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New gfx card for aging quad core system to last next 2 years for gaming

Farooq

Farooq

Farooq

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Joined
4 Jan 2011
Posts
180
Hello guys my rig is an aging quad core q6600 overclocked to 3.2 ghtz on watercooling(any higher and it hits fsb issues due to 4 sticks of ram) 4 gb of ddr2, asus x48 rampage mo bo, western digital caviar black 1tb hard disk, corsair hx 620 modular psu and 2 x 3870 512mb radeon in crossfire. the displays are a 1080p 32 inch tv primary and a 1680 1050 secondary

The gfx cards are showing their age now and are in need of a upgrade. bf3 beta is only playable on lowest settngs at 720p with zero aa. I am basically looking to get another 2 years out of this machine then swap to a new socket. I i dont beleive a socket change to a i5 would help me greatly with these aging cards. whats the best bang for buck to last me another 2 years bearing in mind i have a aging quad to feed it. Single card prefered but my motherboard has 2 x 16 speed pci express 2.1 slots that support crossfire so that would also be a option. I dont have a budget in mind but ideally it should allow me to play skyrim bf3 at 60 fps on 1080p I dont care for anti anilising at 1080p id happily play with it off. Im in no hurry so if something is just around the corner I can wait a month or 2.

Cheers for any advice guys.
 
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Two 6770 1GB in Crossfire? costs ~£170.

Single GPU cards generally aren't as good value compared to Crossfire for roughly the same spec, so unless you want to get away from multiple GPU's I think that's your best bet.

See what others think before listening to me though. :p

EDIT: You could also get this:
http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-267-AS

Probably not quite as fast as 6770x2 but it doesn't rely on Crossfire and you get BF3 and Batman with it.
 
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Well you could always stretch to a 560Ti 2GB or 6950 2GB if you're concerned about a lack of VRAM, in the next 1-2yrs the rest of your system is probably going to be more of an issue though... but you're right getting a 2GB card now would be a lot more future proof.
 
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kk so narrowing it down to a 560 ti or a 6950 for around 200 give or take. however with a quad q6600 at 3.2 would there be any bottlenecking and if not would a amd 7 series or nvidea kepler series next gen be worth holding out for as they are stated q4 11/ amd q1 12 nv release date. which is not until my next 2/3 pay days when realistically ill purchase the card. any info on q6600 overclocked at 3.2 or above botttlenecking cards from the current gen 6950/560ti would be helpful also. thank for the replies lads
 
A 560Ti/6950 2GB would probably be bottlenecked by a 3.2ghz Q6600 but in 2 years time when you upgraded cpu etc they would stretch their legs more, so from that standpoint they are a lot more future proof than 1GB cards.

If you're not in any hurry you could wait for the new cards but it'll be the same story as buying a 6950 etc now, the cpu will become the bottleneck.
 
so 560 ti 2gb or 6950 2gb what are the pros and cons of each no fan boy shizzle. with my rig listed above 1080 p gaming zero aa what is faster
 
Out of the two MSI cards on offer this week the 560Ti is cheaper, has Physx (FWIW) and the potential for 3D, the 6950 will be cheaper to run as it uses less power, has the potential for Eyefinity and will scale better in crossfire than the 560Ti will in SLI (should you ever want to double up). Also mobos. which have the option to SLI tend to be more expensive compared to mobos. which only have the option to crossfire (perhaps something to bear in mind for when it becomes time to upgrade your mobo.).
 
Comparison of the two cards here:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/293?vs=330

If you're happy with Catalyst driver support then a 6950 is probably faster on average.

AMD have poor tessellation performance compared to NVidia though which might be more of a problem further down the line, that's why 6950 gets battered in Civ 5.

BlackBat has covered the rest.
 
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So current drivers what is the fastest card?
and what is tessilation? and if its important will this be being used a lot in new titles or is it like physx only used by some software developers.
 
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