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Graphics card to go with a Q9550

XeNoN89

XeNoN89

XeNoN89

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My Q9550 is still chugging along nicely at 3.8Ghz for nearly 5 years now. I'm curious as to how powerful I can go graphics wise without it being a major bottleneck. If it's worth it I'll pop in another 4GB of ram to get me up to 8GB as well. Would a 670 be an overkill for example? :confused:
 
I think a 7870xt or 660ti would be a nice pairing for that CPU. If you think you'll upgrade the CPU in the near future then maybe 670/7950.
 
I think both of them are still too much, 7850 or 660 is about right, the Q chips are too old now, i tested both 7850s and 660s and the 660 was better for me.

The bottleneck is in your face with some games that want more CPU grunt but with most games both of them cards are decent and are cheapish.

By games that need more CPU grunt i mean multiplayer games like BF3 and such, RTS games are fine, 4v4 ect fine. Just try and avoid 64 player games ect.

670 out of the question.
 
ACEOWNER said:
I think a 7870xt or 660ti would be a nice pairing for that CPU. If you think you'll upgrade the CPU in the near future then maybe 670/7950.
Click to expand...

I agree with this and with your clock speeds, you wouldn't see vast hits with a 7950 or 670.

I still expect to see a bottleneck with the 7950/670 but shouldn't be too bad.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/50?vs=288

Stock Vs stock and with 3.8, that will give a massive boost.

If you ever decide to upgrade your mobo and CPU, you have the GPU to compliment it.
 
Both of them cards are overkill and the prices on them both are silly to go with that CPU tbh.

Like ive said ive tested the next model down on both and they are too much so i dont see how paying £50 more is helping the OP at all when they are bottlenecked from the get go :\
 
bunnox said:
i would have thought that quad would be fine.
Click to expand...

So did i but its just not tbh, i went from a 285 to a 660 on mine and you could see it still struggling with some games.

It will still last him another year or 2 as it plays all the console ports fine, skyrim runs perfect ect, but if you want multiplayer you need a new CPU so you mayaswell get the cheaper card down and save towards that. Even the 7850/660 will still couple well with a new CPU.
 
sell it and buy a 2500k, the difference with game engine latency between a 930 sandy was serious, i remember upgrading past a C2D in warcraft years ago and that was astronautical improvement aswell.

go by generation at the moment, ivybridge the cap on that statement
 
It will be a bottleneck but then if the OP decides to upgrade his CPU and mobo, his GPU will be the bottleneck.

Just info for later thinking.
 
weehamish said:
So did i but its just not tbh, i went from a 285 to a 660 on mine and you could see it still struggling with some games.

It will still last him another year or 2 as it plays all the console ports fine, skyrim runs perfect ect, but if you want multiplayer you need a new CPU so you mayaswell get the cheaper card down and save towards that. Even the 7850/660 will still couple well with a new CPU.
Click to expand...

Because if you actually read my post you'd see I was recommending them in case he upgrades his CPU. You would honestly recommend a normal 660 to anyone instead of a 660ti? The normal 660's are horrible value for money.
 
I would never recommend a 660Ti ever!

660 is not horrible at all! You can pick them up for £150 and they are really good cards.

I cant say how u can ever say get a 660Ti when the 7950 totally kills it :\

The 7850 or 660 will not be a bottle neck even on i5k so i dunno what your on about?

Greg you even posted a 7850 beating a stock 7970 so how can you even say that? I know its not gonna happen with everyone but it can, you always go back on your own words lol.

A 7850 overclocked can beat a 580 and they are still decent cards, having a 7850/660 will not hinder u in anyway compare to buying a 7870/660Ti with that old CPU, ive been there and done that.

Greg may i ask what you were using before u went SLi for the first time?
 
660's are horrible value for money. Ask most people on here. Also I didn't say get a 660ti over a 7950. Again if you read my post you'd see I recommended a 7950 as well. The 7870xt isn't far off a 7950 either which I also recommended.

Replacing his 560ti with a normal 660 wouldn't even be noticeable...
 
Greg used to have a 2500k and a 560ti iirc.

@OP. There's no harm in buying a more powerful card now, you'll be bottlenecked on anything >7850 in all fairness. Getting yourself a 7950/670 wont hurt as when you finally upgrade you CPU you'll get a secondary boost off the cards, so it would be two upgrades at once :D
It just means you're spending more now for the maximum performance your CPU can handle.
 
The 660 kills a 560Ti :\

If the OP is going CPU upgrade i would get a 7950.

If you wanna keep old CPU get a 7850/660.

ACE please link me someone saying the 660 is bad value.
 
A normal 660 is terrible value when for around the same price or a tiny little more you can get a 7870 or 7870xt that beats it easily on the new drivers. I'm not going searching through threads to find posts but I know someone will back me up that the 660 is bad value considering he has a 560ti currently and from what I've stated above with the 7870/7870xt prices.
 
£50 difference is a lot imo but going off OCUK prices you are right, a 660 is pretty pointless.

Still i havent heard anything bad about the 660s and mine was really good before i sold my old PC, it ran everything decent at 1080, the 660Ti is a fraction above it and costs way more so i cant see how the 660 is crap but the 660Ti is good when theres very little bewteen the 2!
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/660?vs=647

So yeah :\ this is why i get puzzeld with you.
 
In some of them games the 660ti gets an extra 10fps than the normal version which is around the same difference between a 560ti and a normal 660. He would hardly notice any difference without an fps counter on screen.

Also the price difference between a normal 7870 and a 660 is not £50. It's £25 going on the lowest prices on here for either and that's with the 660 on special. Otherwise they are priced the same.
 
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