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Upgrading a 6950 2gb (flashed to 6970) - worthwhile?

PESolution

PESolution

PESolution

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I currently run a 6950 2gb card which has been flashed to a 6970 and overclocked to 890 core / 1400 mem. My CPU is an i5 2500k @ 4.4ghz and I have 8gb ram. I game on a 1080p 120hz screen.

The card is starting to struggling on higher settings on games such as battlefield and I want to know if getting a new gfx card would be a worthwhile upgrade, or whether my cpu would bottleneck one of the newer cards?

I play battlefield at the moment but play all sorts really.

So what are my options? Would spending 400£ on a top-ish end card be a waste as the cpu would bottleneck it? Would spending 200-250£ on a mid range card be not much of a significant upgrade from a 6950/70?

I'm just out of the loop now - built this system dead on two years ago and don't know how much tech has moved on really!

Thanks in advance for the advice :)

Pes x
 
2500K @ 4.4 will easily be enough to keep a single 7950/70/280X/290(X)/780 fully occupied. You should only start to see CPU bottlenecks if you look at crossfire or SLI setups.

Any of those cards will smash your 6950. A 7950 should give you roughly double the performance of a 6950 as a starting reference point.

If I were looking at a £400 budget it'd be a toss-up between the 290 and the 780, and there are plenty of threads about the pros and cons of each of these around this forum at the moment. :p
 
I'd be interested in hearing opinions on this myself as I'm in a similar position. Unfortunately for me though my cpu is a Phenom II X6 @ 3.5Ghz so I suspect I've got a more significant bottleneck there than you.
 
I have the exact same system as the OP in terms of hardware except mine is a full fat 6970. It copes quite nicely in games like BF3 on high settings (not tried BF4). Upgrading to a 780 would see a massive benefit and you can get those for under £400 and sell the games to recoup a chunk of money if needed.

The 2500K at 4.6Ghz will cope just fine with a 780 :)
 
Must be the time for it, I have an unlocked 6950 and I'm looking to upgrade, weighing up all the offers atm.
 
doesn't a 7850 beat that card? just to give you some idea of performance

7950/70 would be ideal imo for the £
 
I have a 6950 in my rig with a 2500k @ 4.4ghz and im going for the 290 as soon as they put a non ref cooler on it, or a Toxic version is made etc. Currently though i play BF4 on my 6950 Toxic and it runs it on High really well, no stutter or slowdown at all, but i want to run it on ultra settings with all the bells and whistles so 290 is the clear winner there imo.
 
I'd agree with thw chap above. Save a little and wait for the R9 290's with third party coolers to arrive. Massive step up from what you have right now. If you want to stay closer to your original budget then a 7950/7970 would be a worthwhile upgrade.
 
I just upgraded from my 2 year old toxic 6950 (unlocked @ 950/1500) to a GTX 780 and it's been a hell of an improvement, even with my system running a lacklustre phenom II X4 @ 3.7. The biggest reason i chose a 780 over a 290 was simply down to the huge difference in idle power consumption when using multiple screens. (plus a certain amount of curiosity having only ever used 3Dfx and ati cards)

So far the only games i've really noticed performance issues with are the crysis series. (which is entirely down to the cpu) My tombraider framerate more than doubled, my heaven 4 score went from 600 up to 1500 and 3dmark13 rose from 3894 to 8552. (gfx score was 4292 -> 11598) If you do any folding, I went from about 30k PPD up to 165k PPD. Can't say anything regarding BF3/4 as i gave up on that series after BF2.
 
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similar upgrade path for me recently, went from a 6970 to a 7970

cost me under £200 for an asus matrix TOP edition after I flogged the 3 games off,


quick bios flash to unlock voltages(the TOP is voltage locked) and I was happily running 1225/1750 on mine, :)
 
Kei said:
I just upgraded from my 2 year old toxic 6950 (unlocked @ 950/1500) to a GTX 780 and it's been a hell of an improvement, even with my system running a lacklustre phenom II X4 @ 3.7. The biggest reason i chose a 780 over a 290 was simply down to the huge difference in idle power consumption when using multiple screens. (plus a certain amount of curiosity having only ever used 3Dfx and ati cards)

So far the only games i've really noticed performance issues with are the crysis series. (which is entirely down to the cpu) My tombraider framerate more than doubled, my heaven 4 score went from 600 up to 1500 and 3dmark13 rose from 3894 to 8552. (gfx score was 4292 -> 11598) If you do any folding, I went from about 30k PPD up to 165k PPD. Can't say anything regarding BF3/4 as i gave up on that series after BF2.
Click to expand...

Thank you! Perfect information... :D
 
Cheapest thing you can do is buy a cheap as possible £70 or less second hand 6950/6970 (depending on your power supply 2x 6950 will be needing a good branded 750 + watts power supply) 2x 6970 is slightly faster than a 7970 so that's basically a 7970 level performance - the vram for £70 ish outlay but then do you have the psu and good case for it.

Or sell card and buy a second hand 7970 or if buying new then as above.

I'd sell the card you have and invest in a 7950/7970 3gb if were me, but then I rarely buy a new card lately I always go for second handys with warranty left from the members market.
 
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the increase you see in games is quite silly really i went 6950 - 290(non x) and the difference is insane.... it also keeps my feet warm as an added bonus! ;)
 
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