Dissapointing upgrade (HD 5850 - problem?)

[KronK]

Hello,

I have just upgraded my graphics card from ATI HD 3870 with the intention of prolonging the life of my current PC to play the latest games, however I'm extremely disappointed with the outcome.

Current spec:
IX38-QuadGT, Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo E6750 @ 2.66GHz, 4GB DDR2 (800)
XFX HD 5850 Black edition

There is no perceived improvement in game which has left me wondering if there is a problem with the new card, or even with my full system.
Playing the new COD BO game my FPS ranges from 35 - 60 FPS, and fairly often jerky in game with a lot of action going on.
I have tried overclocking my CPU to 3Ghz, but this makes little difference.

I understood this card to be a significant improvement, but I now feel I've wasted £170, someone has suggested to me that my CPU may be the root problem but without shelling out another £150+ I cant prove this.

Can anyone offer any other explanation or potential problem, or ways I can check if the card is running ok.

Many thanks.

 

[arc@css]

I would suggest overclocking your cpu to at least 3.0ghz if possible.

 

[Alex74]

What other games do you play? Presumably you've got latest drivers etcetcetc since installing the new card...


I would agree that the CPU is probably holding you back though to some extent. I havent played Black Ops myself, but minimum specs seem to imply it wants a reasonable amount of cpu power behind it. Would agree with arc@css on the overclocking. It'd be good to know how other games are playing for you as well

 

[cmndr_andi]

Have you played any games other than COD:BO?

This particular game makes use of quad core CPUs - so it sounds like it is your CPU, not your graphics that is bottlenecking this game. You may want to consider selling the E6750 (~£30) and picking up a second-hand Q6600 GO stepping for ~£80. This upgrade would cost you ~£50 total and improve your performance in modern games.

That said I would certainly try overclocking your current CPU first and see if you can get some improved performance - just keep and eye on the temperatures.

In other games (which are not so CPU heavy) you should find your new 5850 gives you a massive performance boost over your old card.

 

[teejay73]

+1 for cpu bottleneck, I had this with my e5200 @ stock when I 1st bought my 4890, I clocked the cpu to 3.1ghz and games were def much better all round.

 

[Marine-RX179]

I understood this card to be a significant improvement, but I now feel I've wasted £170, someone has suggested to me that my CPU may be the root problem but without shelling out another £150+ I cant prove this.

Can anyone offer any other explanation or potential problem, or ways I can check if the card is running ok.

No need to be in doubt...your CPU IS the cause of poor performance in Black OPs, as the game is a HUGE CPU hog (actually the biggest one I know) and will perform poorly with ANY dual-core system (even a a i3 540 struggle), as the number of cores has bigger impact on increasing frame rate than raw speed for this game. Just check out the following CPU benchmark for Black OPs, and this is done on a 5970!
http://www.techspot.com/review/336-cod-black-ops-performance/page8.html

Either way, Black OPs or not, for gaming using a 5850, you should have at least a Q6600 overclocked to around 3.0GHz, or a fast dual-core overclocked to 4.0GHz or above if you don't want the CPU to becoming the limitation, and if you were to replace your CPU now, I would suggest trying getting a 2nd hand Q6600 G0. With just a E6750 @ 2.66GHz, I wouldn't be surprised if the 5850 is no faster than a 5770...or even a GTS450 in any game that's CPU demanding in the slightest...

 

[nitram100]

CPU bottleneck.

I upgraded from a 4830 to a 5850 using a 5200+ x2 Athlon and the frames hardly changed., I was so dissapointed!

Then I upgraded to a 955 quad core, my gosh the difference was amazing, Bad Company 2 frames shot through the roof.