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5850 Black Edition enough for BF3 and MW3?

ChrisD.

ChrisD.

ChrisD.

Man of Honour
Joined
20 Sep 2006
Posts
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Pretty much as the title, I game at 1920*1200 and I would like to play both with eye candy turned all the way up.

I realise MW3 should be fine since it looks to be the same as MW2 (which plays fine) so I'm more worried about BF3.

If my single card isn't enough, could I just slap another 5850 next to it? I ran SLI around 5 years ago and I was put off by the temperatures and power requirements in addition to negligible real world performance increase however I'm not sure what has changed in recent years?
 
I run crossfire 5850's last year in my sig below and did not have any real issues with temps.

In terms of power my system pulled 430w from the mains with Prime and 3d win mark 2006 running together.
 
Cheers. I'm changing my case to a Silverstone FT02 so I think temperatures will be fine and my PSU is SLI/Crossfire certified.

Was there any decent performance increase? I could get a second card for less than £100, whereas a new single card would be the wrong side of £200, so financially it's the best option, just after SLI experiences I am put off somewhat.
 
i think two 5850 in cf should handle it , also depends on rest of your system . as battlefield games are pretty cpu dependent as well

edit : just noticed that you has 2600k clock it to 4+ ghz and you sorted
 
I recently put a second 5850 into my system and everything flies now at 1200p. I will test BC2 later if you want.

The only games I am having issues with at the moment are Fable3 (I don't think it is coded well at all) and Crysis 2 which should be fixed in the latest Catalyst.

When I was running a single one The Witcher 2 struggled a bit at max. Ubersampling kills all graphics cards though.
 
Are you happy with the upgrade?

Would I be better off saving a little, selling the 5850 and getting a single card solution?

How would a single card compare FPS wise in the most demanding games compared to CF 5850's?

Sorry for the questions, I had an 8800GTX for a long time and I bought the 5850 as an interim replacement as it was cheap, and I'd like my next upgrade to last at least 18 months.
 
Cheers, think I will go for one then, it's a cheap upgrade compared to a GTX580, so unless something comes out soon that offers a substantial improvement, it seems a no-brainer.
 
I see that black edition core speed is slightly increased to 760Mhz from stock 725MHz and vram speed set to 1125Mhz.

I would overclock the core speed to atleast 850MHz or even 900Mhz (ideally) if possible. Also vram speed can be increased to atleast 1200Mhz.

Although I have sapphire 5850 it is overclocked to 900/1200Mhz from 725/1000Mhz. This also makes quite a difference in crysis running at 1080p:cool:
 
WingZero30 said:
I see that black edition core speed is slightly increased to 760Mhz from stock 725MHz and vram speed set to 1125Mhz.

I would overclock the core speed to atleast 850MHz or even 900Mhz (ideally) if possible. Also vram speed can be increased to atleast 1200Mhz.

Although I have sapphire 5850 it is overclocked to 900/1200Mhz from 725/1000Mhz. This also makes quite a difference in crysis running at 1080p:cool:
Click to expand...

Number_25 said:
I've been told that these babies are capable of something a bit special.
Click to expand...

Hmm really, I've never overclocked the card and it's something I'm loathe to doing as it runs quite toasty in my current case. In fact, I've never overclocked a GPU...

Once I have my new case I will have a second 5850, would overclocking them be worth it?
 
I wouldn't worry about COD series as it's been always low-end-hardware-friendly.

BF3 might bring lag spikes/stuttering problems if you enable max AA; however if you just use 2AA or 4AA I wouldn't think it exceeds 1GB vram.
 
harmony said:
I wouldn't worry about COD series as it's been always low-end-hardware-friendly.

BF3 might bring lag spikes/stuttering problems if you enable max AA; however if you just use 2AA or 4AA I wouldn't think it exceeds 1GB vram.
Click to expand...

Yeah this is what I think aswell.

I think it is the max AA that stomps the gpu performance generally.

I play at 1080p with everything maxed except shadow, AF and AA. Usually 2x or 4xAA is fine aswell with 5850
 
MilanoChris said:
Hmm really, I've never overclocked the card and it's something I'm loathe to doing as it runs quite toasty in my current case. In fact, I've never overclocked a GPU...

Once I have my new case I will have a second 5850, would overclocking them be worth it?
Click to expand...

Yes I would say so, extra fps for free;)
I have the FT02 case its a good choice you've made pal. I've had oc'ed xfire 5870's in it and it stays cool.
Atm I'm running sli 470's and these do run hot lol
 
I don't overclock my 5850's and haven't had any issues. In Crysis 1, I use edge AA, in Metro 2033 the AAA option (and no DOF), and in all other games typically AAx4 with all settings on max. (I think Crysis 2 is AAx2)
 
Just had a thought, my motherboard only supports x8 with dual cards, is this something to factor in?

Seems it would cost me £120, for a second 5850. And it would cost between £350 and £400 for a new GTX580. I could have course sell my 5850 which would leave me an overall cost of around £230-£280 for a single GPU solution at full PCI speed.

Also, what other single cards are worth considering? I've read a lot about the 580 not being good value? Any ATI cards that I should consider? Or even wait till new cards are released?
 
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