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Graphics card to run at 2560x1440 with bells and whistles?

Jed Shields

Jed Shields

Jed Shields

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Joined
23 Apr 2007
Posts
1,785
Location
Cardiff-ish, Wales
Hi guys,

currently running an O/C'd Q6600, 4Gb DDR2 RAM, ATI4890 at 1920x1200 and am now finding it's struggling with the latest games. The Witcher 2 runs like I'm playing in treacle when the screen gets busy. I'm looking at building a new PC based around the Intel 2500+, but might also upgrade my Dell 2407 to a Dell U2711 with is 2560x1440. What graphics card(s) should I be looking at that will tame these RPG beasts (including the Skyrim when it's released)? Single card or crossfire? I'd like to play with maximum eye candy if possible ...

Cheers,

Jed.
 
If you're going AMD, crossfire two 2gb 6950's. You'll need that sort of horse power for some titles if you want all the eye candy enabled. If going down the nVidia route you would be looking at two 1.5gb cards like the 480's / 580's. Alternatively, you could get a 3gb nVidia card though being the top of the range single gpu obviously carries a premium.

Also a mention in some instances for 560 2gb / 570's sli should be thrown in too.
 
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I'm also interested in a new GPU for running at 2560x1440. I'm fed up of my current 5970, ATI drivers have been awful recently, I waited 2-3 weeks until I could play Witcher 2 properly.

Here are my current specs:
i7 930 @ 4GHz
6gb Corsair XMS3 DDR3/1600mhz
ATI 5970
Asus P6T SE Intel x58
850W CoolerMaster Silent Pro

Main monitor: Dell U2711 (2560x1440)
2nd monitor: Dell P2210H (1920x1080)

Which nvidia graphics card would be ideal for that setup? I'd personally rather go for 1 card then have to deal with dual gpu issues again.

Would any other components bottleneck a 3GB GTX 580?
 
Jed Shields said:
2x 6950s better performance than 1x 6970 / 6990(?)? Or is it better bang for buck?
Click to expand...

Two 6950's are slightly slower than one 6990. The 6990 is two underclocked 6970's, the main advantage is the spare PCI-e slot it allows for another gpu if needed.

Two 6950's can be had on here for around £400, a 6990 comes in around £520 - 600 +, although I expect they can be had for less if you search carefully.
 
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For The Witcher 2 there is NO single card capable of enabling Ubersampling with decent framerates.

For this specific game, AMD is doing a great job, and 6950 2GB x 2 CrossfireX scales pretty well when you max out everything except Ubersampling. (A single 6990 also serves well if you don't mind the noise and want to save your PCIE slots or would like to avoid PCIE spacing issues on your motherboard e.g. airflow problem).

You'll need more than 1.5GB vram per GPU if you go for high resolution and high AA. I'd also recommend the Intel Core i5 2500K, which is of best value when you overclock it.
 
Jed Shields said:
So 2x 2Gb 6950s for ATI, what about nVidia?
Click to expand...

Expensive, but ultimately I would be preferring the 3gb nVidia cards if you're going to be demanding top peformance, though two 480's or 1.5gb 580's wouldn't be inadequate in a majority of titles. In fact with a good few titles even one card might suffice now and then.
 
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