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Need some help regarding the 5850.

Ultrimo

Ultrimo

Ultrimo

Associate
Joined
24 Dec 2010
Posts
30
I've just recently purchased the HD 5850 twin Frozr. This is a significant leap from my previously installed nvidia geforce 8600.
Unfortunately, I'm getting low fps on games such as Assassins Creed 2 which is provided with the card (even on the lowest settings).

My specs:
M2N-E sli
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ 2.51Ghz
4gb ram (3 usable) [I have 4 1gb DDR2 sticks]
Windows 7 32 bit
Msi R5850 Twin Frozr II
Power supply: 550w (ATX-550 JSP)

I've installed the latest drives, removed the previous nvidia drives, updated my motherboard bios but to no avail. The motherboard bios update has, however, increased the rate at which my computer boots which is an upside. Any help on the matter is greatly appreciated!
 
yep it is holding you back . its a pretty old rig and that 5850 wants to gallop . are you getting higher fps than your old g/card
 
The 5850 is being wasted in your current system. With your current system, the 5850 is running at no faster than a 5750 (but even 5750 would be significantly faster than you previous 8600 :P).
 
So it's undoubtedly the CPU that's bottlenecking it? I'm just wondering how one can tell whether or not a CPU is good or not and what the minimum is that I would need in order to get full functionality out of the graphics card.
 
You may need to upgrade CPU and Mobo. I had a similair setup to yours (5200 x2) when I bought my 5850 and my frames hardly increased from the 4830 I had upgraded from.

So I bit the bullet and upgraded to quad core with new mobo etc and the frame rates are ridiculous in comparison, everything is smooth.
 
Mr Krugga said:
What power supply is that?
Click to expand...

Looks like an Ezcool 550W :(

Best to bin it if/when you do upgrade the core system.


As the lads have said above, sounds very much like your system is limited by the CPU. That game's bare minimum CPU requirement is a 2.4GHz Athlon X2, so you only just meet this, in contrast your graphics card (when no limited by your CPU) will smoothly run the game at very high framerates and high settings/resolution.
 
Brilliant! This may be a very stupid question but are CPUs always attached to the motherboard? So if I were to purchase an i7 I am in fact purchasing both a motherboard and a CPU?

Thank you all! It's so much better having people who know what they're talking about help you.
 
Ultrimo said:
Brilliant! This may be a very stupid question but are CPUs always attached to the motherboard? So if I were to purchase an i7 I am in fact purchasing both a motherboard and a CPU?

Thank you all! It's so much better having people who know what they're talking about help you.
Click to expand...

Not only that, you will have to upgrade the CPU/mobo/memory and possibly the PSU as well.
 
Ultrimo said:
Brilliant! This may be a very stupid question but are CPUs always attached to the motherboard? So if I were to purchase an i7 I am in fact purchasing both a motherboard and a CPU?
Click to expand...

Modern desktop CPUs are removable - so if you buy an i7 then you need to buy the CPU and a compatible motherboard (and DDR3 RAM).

I would also strongly suggest you change the PSU if you update your system.
 
Curses! So it seems that a major overhaul is the only way to sort this computer. Is there perhaps a way of improving just my CPU - bringing my graphics card to it's full potential without the need of altering any other components?
 
Ultrimo said:
Curses! So it seems that a major overhaul is the only way to sort this computer. Is there perhaps a way of improving just my CPU - bringing my graphics card to it's full potential without the need of altering any other components?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately no is the answer.
 
Ultrimo said:
Curses! So it seems that a major overhaul is the only way to sort this computer. Is there perhaps a way of improving just my CPU - bringing my graphics card to it's full potential without the need of altering any other components?
Click to expand...

Sorry man, you already have one of the best CPUs that motherboard can support. To get any meaningful performance improvement you need to do a full overhaul of your core system. For example, this comparison shows how your current CPU stands up to a modern £140 CPU.
 
cmndr_andi said:
Sorry man, you already have one of the best CPUs that motherboard can support. To get any meaningful performance improvement you need to do a full overhaul of your core system. For example, this comparison shows how your current CPU stands up to a modern £140 CPU.
Click to expand...

Oh! I arrogantly assumed that the increase would be 12% due to the 2.8ghz and the 2.5ghz. Goes to show you that I know nothing about CPUs lol. Right now quite a few games are playable (not on the highest settings as intended, unfortunately) but I probably will be upgrading the majority of the system.

Thanks a lot guys for all your help. Perhaps I'll return in near future when deciding on a few purchases I might need a second opinion on. Thanks again!
 
Hi,

Your motherboard is AM2 but since you've upgraded the motherboard bios it looks like some newer AM3 processors will work.

Here's the CPU support list:
http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=M2N-E&product=1

Phenom II x4 955 looks like a good upgrade (£111.61 on OCUK), that way you won't need to upgrade motherboard and ram as well.

As mentioned, PSU upgrade is a good idea if you're using a 5850.
 
kristmace said:
Hi,

Your motherboard is AM2 but since you've upgraded the motherboard bios it looks like some newer AM3 processors will work.

Here's the CPU support list:
http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=M2N-E&product=1

Phenom II x4 955 looks like a good upgrade (£111.61 on OCUK), that way you won't need to upgrade motherboard and ram as well.

As mentioned, PSU upgrade is a good idea if you're using a 5850.
Click to expand...

You are a saint. This is exactly what I needed, thank you so much.

How is it you know which processors I can install without needing to alter my ram?
 
Last edited:
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