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Working on upgrade...finally

B

BBA

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Apr 25, 2003
Messages
5,382
So I think I am going to go with an i7 930 and 6 GB mem. I'm trying to minimize the costs, and not sure if it's really worth it to get a new high dollar vid card so my question is what if any real benefit, other than DX10/11, will I get with a card in the $150-$200 range, considering I am already using a crossfire steup with 2 x1950xtx cards?
 
No takers? Just seems hard trying to compare what actual game play differences (as far as frame rates) will be seen with a mid line newer card compared to the high end old stuff.
 
Sikkyu said:
find a 920, unless the 930 is the same price. also upgrade that 1900xtx, used 4870's are 100 bucks if your worried about price and it would smoke 1900's , if not go for a 5850 or 5870

edit

check it out just posted in Hard deals, 930+ mobo for 350

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1035414363#post1035414363
Click to expand...

I'm finding the 930 combo's at better prices than 920, so that's the way I will go. The only different possible choice I have would be a w3530, since it supports ECC rdimm, which would make more difference to me than higher overclocks, that and the server boards are the same prices as the regular boards, all depends on what price I can get the W3530 for, which lists for the same as the i7 930.
 
BBA said:
So I think I am going to go with an i7 930 and 6 GB mem. I'm trying to minimize the costs, and not sure if it's really worth it to get a new high dollar vid card so my question is what if any real benefit, other than DX10/11, will I get with a card in the $150-$200 range, considering I am already using a crossfire steup with 2 x1950xtx cards?
Click to expand...

Ok, your X1950XTX is at least 4 generations behind. You're gonna see a huge performance increase from a $160 HD 5770.
 
BBA said:
So I think I am going to go with an i7 930 and 6 GB mem. I'm trying to minimize the costs, and not sure if it's really worth it to get a new high dollar vid card so my question is what if any real benefit, other than DX10/11, will I get with a card in the $150-$200 range, considering I am already using a crossfire steup with 2 x1950xtx cards?
Click to expand...

How big is your monitor? I went from a 20 inch LCD to a 24 inch LCD and I had to upgrade my video card. My old EVGA GTX 280 smoked anything I throw at it on my 21 inch. But when I upgraded my monitor, I saw some minor skipping and lagging which wasn't present prior. Granted I am very happy with my 5970, no gray screen grid of death and no suttering. Also what type of games are you planning to play? World of warcraft won't require a high end video card, while something new FPS games will require something beefy to play with all the bells and whistles.

I will also be jumping to the i7 bandwagon myself, now that I see all four of my cores are being close to 100% utilized in Battlefield Bad Company 2 :p
 
I'm not sure about my monitor plans as of yet, might stick with the 2001 FP for a while longer but I can see myself with a 24-26 120hz in the not so near future. Basically, that means I would be happy playing Crysis/Far Cry 2 at 16x12 for a little bit more. I just want to enable some more AA without as much lag.

I wouldn't be happy spending money on a cheap vid card just to find out it made no difference over what I have now. Maybe one of the cards mentioned above would work, I could always add a second card later (should be some used ones floating around cheap by the time I do a new monitor).

I think my best plan would be to go ahead with the CPU upgrade, do some benchmarks then look at the same benchmarks with new cards since I will be able to find some online benches with similar CPU setups and newer cards. That's the real problem trying to make a decision right now, no one has benchmarks of the older cards vs newer cards on similar systems.
 
I also would recommend you ditching the old X1900's. I just upgraded my system
from a E6600 to a 920 system, and I used my old gtx250 and my benches were
still really low.
Just got my new card yesterday from a gentleman on the forums,
a 4890 for 150 dollars. Yes, I know its still not top of the line but it is a large step
up from what I had and I can notice the difference, in benchmarks and gaming.
 
a card in the $150-200 range, such as the 5770 or the GTS 250 (which is actually closer to the low $100s) would net you an absolutely kickass upgrade from your x1950 setup. it would be a night and day difference. $150 can buy you a lot of video card these days.
 
I was able to get 2 4850s on the forum for less then $150.00 and am amazed at the power. Crossfire 4850 would be the best bang for your buck IMHO if you don't mind not having DX11.
 
Thanks for the replies and advice all, some good suggestions to consider.
 
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