5850 capable of 1920 gaming?

[Mike26]

Hey,

I'm looking for a new screen and am set on the idea of a 22" as I feel that 1920 res on the 24" screens will probably push my 5850 and core2 setup past its limits.

Can anyone tell me otherwise or am I correct to leave this setup to run games in that resolution. I'll be upgrading sometime soon but am waiting to see what my course throws at me this year first!

Thank you.

 

[Mike26]

The card is a saphire 5850, I've had it quite some time now. My cpu is only a dual core e6400 - was thinking of changing this to an i5/i7 and downsizing my system at the same time.

However, perhaps I'm better off waiting for the new stuff to come out and just getting a quad core 775?

Same with the graphics card though, I could get another 5850, but I'm guessing its not necessary?

Thanks guys

 

[Mike26]

I'm just concerned that I won't be able to play the few games I do play in the screens native resolution -

Fallout 3
CS:S
All HL varieties
Call of duty MW2

I realise they overclock well, but have never tried. Can anyone suggest me some settings to try (mhz voltage etc)?

Thanks

 

[Mike26]

CS:S and the HL series will work fine on the 5850. What flavour of chip do you have?
I played through the Cinematic Mod 10 on HL with my E6600 and although it did struggle with the highest settings, it worked on the high and still looked awesome.

Hey,

Flavour of chip? I've never tasted it Its a core 2 e6400 processor. Though I am tempted by a quad core amd upgrade possibly in the near future.

 

[Mike26]

Played all of them at 1920x1200 and max settings on an 8800GTX so a 5850 will destroy them no problem.

Thanks for this ^ I'm convinced

 

[Mike26]

a 22" @ 1920x1080 will push your setup exactly the same as 24" @ 1920x1080 as they both have the same ammount of pixels

My point was that the 22" I would be after would be 1680x1050 instead of 1920x1080!

Core 2 quads seem to come up cheap on the online auction places, so perhaps a quad as a stop gap would be a good idea?

In reply to the guy that asked what motherboard - I have an Abit IX38 Quad GT.

 

[Mike26]

That motherboard will run a Q6600 without any issues, so that would be a nice upgrade to make (2.13Ghz Dual core to 2.4GHz Quad core with more cache). Just make sure that you get a G0 stepping Q6600 (spec code: SLACR) as they use less power, are cooler and overclock much better than the B3 stepping (spec code:SL9UM).

However, it would be a good idea to have a go at overclocking your E6400 before spending the £80 on a Q6600. To do this you will want a decent air cooler (this one would be great and also work fine with a Q6600) and hunt down an overclocking guide for your motherboard. May I ask exactly what RAM you are currently running?

As for what you need to do to overclock- you basically increase the FSB clockspeed above stock (266MHz or 1066MHz Quad pumped). With a fixed CPU multiplier (maximum with the E6400 is 8x) this will increase the CPU clockspeed. However, to maintain stability you will need to increase the voltage provided to the CPU and the northbridge. You will also need to vary the memory divider so that the RAM frequency does not increase with the CPU frequency. The majority of the process is trial and error; you increase the settings in the BIOS, load up windows, run a stress test (such as prime95 or Intel Burn Test), if the system is stable then keep going, if the system is unstable then go back into the BIOS and increase the voltage and check whether it is now stable. If you repeat this and keep going up in small steps you will eventually reach a maximum load temperature which you don't want to go above (limited by the cooling), hit an FSB frequency which is not stable no matter what voltage used (either CPU or motherboard limited, testing with a new CPU or board would be required to determine which) or you hit a voltage level which you don't want to go over.

Hi there,

Thanks for that mountain of a reply! Wasn't expecting someone to take so much time and effort!

I have 2gb of Corsair DDR2 6400 and 4gb Kingston 8500 (2x1gb) and (2x2gb) respectively. My cpu is currently running at 3200mhz on a day to day basis, it will run 3600 but is not stable at that speed and the temperatures are far too high. I currently have a scythe cooler which barely fits in my case!

Case temperatures aren't great as I have a coolermaster wavemaster and find that they are absolutely awful for airflow!

I assume that a q6600 would be a decent stop gap whilst waiting for the next generation of processors and other bits and pieces that come out?

 

[Mike26]

Ah, you already have it overclocked, brilliant. In that case you don't need to get a new CPU with the 5850 as a 3.2Ghz Core 2 Duo can cope with most modern games rather well. Performance in the games you play will be excellent at 1080p and the money saved on a CPU upgrade can be put in the bank and used in the future for a full upgrade to new tech.

One thing you may want to consider upgrading is the case. If you go for a nice new one it will help with cooling and fitting everything in and last you a good long time.

I'm going way off topic for a graphics card forum I think, and hope I'm not going to get in trouble for this - but something like the HAF 932 tempts me currently!

 

[Mike26]

I've just upgraded from a 4870 512MB, my native 2048x1152 and I run max settings on every game, the only one that has cause me a problem is Metro 2033 and so I just this week upgraded to a 5850.

My CPU is a tri-core Phenom II at 3.5GHz (used to run at 3.9 max volts but seemed OTT).

I can't see it being a problem.

Hey mate,

Is the phenom tri significantly better than my core 2 though?