MSI 6950 2GB £160

[Glenmoray]

Can pick up the above card for that price in my country Holland.

Seems a steal, but I don't know whether I'm better getting an MSI 560GTX Ti for what equals £180 when converted.

1680x1080

Corsair HX620
Asus P5Q-E
Intel e8400 @ 3.6ghz
4gb OCZ
Asus 8800GTS 512mb
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

Games wanting to play: Shogun 2

Is the CPU an extreme bottleneck?

Cheers,

GLen

 

[postmanfw]

Bargain at that price. Was a bargain here for £200 delivered a week ago.

Came from same card myself...twice the speed at least now.

Not sure if i would say the cpu is an extreme bottleneck but getting it higher wouldnt hurt

 

[drunkenmaster]

vs a ti 560, its faster, uses less power, have more overclocking potential(because its not pre -oc'd essentially like the 560. MSI meaning a twin frozR one, I'm under the impression they don't "unlock" to 6970's, but because they have a lot better cooling than stock it will be quieter under load and give you a LOT more room for overclocking while quiet. My stock one was fine at stock, but on a warmer day got a bit louder as it was borderline for where fan gets loud. Overclocked it got louder much more often, with 3rd party cooling its basically silent, overclocked further and much much cooler so a win all around.

At £160 I'd only choose a 560ti if it was £20 or so less.

 

[FALC0NR]

vs a ti 560, its faster, uses less power, have more overclocking potential(because its not pre -oc'd essentially like the 560. MSI meaning a twin frozR one, I'm under the impression they don't "unlock" to 6970's, but because they have a lot better cooling than stock it will be quieter under load and give you a LOT more room for overclocking while quiet. My stock one was fine at stock, but on a warmer day got a bit louder as it was borderline for where fan gets loud. Overclocked it got louder much more often, with 3rd party cooling its basically silent, overclocked further and much much cooler so a win all around.

At £160 I'd only choose a 560ti if it was £20 or so less.

Well the MSI HD6950 he is talking about is not a Twin Frozr. It's the reference version and is unlockable to a HD 6970. So in light of that I'd jump at the HD 6950. Mind you I am looking at getting an Eyefinity setup so that also would make me look at it like I do. You really can't lose with the 6950's.

 

[Mojo]

Go straight for a 6950. An absolute steal at that price, and is faster than a 560 both at stock and overclocked

 

[Marine-RX179]

Well, Total War series has always been very CPU heavy...may be before you upgrade your graphic card, try your 8800GTS on the game first to see if its GPU usage is being used to 99~100% most of the time...if it doesn't, it means you have a CPU bottleneck.

Yes upgrading to 6950 should definitely give some improvement, but the last thing you'd want is the GPU usage not getting pass 50-70% range because of CPU limitation; and if Shogun 2 make good use of Quad-core, you might actually see smoother gameplay with a Q6600 (2nd hand) and a GTX460 768MB rather than E8400 with a 6950...just saying.

 

[tommybhoy]

Yes upgrading to 6950 should definitely give some improvement, but the last thing you'd want is the GPU usage not getting pass 50-70% range because of CPU limitation

Test the demo out:

Click me

 

[szsharpen]

choose the 6950 and flash it to 6970~why pay more to get a less powerful card