4870 to 5850?

[rippling]

I have a 6700 quad and play arma2 a lot would it be worth getting a 1 gb 5850 ? Is the 5870 worth the 100 extra over the 5850 or will the 5850 clock to 5870 speeds easy ? I game at 1900 x 1200 my 512 4870 is struggling atm and what's my 4870 worth atm if I sell it

 

[RavenXXX2]

Go 5850 and OC it to 5870 speeds, this will bring you about on par with a 5870 so the extra expense is not warranted IF you OC the 5850. If you get any card other than than a MSI or Asus, you will have to flash your cards bios with a one that will give you the option to OC to higher clocks.

 

[bigsharn]

To be honest the Q6700 would bottleneck it unless you overclocked that as well, ideally you want at least 3GHz out of it

 

[philip j fry]

I think your cpu will hold you back a little , you will still get an increase with the 5850 though but maybe not to its full. 5870 not worth the extra imo as the 5850's clock well anyway.
Like bigsharn says try overclocking your cpu to get the best performance you can.
Try having a loook on the bay to see what its worth i would imagine they would still fetch about £100 mark

 

[Mr Krugga]

A used 4870 would be worth about 75 quid atm. The prices of new 4870 with 512MB memory are relatively low, about £90.

 

[rippling]

Thanks guys my quad is running @ 3.69 ghz will that still hold me back?

 

[Mr Krugga]

Not at all, It will be great with 5850

 

[asoxedri]

Thanks guys my quad is running @ 3.69 ghz will that still hold me back?

how did you get it stable at that speed? i can't go above 3ghz. my tempts after 2-3hours of load does not go above 42C.

go 4 5850 btw

 

[Hesky82]

he probably has a later G0 stepping 6700, on the right board there good for 3.8-4GHz with after market cooling.

My trusty old cheaper Q6600 is a G0 stepping to and that's still happily chugging away at 4GHz under water.

rippling, at 1900x1200 modern games tend to get extremely ram hungry, your card is very capable but unfortunately it simply doesn't have enough memory.

eg. Far Cry 2 at 1920x1200 4xAA & max detail sees a difference of 18fps between the 512mb and 1gb version of your card.

Its basically got to the point where even the fastest 512mb cards just doesn't cut it when you require high res and all the eye candy with current games.

You would see a considerable performance increase by just switching to a 4890 1gb, if you have the cash though a 5850 is a no-brainer

 

[gurusan]

Q6700 was only ever made as g0 stepping

 

[Hesky82]

well reminded, the older c2 extreme 6700 processor was the one that was both released with B3 and G0 cores.

asoxedri, your limited overclock is probably board related then.

 

[asoxedri]

well reminded, the older c2 extreme 6700 processor was the one that was both released with B3 and G0 cores.

asoxedri, your limited overclock is probably board related then.

got a abit AB9 pro, makes sense lol

 

[LoadsaMoney]

Definitely worth it, i went from a 1gb 4870 to the 5850, and its quite a bit faster, anywhere from 20 to 40+ frames (at 1680x1050), and its only going to get better with more drivers, and even the extra 512mb memory would help for you to.

 

[Hesky82]

that i7 helps your 5850 stretch its legs though

 

[malachi]

I was thinking of doing the same but i decided to buy a cheap 2nd hand 4870 instead and xfire it. Will do fine until dx 11 games start coming out.