a board/ram/cpu upgrade. Then do the card last. You dont have enough CPU to push a higher end card to its full potential anyways so the money spent would be pointless until the rest was upgraded. But with BC2 you will see frame rate improvements if you went to a 2500K setup.
 
I agree with Copyright. If your games are running poorly and your GPU is not maxed out 100% then it's most likely a CPU bottleneck.
 
1. Get new PSU
2. OC CPU and GPU
3. If still not satisfied, it's time to upgrade everything sadly...but start with CPU first.
 
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