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any point upgrading?

shadowcreaper

shadowcreaper

shadowcreaper

Associate
Joined
29 Jul 2008
Posts
692
Need help here guys.

My current setup was good in the day but I've been putting off upgrading due to the complexity of doing so.

I have a water cooled setup, and so upgrading is slightly harder than normal.
I currently have a 4870, with a e8400 dual core.

I want to upgrade card but I know in limited by my CPU, but don't wish to upgrade that as the costs will be silly high (new motherboard, water cooling blocks ect)

So which card can I get that will help in performance boost? But work with my current system


Help please.
 
Marine-RX179 said:
Keep your existing system as secondary rig, and build a new system that's not watercooled? :p Would seem to be the simplest option :D
Click to expand...

emm no lol.

My power supply is 650w.

Budget wise it depends what's available and what performance increase i would see in "real gaming terms" not number stats rubbish .
Looking at the 7850 Asus card atm, but unsure if it will be compatible with my motherboard (see sig)
 
Last edited:
shadowcreaper said:
emm no lol.

My power supply is 650w.

Budget wise it depends what's available and what performance increase i would see in "real gaming terms" not number stats rubbish .
Looking at the 7850 Asus card atm, but unsure if it will be compatible with my motherboard (see sig)
Click to expand...

You would have to check if your motherboard can accept a PCIe 3.0 graphics card. All 3.0 GPUs are backwards compatible and therefore should work in theory.
 
I went from a 4890 to a standard 7870 and wasn't really set alight by the performance increase. I could run most games on medium with the 4890 and then I could run the same games on high (but not max) with the 7870... Luckily the 7870 packed up and because my model was no longer produced I got a refund. So I went for a 7970. I'm not suggesting you get 7970, it will be bottlenecked badly, I just thought I'd share my upgrade experience...
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7950 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795F3G2M) £239.99
1 x Sapphire HD 7870 XT rev2.0 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £209.99
1 x Sapphire HD 7870 GHz Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11199-16-20G) £179.99
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards £164.99
Total : £806.95 (includes shipping : £10.00).




7870xt has the gpu from a 7950 so its basically a 7950 but with 2gb vram which is still plenty for a single 1080p monitor.

even if it is bottle necked it will still be a decent improvement. you could then upgrade the rest of your rig to suit later
 
I'd really like to be able to play bf 3 but I'm worried even with let's say the xt 7870, wouldn't my CPU completely bottleneck it? (Ie won't be able to run game well)

Either way I think I'd get the xt7870 as I wouldn't upgrade again for a while (given the costs of replacing CPU and motherboard ect) so hopefully the xt 7870 will last.
 
Pop a q9450 or above in there and you should be okay.

Your dual core will hold you back loads.

If I remember right your mobo is good at clocking the 45nm quads.
 
Thanks for help guys, I'm going to start a topic on gfx card now as I know now that upgrading is worth while so just want to pick the right card now, most likely the 7870 series.

PS I'll wait before sticking a 9450 CPU first graphic then CPU I think (given the work that needs to be done in replacingcpu)
Thanks
 
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