GPU Upgrade Advice Needed

[Nuluvius]

Hello community,

This will be my first post in this forum and I am looking forward to getting to know you all. The thing that brings me here before you today is a request for advice and opinions about a choice of graphics card.

I built my rig (in a light hearted sense the word) well before I went back to education, when I had a full time job. At the time the components were fairly ok. That was over 6 years ago!!!

Ok, so now that I’m out the other side, with a wife, a kid and a great software engineering job I am going to start to upgrade things a piece at a time.

This is my current set up:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+ OC@3GHz
PSU: 850W Unbranded (piece of garbage, jimmied in in an emergency when the last exploded)
GPU: Sapphire Radeon X1550 512MB
MB: Asus M2N-E
RAM: 4GB OCZ DDRII
HDD: 6 1TB SATAs (not raided)
Monitors: x4 LCD 19” @ 1280x1024 (2 connected, guess why I have the others)
Case: It’s not notably branded, but its BIG, great airflow, lots of fans & bays

Yes, the rig is a pile of garbage, I am fully aware of that fact. The first step I intend to take is (I have to do it in steps because of cash flow) to swap out:
PSU: 650W Antec TruePower New Modular
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 Black Ed (the mobo supports this with a bios patch)
GPU: This is where I want some opinions *

Yeah, stage three will be to scrap the MB for something capable of supporting the Bulldozer or I may go Intel skt 2011 (haven’t decided that yet).

*I am after a card to run eyefinity with 3 monitors (ideally for productivity sakes I’d like 4 but I’m ok with 3). I will be using it for gaming and productivity – yes all the latest games and also some intensive programming. <- I also intend to be using C++ amp etc… so I’ll be taking advantage of all those wonderful parallel processors on the card. That said I am not overly keen on an NVIDEA solution.

I have looked at a lot of reviews and benchmarks and my choices are down to three, possibly four cards, I will link from Scan:

Sapphire HD6770 Vapor-X 1GB
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XFX HD 6790 DD
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MSI HD 6850 OC
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MSI HD 6870 OC
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My primary choice based on the reviews and gut feeling was the XFX DD 6790, I also like the cost (I get VAT of all components as well so I’m looking at the little number ). The stock cooler seems to be really good and the card seems able to OC well (even with the stock cooler). Plus for that price I can drive 4 monitors.

But, for the sake of future proofing I liked the look of the MSI and there OC potential – I understand the 6850 series can actually OC to near 6870 series levels… But I also understand that the 6850 series are riddled with issues, notably a VRAM power spike problem that causes black screen/artefacts. The last thing I need is to shell out on something unstable.

Eventually when the MB is upgraded I will probably xfire & OC the card.

I know that the rig will have a serious bottleneck, worsened by the low resolutions for the time that the duel core remains but please remember its getting addressed. Also my wife has an almost identical setup – only hers is even older (socket 939 roflol). I’ll give her my MB with the quad core once I hit stage three. Yeah, she plays games, likes hardware and is not a geek.

So, that’s my situation, I’d like to have this squared away by the end of the weekend so I can get this kit ordered on Monday. Your advice, opinions and help are very welcomed and I greatly appreciate anything you have to say.

 

[Nuluvius]

None of those cards are going to play most modern games at Eyefinity resolutions, if that's your intention.

And as joem1983 says, remove the competitor links or your stay on the forum may be a short one.

Done, thanks for that - I must have missed it.

Thats really interesting, I hadn't found that out when researching. So even the 6870 would be completely incapable of Eyefinity on something such as COD2?

Please check this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udD8BwiQAsQ

 

[Nuluvius]

For old or not too demanding games the 6870 would probably handle 3 screens ok with reasonable frame rate. Just don't expect it to play modern demanding games (i.e. BF3, Crysis 2, Dragon Age etc) across 3 screen, as the 6870 would struggle on them even on a single 1920 res screen.

You be honest, if you are changing CPU and motherboard (and pretty much very thing else), you might as well save up first and put together a completely new rig together then having yourself tied to AMD.

Your right of course, I should save the cash, but current needs are for more monitors and what we are using right now will defiantly NOT play anything even remotely near to some of the titles you mentioned.

Also the resolution will only be 1280x1024 per screen - I know that there's a point when that lower resolution adversely affects performance as well. I was hoping mine was not so low as to do that?

Does anyone have any experience of programming with the parallel processors on the any of these card?

 

[Nuluvius]

I'll rephrase what I said.

You could run most games at Eyefinity resolutions with a HD 6870 but with a lot of games you'd have to turn the settings right down to get any sort of playable frame rate.

Take BF3, for example. A HD 6870 will average around 50fps at 1920x1080 with high quality settings.

Triple the resolution and the settings will probably have to be reduced to the minimum to have a chance of a playable frame rate.

You'll be able to play games at Eyefinity resolutions with a HD 6870 but with the settings you'd have to use I'm not sure it would be the experience you're hoping for.

Perhaps you should wait for the HD 7xxx series cards due out over the next few weeks/months or just save up and get a whole new PC in one go.

7 series sounds kool, I'm not expecting an awesome show ... just something decent - or bearable. My budget will pick up (quite a bit), but not for a little while - just want to bridge the gap you know?

 

[Nuluvius]

Yes the M2N-E has support for it: HDZ955FBK4DGI/HDZ955FBGIBOX

That's one thing I do like about AMD, their socket compatibility.

 

[Nuluvius]

So I guess its going to be a 6870 card... Yay.

My next question: Any particular manufacturer best?

I mean I looked at MSI, they have a card in my perfect price range (its out of stock right now) and its got support for 4 monitors - but how good is it - should I go for the DD XFX instead due to the stock cooler, does it overclock better? Should it be a Sapphire? I came to understand that they were known for quality.