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HELP - Need sound advice on new GFX card!

takkischitt

takkischitt

takkischitt

Associate
Joined
29 Mar 2010
Posts
66
Trying to decide what card to go for here... wanting something thats going to do a while as I plan to install this in my current system then upgrade the CPU, mobo, RAM etc at a later date (and maybe get another GFX card to pair up with whatever choice I make now).

The cards are...

MSI GeForce GTX 560Ti OC Twin FrozR II 2048MB - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-140-MS

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HIS ATI Radeon HD 6950 IceQ X PLUS Edition 2048MB (Supplied with Battlefield 3, Dirt 3 & Deus Ex) - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-042-HS

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HIS ATI Radeon HD 6950 IceQ X Turbo 2048MB - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-036-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

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Anything else I should be considering for around this price range???
 
What is your current system specs, CPU, Motherboard, PSU Brand, wattage and model number. Also what do you plan to use when you update are you keeping the same PSU you have now and what are your future update plans what CPU, Motherboard and RAM ?
 
Purgatory said:
What is your current system specs, CPU, Motherboard, PSU Brand, wattage and model number. Also what do you plan to use when you update are you keeping the same PSU you have now and what are your future update plans what CPU, Motherboard and RAM ?
Click to expand...

My current setup is as follows...

- Be Quiet 530W Pure Power PSU
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz (Conroe)1066MHz FSB, 4096KB Cache OVERCLOCKED to 3.4GHz
- Zalman CNPS10X-Performa CPU Cooler
- GeIL 4GB (4x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC)
- BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)

I plan to keep everything the same for the moment (just replacing the gfx card), obvs I may have to look into getting a more powerful PSU when I upgrade and possibly get a 2nd gfx card.

and I'm wanting to get Battlefield 3 running sweet and also Skyrim, but I'm worried that my CPU might bottleneck an upgraded GFX card... so I am also looking into quad core 775 chips on eBay for a cheap boost.
 
takkischitt said:
My current setup is as follows...

..SNIP

and I'm wanting to get Battlefield 3 running sweet and also Skyrim, but I'm worried that my CPU might bottleneck an upgraded GFX card... so I am also looking into quad core 775 chips on eBay for a cheap boost.
Click to expand...

I recently upgraded from an E6420 @ 3.2Ghz (dual core) to a Q9550 @ 3.6 Ghz - and generally games which multithread properly run smoother BUT I read yesterday that Skyrim only uses 2 cores, so if it's just for Skyrim I wouldn't worry about going quad if you can't afford it.

Also Battlefield 3 doesn't seem to benefit from a quad that much, it's more GPU limited along with Skyrim.
 
Mortster said:
I recently upgraded from an E6420 @ 3.2Ghz (dual core) to a Q9550 @ 3.6 Ghz - and generally games which multithread properly run smoother BUT I read yesterday that Skyrim only uses 2 cores, so if it's just for Skyrim I wouldn't worry about going quad if you can't afford it.

Also Battlefield 3 doesn't seem to benefit from a quad that much, it's more GPU limited along with Skyrim.
Click to expand...


Thanks for this!! :) The main thing I'm wanting to upgrade (and order today if possible!) is the gfx card as my ol' BFG is really struggling. Once I run the new gfx card and see what performance is like with the games, I'll decide on a possible CPU upgrade or just wait until I can afford a new bundle.
 
takkischitt said:
Thanks for this!! :) The main thing I'm wanting to upgrade (and order today if possible!) is the gfx card as my ol' BFG is really struggling. Once I run the new gfx card and see what performance is like with the games, I'll decide on a possible CPU upgrade or just wait until I can afford a new bundle.
Click to expand...

No problem, don't get me wrong some games really benefit from more cores, particularly I have found GTA 4 and F1 2011 and Hot Pursuit to have become much smoother, and with min fps being higher.

I've been doing a fair bit of monitoring with both task manager and MSI afterburner to see GPU usage in game, and the bottleneck has now become my 4870 which is getting burnt at near 99% most of the time, with CPU usage just loading nicely (for games that support multi threading properly) around average of 60% ish.

I'm so tempted to hit the trigger on a 570 or 6950, but it's worth waiting if you can to see what ATI's 78xx series can do, which are expected to be released in December.
 
takkischitt said:
So hold off to December would be your advice?? I just read in another thread there ( http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18341758 ) that there may be an nVidia price drop in Dec due to that ATI release...
Click to expand...

Yes if you can ! I'm finding it hard to resist to be honest, but I know it makes sense really.

Nvidia are also shortly going to release a new 560Ti model with more cores which I suspect is to compete with the ATI 7850 or 7870, if it's to compete with the 7850 then I suspect the 570 will come down in price to match the 7870 or they might be priced roughly the same.

Which ever way it's worth waiting to see what happens with prices of existing GPU's and what performance the new ATI GPU's bring to the table !
 
Also, just read on another thread that the MSI GeForce GTX 560Ti OC Twin FrozR II 2048MB can be quite loud under load due to a new design and it's just luck as to which you get when buying.

Also, why does most of the 6950 cards have 2GB of RAM while only a few 560Ti's have 2GB??
 
Couldn't resist and knew I could hold off for ages on prices drops etc so just went for...

MSI GeForce GTX 560Ti OC Twin FrozR II 2048MB

it's not too far off 570 speeds and has more memory than most of the 570's so should last quite well... + I can always double it up for even more performance at a later date when prices have dropped etc.
 
rolypolyman said:
Congrats, nice card there and a very healthy upgrade from your previous card. Your cpu should be fine for Skyrim and BF3.:D
Click to expand...

Thanks! :D Cant wait! I have quite a few Q9550's and Q9450's in my Watch List on eBay though... just in case! ;)

Just in the process of destroying all evidence of the purchase so my GF doesn't find out! =/ lol
 
what would be the best way of going about installing this in regards removing old gfx card drivers etc...? never upgraded like this before, have always just built new systems.
 
This is my way. Download the latest Nvidia drivers for your card. Uninstall\remove the graphics adapter,old card,(from Device Manager), power down windows, remove old card and replace with new card, power up, watch while windows finds 'new hardware' and installs the standard vga drivers, run the new Nvidia drivers you downloaded earlier and hey presto you should be good to go. I've never bothered with all those driver cleaner programs, cause more bother than they are worth, in my opinion. Good luck.:D
 
rolypolyman said:
This is my way. Download the latest Nvidia drivers for your card. Uninstall\remove the graphics adapter,old card,(from Device Manager), power down windows, remove old card and replace with new card, power up, watch while windows finds 'new hardware' and installs the standard vga drivers, run the new Nvidia drivers you downloaded earlier and hey presto you should be good to go. I've never bothered with all those driver cleaner programs, cause more bother than they are worth, in my opinion. Good luck.:D
Click to expand...

nice one! thank you! I'll report back once all is up and running! Got an email a while ago saying it was dispatched so might be here tomorrow if I'm lucky! :)
 
I know this has gone off topic, but rather than start a new thread... just seen on the ASUS site regarding running a Q9550 chip on my motherboard... it says...

"Due to chipset limitation, 1333FSB processors can only run at a maximum speed of 1066FSB on this motherboard."

what would this mean??
 
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