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Budget Upgrade

gpuerrilla

gpuerrilla

gpuerrilla

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Guys I was wondering if crossfiring two cheap ATI cards would be an upgrade to my current 8800GT.

CPU is pretty limited using an old dual E8500. All info appreciated!

(mobo is a p45 platinum)

TIA
 
What's your budget? Also a single gpu would probably be a better idea if you don't want to change the rest of your setup.
 
Well I normally spend around £150 for an upgrade of GPU every couple of years, however I have been out of the hardware loop for about 3yrs now and was wondering if maybe second hand (ran in crossfire would be worthwhile) as I wont be overhauling the system anytime soon.

Slightly old tech to max this system out is what I'm eyeing up as getting a new £200 card would be not doing the card justice. Just wondering what the options are for my ageing beast.
 
What resolution do you use?

And what PSU have you got?

that E8500 is a great dual core chip and can sit at 4.3Ghz+ all day long. Is it overclocked? And will hold its own when paired with a reasonable GPU.
 
Th0nt said:
Well I normally spend around £150 for an upgrade of GPU every couple of years, however I have been out of the hardware loop for about 3yrs now and was wondering if maybe second hand (ran in crossfire would be worthwhile) as I wont be overhauling the system anytime soon.

Slightly old tech to max this system out is what I'm eyeing up as getting a new £200 card would be not doing the card justice. Just wondering what the options are for my ageing beast.
Click to expand...

I'd go for a gtx 460 if you want to buy new or look to a second hand 5870.

And to echo the other poster's comments, I'd also overclock your cpu if you haven't already (great clocker) and a good quality psu is needless to say, a must have if you haven't got a decent one already.
 
Nocky24 said:
I'd go for a gtx 460 if you want to buy new or look to a second hand 5870.
Click to expand...

5870 is a great card, I can run skyrim at 1080p without any probs, but a word of advice, i have to water-cool my one as it makes so much noise during game...
 
spain said:
What resolution do you use?

And what PSU have you got?

that E8500 is a great dual core chip and can sit at 4.3Ghz+ all day long. Is it overclocked? And will hold its own when paired with a reasonable GPU.
Click to expand...

I run @ 1680x1050 (max this momintor uses), I do overclock the chip but normally have it at 3.6

The PSU is a Corsair TX650w
 
Both the cards suggested by Nocky24 would do serve you well, but so would a 5770 6770 at that res with some eye-candy. A good second hand 5870 would be a good bet if you were going to change to a higher res, but would also give you more eye-candy at your current res.

Don't forget the 6870, if your budget is £150, There's a factory oveclocked card £137 Here and Comparison between 6870 vs 5870 stock Here.

I would go with the 6870 personally it's factory overclocked within budget. Unless you can source the 460 or 5870 a lot cheaper secondhand. At £137 the 6870 comes with 3 years warranty.
 
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OK thats one solutions - thanks guys.

Is there a 'value' card say like 6570 that if paired with another using crossfire be reasonable if you can pick a cheap card for £60 but grab two of them?
 
If you want to go down that road don't mess around with silly cards. The least would be 6770 which can be had for £75 or 5770, cheaper secondhand, If your willing to pay £60 a card then that is what you should be looking at.

Also do some research which might help you the 6870 is in the same ball park as 5770xfire. The cheaper cards you refer to would no doubt be blown away by a single 6770 and you would pay twice the price for the pleasure.

Edit:

Also a 5850 is in the running.
 
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Hi there,

Considering your system I would spend £100 on either a hd 6850 or gtx 460 1gb.

either of these would be a nice upgrade over a 9800gt and may allow you to save some money towards a full cpu/mobo/ram upgrade in the future.

as for crossfiring two 6570s - the performance of two of these cards is only on the level of a hd 6790 (see here) - which is an overpriced card that is a fair bit slower than a HD 6850 (see here) or GTX 460.

As Spain mentions - crossfiring two HD 6770 or 5770 graphics cards would be a much better option and offer more performance than a HD 6850. However it will cost a bit more, run hotter, run louder, use more power and relies on good crossfire scaling in games to achieve the desired performance advantages over a single-card system.
 
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Good points andi, I think I will keep an eye on the 6850 and see how my current card performs with SWTOR.
 
Apologies for the thread ressurection. Before I plump for the fantastic offer on the HD6850 for £89.99 from OcUK, I noticed a HD6870 can be had for around £125.

For the sake of the difference, is the 6870 superior enough to justify the extra, or would my current spec be the bottleneck making the 6850 the optimum choice?
 
I would get 6850 for £89.99 and search for a second hard Q6600 and overclock it to 3.2 or higher depending on the cooling you have.
 
theforce said:
I would get 6850 for £89.99 and search for a second hard Q6600 and overclock it to 3.2 or higher depending on the cooling you have.
Click to expand...

Agree.
And even if you want to stretch your budget, best to get a cheap 5870 (it is MORE powerful than 6870 by a good margin) or slightly more powerful still 560ti/6950. I would not spend 125£ on 6870 if I were you. And Theforce's advice is better anyway - less bottleneck will mean higher FPS on a lesser card.
 
Just to add some input, my overclocked 5870 runs BF3 on med/high gfx (but with the fancy stuff turned off) with 40-50 fps average. Not bad considering you can pick them up sub £100 off the MM.
 
ben90 said:
Just to add some input, my overclocked 5870 runs BF3 on med/high gfx (but with the fancy stuff turned off) with 40-50 fps average. Not bad considering you can pick them up sub £100 off the MM.
Click to expand...

Whats your system spec though?
 
ben90 said:
Just to add some input, my overclocked 5870 runs BF3 on med/high gfx (but with the fancy stuff turned off) with 40-50 fps average. Not bad considering you can pick them up sub £100 off the MM.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you need to state your full system specs for your statement to have real meaning.
 
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