6970 with Phenom II x4 965

Retromatic · 26 Jan 2011 at 10:45

I'm looking at chucking another graphics card in my rig in the next month (currently have a 5850) or so - was just wondering if this processor would hold back a 6970?

I'll be running @ 1900x1200 24" 60hz monitor, mostly play MMO's, rpg's and the odd FPS.

Rest of the specs are :

4gb Geil ram
Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate

I was considering grabbing an X6 but would rather not spend out if it's not needed.

psychas · 26 Jan 2011 at 10:55

if it is overclocked should be no problem at all

Relentless81 · 26 Jan 2011 at 10:57

It doesnt need to be overclocked the processor is more than enough to not restrict the card and a 6 core processor is definitely not needed in terms of gaming performance

psychas · 26 Jan 2011 at 11:00

also before purchasing new card i would try overclock cpu, you can get free performance boost and you might not need to buy new card as 5850 is pretty good gpu as it is.

Retromatic · 26 Jan 2011 at 11:59

psychas said:
also before purchasing new card i would try overclock cpu, you can get free performance boost and you might not need to buy new card as 5850 is pretty good gpu as it is.

Thanks people, I have considered overclocking the Cpu, but not sure if I'll get a decent cooler in there - it's pretty cramped as it is (Antec 902 case).

I have tried overclocking the 5850 in the past but can't get it stable with stock fan so I just left it.

Marine-RX179 · 26 Jan 2011 at 12:03

Relentless81 said:
It doesnt need to be overclocked the processor is more than enough to not restrict the card

Em...while it is true for newer FPS games that are optimised for Quad, but not quite for mmorpgs (or even older FPS such as Crysis)...as most of them are not written to use more than two cores, and unlike FPS, it is more intensive on CPU side than the graphic side.

>Leviathon
Specifically for mmorpgs, I really don't think 5850 is the limitation here. I agree with psychas that you should try overclocking your CPU; upgrading from 5850 to 6970 you 'might' see 'some' improvement on FPS games, but most likely not on mmorpgs. Here's some benchmark for your reference:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/62

Also, if you play mmorpgs a lot, it's worth consider upgrading to SandyBridge such as 2500K (while keeping your existing 5850). SandyBridge is currently the fastest platform for light-threaded apps and games (aka: those that don't use more than 2 cores), so it make them the best performer for older games and most mmorpgs, while at the same time offering slightly better performance and frame rate than i5/i7 in games that are heavy-threaded.

Oh, and the last thing you want is to upgrade to a X6, as the extra two cores simply don't help as games don't really make use of them.

Andrei23 · 26 Jan 2011 at 12:21

Instead of upgrading your gfx I vote that you should instead go for an i5 2500k, you will see far better gains, and for the love of cheezus crust get a bloody aftermarket cooler for your cpu

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 26 Jan 2011 at 12:25

I know people who play games like WOW,Starcraft II,Hellgate and Dragonage and an overclocked Core2 quad and an HD5850 1GB is fine at 1920X1080.

I would suggest re-installing the graphics card drivers and using something like Driver Sweeper if you had an Nvidia card previously.

An SSD can also help the system feel a bit more snappier BTW and help reduce loading times.

What PSU do you have BTW and what motherboard?

Marine-RX179 · 26 Jan 2011 at 12:36

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
I know people who play games like WOW,Starcraft II,Hellgate and Dragonage and an overclocked Core2 quad and an HD5850 1GB is fine at 1920X1080.

I don't think the OP has mentioned he's actually struggling with his current set-up, but more like he's planning on throwing in some extra money onto his PC to deliver better performance for his games.

Considering the games he's playing, he will have better gain on performance going from Phenom II X4 to 2500K than going from 5850 to 6970.

Retromatic · 26 Jan 2011 at 12:49

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
I know people who play games like WOW,Starcraft II,Hellgate and Dragonage and an overclocked Core2 quad and an HD5850 1GB is fine at 1920X1080.

I would suggest re-installing the graphics card drivers and using something like Driver Sweeper if you had an Nvidia card previously.

An SSD can also help the system feel a bit more snappier BTW and help reduce loading times.

What PSU do you have BTW and what motherboard?

I have no issue running any of those games, or more graphically intensive - specifically I would like some more Eye candy (AA etc) at smooth frame rates - so thought a 6970 might do the trick.

An SSD is a good suggestion, I've been meaning to upgrade for ages - I'll look into that.

The last time I had an Nvidia card was 4/5 years ago - I've built two pc's since then

EDIT - Motherboard and Psu is :

MSI 790FX-GD70 (Winki Edition)

Corsair TX 850w Psu

psychas · 26 Jan 2011 at 12:59

Leviathon said:
Thanks people, I have considered overclocking the Cpu, but not sure if I'll get a decent cooler in there - it's pretty cramped as it is (Antec 902 case).

I have tried overclocking the 5850 in the past but can't get it stable with stock fan so I just left it.

antec is not cramped case its one of the best airflow cases i have antec 902 im running 1090t @ 4 ghz with h70

Muel · 26 Jan 2011 at 13:20

Andrei23 said:
Instead of upgrading your gfx I vote that you should instead go for an i5 2500k, you will see far better gains, and for the love of cheezus crust get a bloody aftermarket cooler for your cpu

This is well up there for the biggest load of tripe I've seen written on this forum.

Going to an i5 2500k won't give massive gains in games at all, completely the opposite. I just added another 5830 for crossfire and heave seen increases so far of up to 84%, and I have several more tests to run.

A 965BE is not a bottle neck for any dual GPU solution that's out yet if you ask me.

MichaelM · 26 Jan 2011 at 13:59

My 955 is clocked at 3.6ghz and my crossfire 6970's are very close to reviewers 3dmark11 GPU scores using i7's. So there is definitely not a bottleneck with a single 6970.

Marine-RX179 · 26 Jan 2011 at 14:11

Muel said:
This is well up there for the biggest load of tripe I've seen written on this forum.

Going to an i5 2500k won't give massive gains in games at all, completely the opposite. I just added another 5830 for crossfire and heave seen increases so far of up to 84%, and I have several more tests to run.

A 965BE is not a bottle neck for any dual GPU solution that's out yet if you ask me.

Dude, don't apply your FPS games logic to mmorpgs like some kind of universal truth. Overclocked SandyBridge and i5/i7 WILL deliver better frame rate than overclocked Phenom II and Core2 (particularly in games that are not optimised for Quad), and that's a FACT.

littlepuppy · 26 Jan 2011 at 14:57

For gaming P II is a cracking chip.....

I would OC to 3.6 as you wont see much more heat and get a decent bump...

Retromatic · 26 Jan 2011 at 15:03

psychas said:
antec is not cramped case its one of the best airflow cases i have antec 902 im running 1090t @ 4 ghz with h70

Fair play but I went from a Coolermaster Cosmos to an Antec 902 and it feels very cramped - must admit though I'm no master at cable management.

Muel · 26 Jan 2011 at 15:18

Marine-RX179 said:
Dude, don't apply your FPS games logic to mmorpgs like some kind of universal truth. Overclocked SandyBridge and i5/i7 WILL deliver better frame rate than overclocked Phenom II and Core2 (particularly in games that are not optimised for Quad), and that's a FACT.

Interesting source you posted, will look at it better later. As I said just gone to Crossfire 5830 and only seen a 0.5fps increase in Crysis. I was just certain that during the benchmark my CPU usage never went over 30%, so came to the conclusion that it was the memory bandwidth (I think) restriction issur with Crysis. I read that caused Crysis to scale badly in crossfire. In other stuff though (DiRT2, Heaven Benchmark), my CPU isn't a bottleneck at all.

littlepuppy said:
For gaming P II is a cracking chip.....

I would OC to 3.6 as you wont see much more heat and get a decent bump...

Most can do 3.6ghz on stock volts. 3.7ghz takes a 0.05v increase for me. 3.8ghz takes a 0.125v.

However, going from 3.4ghz to 3.8ghz only yielded a maximum increase in performance on 12% for me.

pieman109 · 26 Jan 2011 at 15:32

Those benchies only tell half the story, they're done at 1680 x 1050 not what the op is gonna run at, ie 1900 x 1200 so gpu will have more of an impact I reckon. I have the system in me sig and it runs everything I throw at it (except crysis) with ease and crysis does run with some of the settings reduced, but the main ones, texture detail, shaders, etc on max.
I suggest before you part with any dosh get your proccesor overclocked to around 3.4ghz-3.6ghz and try the 5850 with that also overclocked, you'll probably be surprised at the results.

And you'll save a fair bit of dosh

Marine-RX179 · 26 Jan 2011 at 15:37

pieman109 said:
Those benchies only tell half the story, they're done at 1680 x 1050 not what the op is gonna run at, ie 1900 x 1200 so gpu will have more of an impact I reckon. I have the system in me sig and it runs everything I throw at it (except crysis) with ease and crysis does run with some of the settings reduced, but the main ones, texture detail, shaders, etc on max.

Seems like you don't get it...the whole point of comparing at lower res with no AA or AF applied is to minimise the graphic limitation, and so that the CPUs can be compare on an apple to apple basis to draw a clearer picture between the CPUs performance.

pieman109 · 26 Jan 2011 at 15:44

Marine-RX179 said:
Seems like you don't get it...the whole point of comparing at lower res with no AA or AF applied is to minimise the graphic limitation, and so that the CPUs can be compare on an apple to apple basis to draw a clearer picture between the CPUs performance.

But, when higher resolutions are used and AA and AF are applied (as most ppl will do) the gpu will have a greater impact, hence my suggestion that before the OP parts with any money, overclock the cpu and gpu and see how he gets on. If performance isn't up to expectation, then start looking at firstly replacing the gpu then the cpu, but I can't see the cpu making that much of difference when compared to replacing the gpu