Upgrade for 5850?

[prelag]

Hey guys, I've been out of the loop for quite a while as I've been stationed overseas for the past couple years.

I have a 5850 that I am possibly looking to upgrade.

PC specs are

Core I5 750 @ 2.67GHz
Intel SSD
4 GB Ram
Corsair 400CX 400W

I'm left wondering if it's time to do a complete computer upgrade? Obviously, I'd keep the SSD, but would my current specs bottleneck any GPU upgrade I might be looking for?

Any thoughts / suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Also, if you think I should rebuild my computer if you could suggest some parts I'd appreciate that as well.

Thank you.

 

[rastaban]

Any games in particular you're looking to play? and what resolution will you be playing at?

 

[horrorshow]

Honestly, my specs are VERY similar to yours.... Sooooooo.........

1. double your RAM to 8GB
2. I'm not really up to date on the latest vcards, but my 6950 replaced my 5850 with respectable performance gains etc
3. I would really look into upgrading your PSU. 400W is kinda sketchy for your rig already

EDIT: I'd say your i5-750 is still fine for just about anything out there.

 

[Ajiki-kun]

What rastaban said. We'd like to know more!

If we're trying to get everything to run off that 400W power supply, and/or on a budget, then our options are very limited.

If, however, you want to be [H]ard, then do a complete rebuild! Budget? Resolution? Particular uses? Particular games?

 

[raghu78]

Your core i5 750 CPU is fine. 4 GB RAM is fine for a gaming PC. Unless you are using an application which requires huge amounts of RAM you don't need to add RAM. All you need is a HD 7850. I have a core i5 2400 and HD 6950 2GB (850 Mhz) and 4 GB RAM. Most of the games I max out except in a few games like BF3 I ran MSAA at 2x. You should be able to do even better.

Corsair CX400 provides 30A (360W) on +12v rail. thats pretty decent.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/Corsair_CX400W
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2697/8

http://techreport.com/review/22705/xfx-radeon-hd-7850-and-7870-black-edition-graphics-cards/7

in the review HD 7850 with a core i5 750 CPU draws around 200w. So your PSU is fine too.

clock for clock HD 7850 is 8 - 10% slower than HD 7870. HD 7850 overclocks to 1 Ghz at stock voltage and matches a GTX 570. With voltage tweaking the HD 7850 can hit 1.2 Ghz and match GTX 580 performance.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7850_PCS_Plus/9.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7850_PCS_Plus/31.html

GTX 570 - 45.3
HD 7850 (1 Ghz) - 45.4
HD 7870 (1 Ghz) - 49.5
HD 7850 (1.24 Ghz) -50.2
GTX 580 - 51.7

here are 2 good HD 7850 cards

Sapphire HD 7850 2GB - 200 (190 after rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102998

ASUS HD 7850 2 GB Direct Cu II V2 - 188 (178 after rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121651

the sapphire card is compact while the ASUS card takes more space. if you pick the ASUS card check if your case can fit the card.

 

[slh28]

You can buy a cheap aftermarker HSF and overclock that i5 750, running at 2.67Ghz may be a bottleneck in some games. But if you're going to OC then it's also advisable to get a better PSU, one which can also carry forward into your next build.

 

[adrenx]

I noticed a decent amount of lag lately while trying to raid in WoW and I have almost the same specs as the original poster. From what raghu78 is saying my system would benefit greatly if I upgraded my video card to a 7850.

I saw this one on newegg for around $210.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102984&name=Desktop-Graphics-Cards

Should I be worried about my board only having a PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot?

Should I get this card or something else, or a completely new system. I really only play WoW.


My current hardware:
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus
OC @ 3.8 Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor
MSI P55-CD53 LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard
HIS H585F1GDG Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16
Antec TruePower New TP-650 650W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Desktop Memory Model F3-16000CL9D-4GBRH

 

[rastaban]

Again, what resolution are you playing at? A 7850 should be plenty for WoW at 1080p. PCI-e 3.0 is not necessary as few games can even saturate a top of the line card on PCI-e 2.0 (iirc, PCI-e 3.0 so far is most relevant to computational tasks).

The Sapphire card you linked is a solid performer. If you're only playing WoW, you wouldn't need anything more powerful (unless you're gaming above 1080p, then a 7870 to be safe)

 

[adrenx]

I am playing WoW at 1920 X 1080.

You mention possibly getting a 7870. At what point does my CPU start to become the bottleneck, resulting in no performance gain from a better video card? Maybe I should get that card and after that I would need to build a new machine.

Thanks again for your input.

 

[rastaban]

I would only consider a 7870 if you plan on upgrading your monitor to 1920x1200 AND plan on playing other modern games. A 7850 is perfect for your needs now. High OC potential is there if you need it too.

I honestly don't have any measure of when your CPU will become bottlenecking but the rule of thumb I go by is that anything above the C2D/C2Q generation should be fine for medium performance tier games. C2D/C2Q are limited by DDR2 speeds whereas your Lynnfield is 1) OCed off the wall, and 2) uses DDR3 1600+. I wouldn't be concerned about the CPU. I'm sure you (and your wallet) will be happy with a 7850. Also, I am curious, and for future reference, how is your 5850 holding up in WoW right now?

 

[adrenx]

I mostly play solo and 5 man groups and the game runs well. Previous to the new expansion I did some 10/25 man raids and things would get sluggish, but since I was not raiding a ton I didn't bother upgrading my system.

Now that the MoP expansion is out and the fact I haven't upgrade my system for a long time, I figured I was due for an upgrade or possibly a new machine.

I should probably research online to see if WoW is more CPU or GPU intensive.

Money is tight right now and I need to figure out what is the best bang for the buck.

 

[Kaori]

buy another used 5850 card and wait for next gen, can play anything with 2 5850's 2gb each at high res 2560x1440, two 5850's with 1gb can do well enough at 1080p res too

 

[adrenx]

My MSI P55-CD53 LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard only has one slot.

 

[rastaban]

buy another used 5850 card and wait for next gen, can play anything with 2 5850's 2gb each at high res 2560x1440, two 5850's with 1gb can do well enough at 1080p res too

This is incorrect. Crossfiring two 1GB cards gives you 1GB VRAM, not 2GB. However, the increased number of stream processors would improve rendering. But this is a bad idea as the OP would need a new PSU to run 5850s in CF.

 

[rastaban]

I mostly play solo and 5 man groups and the game runs well. Previous to the new expansion I did some 10/25 man raids and things would get sluggish, but since I was not raiding a ton I didn't bother upgrading my system.

Now that the MoP expansion is out and the fact I haven't upgrade my system for a long time, I figured I was due for an upgrade or possibly a new machine.

I should probably research online to see if WoW is more CPU or GPU intensive.

Money is tight right now and I need to figure out what is the best bang for the buck.

Is it possible that your internet bandwidth is making the game sluggish? Have you tried overclocking your 5850 to see if those situations improve?

 

[Hagrid]

This is incorrect. Crossfiring two 1GB cards gives you 1GB VRAM, not 2GB. However, the increased number of stream processors would improve rendering. But this is a bad idea as the OP would need a new PSU to run 5850s in CF.

I think he meant the 2gb version of the 5850.

 

[rastaban]

I think he meant the 2gb version of the 5850.

Oh, my bad. I was under the impression the OP had a 1GB like most 5850 owners.

 

[SidewinderX]

This is an interesting thread for me -- I'm currently rocking a C2D system (E8400) with 4GB of RAM and a 5850. I do OK in most recent games at moderate settings, but I'm starting to feel the pain with computational work (i.e., my photo editing). I'm considering putting together a new-build system (i5 3570k, 16gb of ram, etc.), but I really don't like the idea dropping $1000 right now. I'm thinking about an intermediate build with just 8GB of RAM and reusing the 5850 for the time being.

Any thoughts on that? Should I still see moderate performance gains in current games like Skyrim and BF3 for the sizable CPU and RAM upgrade? Or will I not really see a gaming difference until I invest in a new video card?

 

[Woe]

This is an interesting thread for me -- I'm currently rocking a C2D system (E8400) with 4GB of RAM and a 5850. I do OK in most recent games at moderate settings, but I'm starting to feel the pain with computational work (i.e., my photo editing). I'm considering putting together a new-build system (i5 3570k, 16gb of ram, etc.), but I really don't like the idea dropping $1000 right now. I'm thinking about an intermediate build with just 8GB of RAM and reusing the 5850 for the time being.

Any thoughts on that? Should I still see moderate performance gains in current games like Skyrim and BF3 for the sizable CPU and RAM upgrade? Or will I not really see a gaming difference until I invest in a new video card?

You'll definitely notice an improvement with a CPU upgrade.