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Will I Bottleneck A 6870?

O

omni123

n00b
Joined
Feb 7, 2007
Messages
18
Afternoon everyone!

I'm considering upgrading my graphics card to a 6870 in the next week or so and if possible I would like to try and delay a full system refresh for a few months. My specs at the moment are:

Abit IN9-32X-MAX
4GiB DDR2 G-Skill F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ (Micron D9's from memory)
PowerColor HD4870
Corsair HX620
C2D E8500
WD74GB Raptor + WD320GB
The case is a P180 so should be fine for the length/dual slot design.

The biggest concern I have is the RAM I guess.

From what I understand the 6870 is the less power hungry cousin of the 5870 which is perfect for me since after many years of overclocking and jet-engine PC's (this box was watercooled until a few months ago) I'm happy to settle in the quiet mid-range. I would imagine it would be fine on the HX620?

I'm not delaying a full upgrade for any reason other than money right now (holiday + moving house coming up in Feb so I would like to hold out until then) but I would like the graphics card to stick around and not need replacing then. I'll mainly be playing BO/WoW/BC2 and whatever else takes my fancy. I play at 1920x1200 on a 26".

Any opinions would be awesome!

Thanks.
 
How much did you OC your proc? Every little bit counts, even at 1920x1200.

The HD6870 would be a perfect fit for your system, though. PSU should be fine.

I think you would be very pleased with the upgrade, and when you rebuild next year, you can just add another one if the mobo of your choice supports Xfire. I think it requires a minimum 600 watt PSU so you'll be right on the edge of the doable if you migrate the PSU, too.
 
The 8500 is at 3.8 right now.

That's what I thought. I'll definitely be upgrading the PSU on the rebuild so as long as it holds me till then I'm happy.

Thanks a lot!
 
OC the processor as far as it will go (and even if it can't get higher than 3.8ghz, still a great freq), other than that extra performance. You'll have a nice system :)
 
You'll be fine for most games, but some need/really like at least 3 cores(such as Bad Company 2). They're fairly small in number now, but expect that rise dramatically as quad-core processors are hitting the budget range.
 
Agreed, push it as far your proc as you can but be aware that the vast majority of new games are coming multithreaded and really benefit from a quad (BF:BC2, Fallout: NV, COD: BlOps come to mind). I would suggest getting the card now and stretch it until Sandy Bridge hits then grab a quad asap.
 
Yep. Feb/March I'll upgrade the whole lot--that's why I wanted to make sure the 6870 would last me past then.

Doesn't seem to be a lot of new games pushing things like in the past (FarCry, etc). Good for consumers, I guess. :)

This was my last serious build so it's good to see it lasted. I'm in love with this motherboard--I went to upgrade it at one point and threw it out in a pile of rubbish in the rain because it was having major BIOS issues back in the day. The new mobo was DOA (yeah, I'm awesome at testing before I dump things) so I ran out and grabbed it out of the rain and it's worked fine for the last year since. :)

EDIT: Bumped the 8500 to 4.2 but I'm not sure how the temps are going to be on air (due to high ambient temps here in Australia). I'll leave it benching for a few hours and see how it goes.
 
Last edited:
omni123 said:
Yep. Feb/March I'll upgrade the whole lot--that's why I wanted to make sure the 6870 would last me past then.

Doesn't seem to be a lot of new games pushing things like in the past (FarCry, etc). Good for consumers, I guess. :)

This was my last serious build so it's good to see it lasted. I'm in love with this motherboard--I went to upgrade it at one point and threw it out in a pile of rubbish in the rain because it was having major BIOS issues back in the day. The new mobo was DOA (yeah, I'm awesome at testing before I dump things) so I ran out and grabbed it out of the rain and it's worked fine for the last year since. :)

EDIT: Bumped the 8500 to 4.2 but I'm not sure how the temps are going to be on air (due to high ambient temps here in Australia). I'll leave it benching for a few hours and see how it goes.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't agree that games not pushing new hardware is a good thing...... This just means that PC gaming is slowing getting choked out by the consoles.... Look at CoD.. Activision bought Infinity Ward and destroyed the best PC FPS series of all time. Funny thing is people playing on consoles (and many on PC) are still lining up like sheep to buy it... *thinks back to better days with 32 vs. 32 and all the custom maps we could make*

anyways I believe that your CPU will be a bottleneck but, if your upgrading later anyway I say why not buy it now....
 
Gah, looks like I have horrible luck. 6870 arrived and got in about a half hour of gaming before the freezes and BSOD's kicked in--beginning to think it could be a power supply draw issue but from what I can tell the 6870 should draw less than the 4870.

I'll try a reformat before I call it RMA it as DOA and try a second card. Dreaded 124 stop errors. :(
 
omni123 said:
Gah, looks like I have horrible luck. 6870 arrived and got in about a half hour of gaming before the freezes and BSOD's kicked in--beginning to think it could be a power supply draw issue but from what I can tell the 6870 should draw less than the 4870.

I'll try a reformat before I call it RMA it as DOA and try a second card. Dreaded 124 stop errors. :(
Click to expand...

I just bought a XFX 6870 for my brother and he has been gaming on it with a Corsair 520HX PS without problem.

Games include, Crysis, WoW & StarCraft 2. Crysis and WoW via Eyefinity 5760x1080.

Your PSU should be fine, good luck.
 
Reformat sorted it. Works like a dream, much improved experience.

Thanks very much all!
 
A single HD 6870? Nah.

But get a Quad-Core when you're able.
 
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