6950 upgrade

[fiqa]

hi i currently have sapphire 6950 2gb card. i am in a dilemma that i should buy another used 6950 for around 150 for crossfire or sell my one and get 7950 or 660 ti. i will use it for gaming so what you think which option is better. if i do crossfire will 750watt psu be enough.

thanks

 

[arc@css]

What's your cpu, and it is overclocked?

 

[fiqa]

amd phenom quad core 2.4 running on stock

 

[arc@css]

You'll need to overclock your cpu if you're considering either going crossfire or a faster single card. You may even find that when overclocked, your cpu will still bottleneck you in some instances.

If you still decide to upgrade your graphics, I would say your power supply would be fine for crossfire, though I think you'll be better off with a single card. Don't go for the 660ti unless you can get it for a very good price; it's not much faster at all than the 660, but costs somewhere between an extra £50 - £80.

Imo, go for a 7950, and don't leave it too long before moving up to a new mobo and cpu.

 

[fiqa]

thanks for the reply. i am considering going for i5 3570k with msi mpower board. i was thinking of overclocking but one of my friend suggested its not good because i am still using ddr2 rams and its get hot very easily

 

[arc@css]

It may be in your best interest to upgrade the cpu and mobo first. A Phenom at stock will severly bottleneck a new graphics card along the lines you're considering. I'll bet that it's holding your 6950 back, too.

I recently bought an i5 3570k, and it was probably the best pc component purchase I've made yet.

 

[fiqa]

well you are right if i buy the mobo and processor first. i will still get the better performance out of my card and who knows a bit later price of 7950 will go down as well.

 

[arc@css]

Indeed. A new cpu will help your card deliver higher minimum and average frame rates in demanding instances during games. Then later, if you still want to upgrade your card, you'll get the intended performance from your purchase, instead of seeing the gpu usage dipping down to 30 or 40%.

 

[MeMeMeMe]

Personally I'd go the other way, and get a new card first (either the 7950 or a second 6950, whichever you prefer), and see if the performance increase is held back by the CPU. The effect of CPU bottlenecks are often exaggerated.

The 750w PSU will be enough for two 6950's, assuming its a decent brand.

 

[Gregster]

Personally I'd go the other way, and get a new card first (either the 7950 or a second 6950, whichever you prefer), and see if the performance increase is held back by the CPU. The effect of CPU bottlenecks are often exaggerated.

The 750w PSU will be enough for two 6950's, assuming its a decent brand.

In a lot of instances, I would agree with this but that quad Phenom is pretty poor and will be quite detremental in certain games and more so in modern games.