Need help matching vid card to system

M

MaxGhz

Weaksauce
Joined
Aug 3, 2003
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Have and old E8600 duo @ 4.0 Ghz with a 4870x2 in a water cooled system. Because of economy, building a completely new rig is out of the question at this time. What vid card would be compatible (not be cpu limited) in the current build and provide high to ultra high settings in the newer demanding games. Are the new top end dual cards too much for the old CPU"" appreciate any suggestions/comments. My native screen resos I game with are 1920x1080. Note: I can manage enough funds for a high end card and a cooling block.
 
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you are already a bit cpu limited with a 4870x2 and anything much faster will have little to no improvement depending on the game. really the only single gpu cards that would be as fast or faster anyway are the 6950, 6970, gtx570 or gtx580. IMO, with your dual core cpu, it would be foolish to spend 500 bucks on the gtx580 and even more foolish to get something like a gtx590 or 6990.

now even something like the 6950 would give you a better overall experience than your 4870x2 though. it also may be a bit faster since you would eliminate that cpu overhead associated with crossfire.
 
well max i tell you what i have an oc q6600 to 3.6gig. i had sli 8800gtx and when i purchased the 6950 unlocked to shaders only to 6970 it made a world of difference. my oc cpu compliments my 6950 very much and i can max out any game out there. so if you can find a low price on quad core do it its the best thing. the dual core should feed the 6950 with all the information that it needs. so if upgrading then 6950 and if you can get a cheap quad core even better.

when i play bc2 or metro i peg 6950 meter to 99% usage. sometimes it will dip to below 95% usage but rarely. so ya go for it. if you can try to oc it further if you can.

good luck
 
I DO NOT suggest going from dual to quad core in your situation unless you think you can get one over 4ghz OC (probably not even close). Until you build a new rig, I think you have maxed your potential right now and you should stay where you are at.

I went from E6750 to Q6600 and actually saw a noticeable decrease in gaming performance. Most games are single thread only any ways.

Also: I just invested in an AMD 1100T with my same 4870 and went from 4 to 8 gigs of ram and I can honestly say I just wish I had stuck with my E8650 and not upgraded for at least another generation. There just is not enough extra power unlocked there to make it worth upgrading the mobo/cpu without also upgrading my gpu.

Sorry.
 
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CleanSlate said:
I DO NOT suggest going from dual to quad core in your situation unless you think you can get one over 4ghz OC (probably not even close). Until you build a new rig, I think you have maxed your potential right now and you should stay where you are at.

I went from dual to quad and actually saw a decrease in gaming performance. Most games are single thread only any ways.

Sorry.
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lol, and what year was that? most newer games need a very fast dual core or quad just to fully keep up with a modern upper mid range card. now in the OPs case it might be hard to get a quad for a decent price on his system but the chances of going down is performance are nearly zero.

btw there is no such thing as an E8650
 
cannondale06 said:
lol, and what year was that? most newer games need a very fast dual core or quad just to keep up with a modern mid range card. now in the OPs case it might be hard to get a quad for a decent price on his system but the chances of going down is performance are nearly zero.

btw there is no such thing as an E8650
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This was a year or two ago and it was a very noticeable decline in fps and increase in choppiness in every first person shooter game I played. It certainly helped my multitasking on the desktop but fuck that, I was upgrading thinking I was going to get better fps but nope, not at all.

Also, E6750 is what it was 2.66ghz stock 4 mg cache:

http://www.intel.com/products/processor/core2duo/specifications.htm


Essentially, I think the reason for the decline in FPS is that the E6750 I was running was basically the same cpu as the Q6600 but with double the cores for better multitasking.
 
CleanSlate said:
This was a year or two ago.

Also, E6750 is what it was 2.66ghz stock 4 mg cache:

http://www.intel.com/products/processor/core2duo/specifications.htm
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well with a 4870, you had a fairly balanced system. still there would be plenty of games where the quad or at least faster dual would be better even with that level of card. Dirt 2, GTA 4, Prototype, Dragon Age, Ghostbusters, Red Faction Guerrilla, and Bad Company 2 just to name a few. your claim that most games are single thread is inaccurate if you are referring to modern games as nearly all of them make use of more than 2 cores.
 
MaxGhz said:
Have and old E8600 duo @ 4.0 Ghz with a 4870x2 in a water cooled system. Because of economy, building a completely new rig is out of the question at this time. What vid card would be compatible (not be cpu limited) in the current build and provide high to ultra high settings in the newer demanding games. Are the new top end dual cards too much for the old CPU"" appreciate any suggestions/comments. My native screen resos I game with are 1920x1080. Note: I can manage enough funds for a high end card and a cooling block.
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Well, as Cannondales first post put it, you cpu is already somewhat limiting you.

I have a C2D 6600@3,6GHz and a 5850. With the vid card at stock I am somewhat gfx limited, but with the 5850 @970 I am cpu limited. This is the first game I have to admit I am limited, Crysis 2 maxes out both cores. This is at 19x12 rez.

For an upgrade I would suggest buying a 5850/70, not really a performance upgrade, but you loose any cf issues and it sips power. Get one with an aftermarket cooler and it is quiet to. A 6850 would be around the same performance, but not as cheap as a 5850.(At least where I live) The 6850 would be somewhat faster oc'd though.

Bulldozer is out this summer/fall, and I think it will be a blast., Both a 5850 or a 6850 will hold you out until then.

If you want your card to last longer, I would strongly advise to a 6950, as its the best bang for buck this generation.
 
i can attest to that cannon. as i play mostly bc2 it does use up all 4 cores of my q6600. with the 8800gtx sli in there and when im in a heavy fight, the 8800gtx sli cant handle all the action in that game. same with crysis1 im lucky to get 20fps on this game alone. now with the upgrade of my card its night and day. c1 and bc2 i get no less than 30 fps and can reach as hight as 60 at times when there is no heavy fighting. i can say that upgrading my whole system can wait for a very long time. the only downside to my system is that i cant go xfire as its an nvidia chipset. and only support sli. i have the p5nd mobo. if your wondering. i just hope that my system can handle bf3 when it comes out as i will be purchasing that game.
 
Thanks to all of u :) . Looking at 6950's and water blocks and will post back with results etc. Thanks again !!!
 
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