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What card for Battlefield:BC2 @ 2560x1440

Walter Sobchak

Walter Sobchak

Walter Sobchak

Associate
Joined
22 Jan 2006
Posts
699
Current setup is:-

Q6600 @ 3.6
6870 GC
Corsair 520 PS
4 Gig Ram

Just upgraded my monitor to a Del U2711 and BC2 is struggling @ 2560x1440 with everything on max.

What GC do I need to play at that res? new PS and add another 6870? a 69XX? would I need a new PS for the forthcoming ATIs?

Thanks :)
 
In your current position, you'd probably best to add another 6870 to crossfire. However, you have to make sure your motherboard actually support Crossfire at at least x8/x8, and then there's the question on whether or not your PSU is up to it...

For single card option, you'd probably have to look at cards what speed above 5870, so GTX480/GTX570/GTX580 or 6950/6970 when they are out. If you PSU can't handle the 6870 Crossfire (it might struggle to handle a single GTX480/GTX580 as well), rather than upgrading the PSU for the sake of Crossfire, it might be better to just sell the 6870, and get a 6950/6970 when they are out...IF they are low power consumption enough for your PSU to handle.

Edited:
Well, Crossfire 6870 should be ok with the your PSU basing on this:
http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/his-hd6870-crossfirex-review/18/
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6850-6870-crossfirex-review/4
But not too sure how reliable are those figures, considering the source...
 
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GTX 580.

everything on max, HBAO on, 8xMSAA 2560x1440 with vsync and FRAPS recording at smooth 60 FPS. can't get better than that.

you will not want want anything less than gtx480 or gtx580. because of the smaller vRAM amount, you will be struggling (came from horrible experience known as 5870 1GB myself). gtx470's 1.2GB might be able to manage on BFBC2 as that was using 1.1GB, but Crysis used 1.4GB of vRAM, GTA4 also used over 1.4GB.

and by same logic, you won't want to crossfire/sli two 1GB graphics cards, those cards will be very limited in memory. that is because a scene have to be duplicated on each card for crossfire/sli to work, thus making both card run out of video memory space.
 
wuyanxu said:
GTX 580.
Click to expand...
Well, you are forgetting to take his PSU into consideration. While the GTX580 does offer more performance per watt comparing to a GTX480, it still consumption the same amount of power as a GTX480 on stock speed. And it is generally considered that one should have at least a decent 600W PSU for an overclocked system with a GTX480.
 
Marine-RX179 said:
Well, you are forgetting to take his PSU into consideration. While the GTX580 does offer more performance per watt comparing to a GTX480, it still consumption the same amount of power as a GTX480 on stock speed. And it is generally considered that one should have at least a decent 600W PSU for an overclocked system with a GTX480.
Click to expand...
and yet you are saying crossfire is okay with that PSU.

multi-GPU is never a good way forward for high resolution unless it is absolutely best card you can buy with large amount of vRAM.
 
He might be able to run one of the new AMD offerings with 2GB of VRAM. I am personally waiting for one of those.
 
wuyanxu said:
and yet you are saying crossfire is okay with that PSU.

multi-GPU is never a good way forward for high resolution unless it is absolutely best card you can buy with large amount of vRAM.
Click to expand...
You are missing the point. If the OP was buying from scratch, I would recommending a fast single GPU card over getting two cards for Crossfire/SLI (ignoring the PSU for now), as I'm not much of a fan for multi-GPU neither. But you have to take into account that the OP already has a 6870. If he sells it, he would be lucky to get £150 back, and then he would need to invest around extra £260 to get a GTX580 (£410); whereas if he just get another 6870, it would only cost £180 extra, which in a way it is just £330.

What you are saying about VRAM running out would have great impact of single card that is already struggling in demanding game. And I think your example of your 5870 1GB struggling with BFBC2 at 2560 res is more to do with the card lacking the power than VRAM usage going over 1GB...I bet the 5870 2GB would struggle just the same at that res.

Sure VRAM usage going over limit would reduce the frame rate, but the extra frame rate from the extra power of xfire 6870 could compensate for the frame rate lost on the VRAM limitation, at least that's the way I see it.

And as for PSU and power consumption, I was merely going by reviews and providing the numbers for the power consumption for the xfire 6870, and it is also reviews that say people with a overclocked system and a GTX480 should have at least a decent 600W PSU.
 
wuyanxu said:
GTX 580.

everything on max, HBAO on, 8xMSAA 2560x1440 with vsync and FRAPS recording at smooth 60 FPS. can't get better than that.

you will not want want anything less than gtx480 or gtx580. because of the smaller vRAM amount, you will be struggling (came from horrible experience known as 5870 1GB myself). gtx470's 1.2GB might be able to manage on BFBC2 as that was using 1.1GB, but Crysis used 1.4GB of vRAM, GTA4 also used over 1.4GB.

and by same logic, you won't want to crossfire/sli two 1GB graphics cards, those cards will be very limited in memory. that is because a scene have to be duplicated on each card for crossfire/sli to work, thus making both card run out of video memory space.
Click to expand...

Im not disputing that the games mentioned use more than 1gig of vram.

however, i have a 5870 with 2gig of ram, and according to benchmarks the difference between 1g and 2g at my resolution of 1920x1200 is 1-2frames.

Which leads me to think, that memory is not limiting factor but rather the actually raw grunt of the gpu.


However..... if you look at benchmarks for 5870 2g in crossfire, according to one benchmark I was looking at, performance is nearly 50%.

I would like to think that the extra vram on my 5870 plays its part, but if the game needs more than 1g of ram, and the game also needs a very power gpu with lots of grunt, the grunt becomes the bottle neck rather than the memory.

But then of course it swithes round, once you raise the raw power of the gpu, then the momory becomes the limiting factor.

If the op wants to play this game at such a high res, just go allout and get a GTX 580... it will deliver the performance he is looking for.
 
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extra frame rate doesn't mean anything in real gaming world. it means a lot in benchmarks we see on websites, sure. but it's meaningless when you are shuttering all over the place.

im talking from experience, i know it's simple matter of vRAM running out. shuttering would completely different from low FPS, shuttering destroys gaming experience while low FPS will depend on games, Crysis is fine at 25 FPS while BFBC2 would need about 40 to play smoothly. 5870 can do over 40 FPS but it shutters occationally, which is unacceptable in online FPS.


so, get whatever card with at least 1.5GB vRAM, forget about crossfire/sli, they will not solve your problem.


6970 is worth looking into. but i personally have gone off the idea of ATI cards because nVidia drivers are so much more polished with so many more features. never had problem with vsync on nvidia cards while Dirt 2 on 5870 even at 1920x1200 was unplayable, had to choose either tearing or microseconds of shuttering. and GTA4 was terrible on 5870, with exactly same setting as gtx260.
 
6870 crossfire.
BC2 scales well with amd cards.

I wouldnt go Nvidia, they have a lot of issues with that game-

I use 6850 crossfire and have 110fps at 5760x1080, with low settings as I aim for max fps.
a 6950 might cut it also
if you use a lot of AA, you might run into videoram limits which makes any game stuttering and slow.
 
flopper said:
I wouldnt go Nvidia, they have a lot of issues with that game-
Click to expand...

Lies, using crossfire is possibly the worst thing you could do.

When BFBC2 was released there was a problem with ATI cards loading the games far slower than nvidia cards. I experienced this issue myself also the never ending stream of hot fixes and drivers and bad crossfire support goes against them.

For a single GPU however they are fine. But I would not recommend Xfire.


In answer to the OP, a GTX 580 OC'ed would do fine.
 
Yeah Nvidia cards had the slow loading bug in DX11 as well, although I think it took them less time to correct it than AMD.

+1 for a 580 or wait for the 69** cards from AMD which should hit in less than a week, 2GB of Vram on the AMD cards is sweet for the OP's res as well.
 
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I had lots of problems with my 460 GTX until they released the 260.99 driver. The game was laggy as hell due to a low GPU usage problem. I wasn't the only one either.

It is funny people criticise AMD for their drivers but IME (my last two cards have been nVidia) they are as bad as each other.

AMD cards are superior in this game, check the benchmarks. Best thing you can do mate, and I am in the same scenario as you are (same monitor!) is wait for the 69xx range.

I also have a Q6600 @ 3.2 Ghz in my case :)
 
I think the bottomline is...would the OP feel comfortable running a overclocked Q6600 system with a GTX580 on his 520W PSU, and going GTX580 would cost at least £80 over going 6870 xfire. Also it's not counting the possible extra cost for PSU upgrade. The 6970 could possibly be a better alternative, if their power consumption turn out to be lower than the GTX580.
 
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I wouldn't run a 580GTX out of that PSU. That is why I am saying wait for the AMD offerings as they are likely to be less power hungry.
 
Yeah missed the 520 PSU, scrap the 580 then or upgrade your PSU, if not then hope the 69** cards don't pull as much juice as a 580.
 
opethdisciple said:
The comments regarding power consumption, I do agree with.

Additionally trying to pair a GTX 580 with a q6600 at 3.2ghz is not doing the card justice.
Click to expand...

I am running it at 3.2 Ghz - planning to put it back at 3.4 Ghz next week though when I get the Diammond TIM :D

Marine-RX179 said:
It's 3.6GHz :p

About the overclocked Q6600 not doing the GTX580 justice, I would think that too if it was for 1920 res; but for 2560 res, I don't think the overclocked Q6600 would be too much of a limitation for the GTX580.
Click to expand...

I am still thinking about buying a 580GTX, my psu is fine for it (Seasonic X-650 ;)) but I would prefer an AMD offering as they are usually better suited to the Frosbite engine.
 
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