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Worth the upgrade?

greeneye

greeneye

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 29, 2007
Messages
142
Hello.

Ive currently got 1 Sapphire 4870 512MB card.
I play games 99% of the time when im on my PC.

All games run @ 1920x**** Resolution.

Games : BFBC2/CS:Source/GTA4/Crysis/Metro 2033 and L4D2

Most of these games and others are ok, id just like more power i guess. i get some intense lag (seriously low FPS) on GTA4 and Metro 2033.

I was thinking of either buying

Note : I live in Australia. Prices are slightly different to US ($1.00 AUD = 0.84c US)

Radeon 4870 512MB ($80 Used) - CrossFire
Radeon 4870 1GB ($100 Used) - No crossfire, but sell my 4870 512MB
Radeon 5770 1GB ($200 New)

Ive got a 720W Gigabyte Psu
Intel core 2 duo E6750 (O/C @ 3.2Ghz)
4G DDR2 Ram
Windows 7 64x Bit Ultimate.

I just want to know if it will make any difference buy purchasing a 2nd 4870 or going to 5770.

Even though most games are now cpu-quad core based will it improve alot or should i just save up a little longer and buy new cpu/mobo/ram first?

ive been reading through alot of forums/and peoples opinions and all ive learnt so far is that if your running something over 1650x**** Resolution with gfx card of 512MB your gona have problems.

Thanks.
 
If you really want the extra boost I'd invest in that used 4870. You getting the 1GB version would be pointless because the other 512MB wouldn't be utilized, so it'll waste.

As for the 5770, the main differences would be the DX11 support and the extra VRAM, but for the bang for buck in your case the 4870 CFX is the MUCH better route.
 
I think a CPU upgrade would be your best bet.

But as far as the cards go, going with a 5770 would be a rather underwhelming sidegrade IMO.

Crossfire with another 4870 wouldn't be too bad even with 512mb cards. I ran 4850's in crossfire with 512mb cards for over a year at 1920x1200 and performance was not bad at all. Of course it helps to be cognizant of your potential ram limitation in that situation and set your other video settings accordingly. Some features such as Anti-Aliasing use quite a bit more video ram than other features so while someone who is comfortable using 4x or even 2x AA in some games might see great performance with 512mb cards, the person who always pushes for 8x AA might find the performance to be lacking.

If you are going to upgrade your 4870 with another single card I wouldn’t go for anything less than a 5850 IMO.
 
adding a second 4870 is a great short term answer and should give you a rather nice boost.

if it were me, i'd start saving for a new build, your bottlenecks in the core components will severely cripple anything you do after this new 4870 (which will probably already be slightly held back).
 
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