4870x2 to 5850 on C2D @ 3.2Ghz

[Scougar]

What can I say.. it's still a noisy card when it ramps up (using a different profile though), but nowhere near as bad as the 4870X2 I had. It runs cooler even though it's clocked at 900Mhz/1200Mhz at present (not tried further yet), and is quicker. Will be aiming for 1000Mhz/1300Mhz.

I can only assume that my e4300 @ 3.2Ghz wasn't man enough for the 4870X2 and meant I was CPU limited. Fairly impressed so far, and enjoying the experience. Next up... a Q6600 (at hopefully 3.6Ghz with a CM Hyper 212 with two fans) to try and bring extra frames to the situation in modern games

Does make we want to either ghetto rig it or, or replace the stock cooler to get less noise

 

[Chronictank]

Could put it on water if you want it near silent , Shouldn't be too much effort to rig up a tiny loop

 

[Scougar]

I've gone to Akasa Apache's and sickeflow on the cpu cooler, so will likely just use air cooling on the cpu as well. Eyeing up the VF3000 already lol, too much of a stretch at present though, and I can deal with it A tiny loop would be much more than £30 I imagine.

Will be trying to 1000/1300 over the next few days and see how I get on.. and will try some better airflow. I have a lot of back plates missing at the moment as I was chopping and changing.. so need to get all the gaps filled to improve things.

 

[Scougar]

Well, have now upgraded to a Q6600 @ 3.4Ghz (so far) from the E4300 @ 3.2Ghz.

However, I think that the 5850 being quite long is blocking/restricting airflow from the single front 12cm fan, and causing the Q6600 to run at 73C in prime 95 (77C with prime95 and furmark at same time). I will have to try and improve airflow as funds for a new case are not going to happen anytime soon.

In better news, 69FPS minimum frame rate in BFBC2 in a play through Not bad at 1920*1200

EDIT: Or perhaps I could move the 5850 to the lower slot on my x48 board? Would this affect performance/issues?

 

[arc@css]

Your frame rates should pick up a bit now with a quad.

 

[Scougar]

Seem's to be pretty playable now, although other settings feel like they need tweaking, and the 5850 cooler needs taming a bit lol, just don't want to void the warranty even though it's rattling slightly.

I'll try the multiplayer when I remember my BFBC2 password (It got lost when the pc crashed bizarrely). It's already feeling much better to play at 1920*1200, where as before it felt 'slow'. Need to tweak my mouse a bit I think.

The 5850 was a very good move, been impressed with it, and it's overclocking.

950/1200 is fine, and done a quick check with 1000/1200, but want to get 1000/1300, we will see Can't believe how much the 5850 has changed things The quad I am sure I will be much happier with once I get temps under control, and the motherboard sorted with the high northbridge temps.

 

[disco Stu]

found the 5850 to be a great card, and eyefinity was a total bonus.

 

[Scougar]

Seems to be really quick, faster than a 4870x2. I think because the x2 was held back by my cpu, where as the 5850 is less demanding.

 

[arc@css]

Faster than a the X2 as in better minimum / average fps or do you see better maximum frame rates? Puzzles me slightly since the X2 should be faster than the 5850 by about 15%, maybe even a touch more.

 

[bells]

I thought that the 4870x2 = 5870 ?

 

[arc@css]

I thought that the 4870x2 = 5870 ?

More or less that's what I thought. The 5850 is clearly an excellent card so perhaps the OP finds it smoother and has better minimums and average frame rates, cooler and kicks out less noise.

Regarding maximum frame rates, from the benchmarks I've seen usually the X2 sits just above the 5870, though as I mentioned the number of plus points from the 5850 / 70 is numerous in comparison than with what the X2 offers.

 

[Scougar]

I was just going on furmark arc@css, no other test. Although it does seem smoother in BFBC2 (apart from the stuttering which I mentioned, but likely down to HDD as I don't seem get it anymore since a clean and defrag (AND I'm not running 3.6 which was unstable). The 5850 also run's cooler, although it is still noisy, although not as noisy as the 4870x2 was. I have now changed the fan profile so it isn't as bad

I would say the major factor was my old chip (low cache) stopping the X2 from getting enough data, where as the 5850 is not as demanding.

For me, I'm very happy with the change, but it cost me a lot to do it as I probably broke the 4870x2 in the process of trying to fix the high-temps, so that cost me about £65 that I wouldn't have lost if I hadn't faffed with the 4870x2 originally lol.

I now open's the possibility of crossfire 5850 although I think I'll leave it for now (I was interested), as I realised my HX620W is broken and the VX550W doesn't have enough PCI-E connectors I don't think.