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5850 to 6950 but which one?

Cleeecooo said:
Well there's your problem!


You got a beastly 5850 and not a very good 6950!:p
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No, I've got a reference 5850 with a Zalman cooler and a non-reference 6950, Twin Frozr III PE OC. I wouldn't call either a cheap card.

Stock for stock there isn't much difference, overclocked vs overclocked there is even less.

These cards would be great if they cost £150, with current prices I wonder why anyone is buying graphics cards these days.

Got my 5850 on launch, £200, almost two years later it was half this price.
 
If you have 30fps, then you are fine as isn't that the magic mark for smooth game play.

5850 -6950 really does look pointless.

@OP wait for something else that will give you a meaningful performance increase.
 
When you factor in that the 5870 was the fastest single gpu 5000 series card, and that there isn't much difference in terms of maximum frame rates when compared with the 6950 (bear in mind there isn't much between the 5870 & 5850), I can also see that it might be better if you can aim higher. Still, with the 6950 you would see better minimum and average fps, and generall smoother play, better performance with AA applied etc.

For general purposes at maximum fps...6950>4870X2>5870...but small differences between them, and pretty much on a similar playing field.

OP, your cpu will be fine with any faster single gpu atm. :)
 
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30 FPS average would mean 23ish minimums, so in that sense a 6970 may be a warranted upgrade.

I made the upgrade when I could get £130 for my 5850 and my 6970 was £260 so I think it was worth it as I could play some games on the highest settings that I couldn't have before.
 
It's so easy to keep upping the limits. In the end, if the poor OP follows my overly analytical advice he'll be totally out of pocket after having bought something like this :

 
Cleeecooo said:
I think it depends on what you'd class as a worthwhile upgrade really.
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Exactly, especially when you consider what you've come from and for what price. In your case I can see why the upgrade was worth it; that's why you read about some folk that say how pleased they were with the upgrade, and others that say they felt it wasn't worth it. Small variations in each case can make all the difference.
 
Let me put it this way...

upgrading from 5850 to a 6950 NOW is definitely not worth it, as you are actually paying MORE for making the same upgrade than a year ago, as you'd get less for selling 5850 comparing to back then, while the 6950 still costing as much. Also with the 78xx, or even Nvidia new gens cards around the corner...getting a card that's nearly EOL, its value (2nd hand market value) will plummet from £160 down to £100-£120 in just the next month or so.

Getting 78xx would at least hold the value above £150~£160 for longer.
 
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stulid said:
Certainly not what you are suggesting.
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arc@css said:
Exactly, especially when you consider what you've come from and for what price. In your case I can see why the upgrade was worth it; that's why you read about some folk that say how pleased they were with the upgrade, and others that say they felt it wasn't worth it. Small variations in each case can make all the difference.
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it's especially worthwhile considering I wouldn't have any of my current gfx cards or monitors had I not upgraded!:D
 
Never really thought of xfire in all honestly mainly due to the mixed reviews i read where people seem to have driver issues etc as well as the more heat inside my rig.

What would you say is the most graphical intense setting from the video menu ingame that will perhaps push the card to its limits? I have everything set to high apart from shadows on medium. I have HBAO and motion blur turned off with no AA and 16x AF, i play a lot on casapian border and the lowest dip i seem to have is normally 35-40fps. I turn vsync off i always used to leave it on but i find its definatly more laggy cant believe i always left it on now to be honest. The screen tearing is not to bad at all due to the constant framerate change. It goes as high as 80fps sometimes but mainly hovers around the 60 mark, i would really like to get it more settled but im not to sure which setting in the menu to maybe reduce down to medium to test it out
 
liamcrane said:
Never really thought of xfire in all honestly mainly due to the mixed reviews i read where people seem to have driver issues etc as well as the more heat inside my rig.

What would you say is the most graphical intense setting from the video menu ingame that will perhaps push the card to its limits? I have everything set to high apart from shadows on medium. I have HBAO and motion blur turned off with no AA and 16x AF, i play a lot on casapian border and the lowest dip i seem to have is normally 35-40fps. I turn vsync off i always used to leave it on but i find its definatly more laggy cant believe i always left it on now to be honest. The screen tearing is not to bad at all due to the constant framerate change. It goes as high as 80fps sometimes but mainly hovers around the 60 mark, i would really like to get it more settled but im not to sure which setting in the menu to maybe reduce down to medium to test it out
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I play BF3 everything on High, no AA/motion blur/HBAO. FOV is 90. It never goes below 60fps (apart from a few rare times when things are very hectic). That's on my stock clocked 5850s playing at 1080P. I say get another 5850 with Preview driver 12.1a + CAPs and your laughing.

Also get MSI Afterburner Beta 10 and turn on Framelimter to 59, set VSYNC in game ON... luuuuurvly.
 
Thanks for that matey, i am in the process of looking at an i5 upgrade with the Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 board so i guess xfire is an option. I didnt know about the MSI beta 10, is it stable tho? im using version 2.1 at the mo
 
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