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Stopgap Upgrade for my 5870

L

LiNxGT

n00b
Joined
Aug 28, 2010
Messages
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Hey all. With BF3 hitting beta this week and all, I'm beginning to worry about my 5870 and its ability to play new releases on maxed settings. Not sure if I'm worrying too much or not, so I guess first I'll lay out the specs:

ASUS P67 Sabertooth
i7-2600k (stock for now)
16GB Corsair Vengeance
Pair of HDDs in RAID0
XFX 5870 1024mb

Now the reason why I said "stopgap" upgrade is simple: I can't afford to upgrade to a top-of-the-line card AND replace my PSU (I believe its only a 580w Thermaltake Toughpower). I do have the opportunity to buy a barely used 5970 from a buddy for $200, so I'm wondering if this would be a worthwhile upgrade? It would be a marginal upgrade on its own until I can upgrade the PSU and run both cards in tri-fire. Anyone think this would be worthwhile for the time being?
 
Go for it if you feel the 5970 is going to be reliable and give you some added speed. Most used 5970s on eBay right now are going for over $300 so just sell it when you are ready to upgrade
 
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Normally I'd say no, because there isn't much that's better than an HD5870, and isn't a top-end card, but a fully working HD5970 for $200? You'd be mad to pass that one up :) - As long as you keep your CPU close to stock and don't go mad with an overclock, a 580W PSU should handle that combo fine.
 
samuelmorris said:
As long as you keep your CPU close to stock and don't go mad with an overclock, a 580W PSU should handle that combo fine.
Click to expand...

Should handle the 5970 fine, or the 5870+5970? (I think the tri-fire would be what pushes me to needing a new PSU, not just the 5970)
 
yes, you would need a lot more than 580W to add a third GPU. I would say get at least a 750W if you're going to run with three GPUs.
 
Have to say I wouldn't be that worried about a 5870. Mine is handling everything and I can play everything at max settings, even Metro although I have to turn DOF off and I don't have near the CPU power that you do especially if you overclock.

Now a 5970 would be a big upgrade especially for $200 but if you're at 1920x1080, might not be a bad idea to just hang on to your cash for now and go all out when the new cards get here and get the top of the line. Drop some cash on a solid CPU cooler and crank that i7 up to 4+ GHz too.

Also I'm not that sold that BF3 is going to be a rig killer. Its still a console game at the end of the day so I would be surprised if its any more demanding than Crysis 2.
 
MacLeod said:
Its still a console game at the end of the day so I would be surprised if its any more demanding than Crysis 2.
Click to expand...

Isn't that more MW3? I could have swore DICE focused more on the PC end of things when it came to developing the game, and then worked on porting it over to consoles...
 
Well, it's a game that's also on consoles, but it's not implicitly a console port, so it'll be reasonably demanding.
 
I'm sure it'll be solid graphics wise. BC2 would stretch your GPU's legs pretty good. I'm just not sure its going to be a rig buster where everybody needs to run out and buy a GTX580 to play it. I see threads like this all over the place saying they want to trade in their GTX480 on a pair of 580's because of BF3. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for excessive upgrading (hell I'm on my 4th CPU in 2 years), I just don't think this game will require it.

Would be great if I were wrong though cause we need more games pushing the graphics envelope but judging by the current trend with developers, I don't see it
 
Would adding a 5970 help much if I'm playing at 2560x1440? I currently have a 5870.. But would the lack of VRAM be an Achilles heel at that resolution?
 
A 5970 will be a substantial upgrade over a 5870 no matter what the resolution.
 
+1 - and besides, 1GB at 2560x1440 isn't a massive disadvantage, only a few games need more than that for now.
 
For $200 I would go for it. Even it wasn't was a huge upgrade. You'll probably have to upgrade your PSU to crossfire them but I think you would be satisfied.
 
Keep the 5870 and overclock it. 2 weaker cores isnt better than 1 stronger one. The 5970 will give you higher fps but not always better gameplay experience because of microstutter, flickering and other graphical glitches inherent to CF. Upgrade to a better single card. when HD 7000 appears.
 
You need to overclock it to bring each to 5870 speeds but the vrm components are cut down and wont clock as well as a single 5870.
 
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