Radeon HD 6850 suitable upgrade for bf3??

[dan22]

HI guys i just played bf3 for the first time and was dissapointed to find out it is running at 30 fps on low settings! while i expected around this fps (pc is 5 or so years old) i thought it would be manageable but well it isnt.

Im looking to upgrade to a Radeon HD 6850

Currently i have

Asus p5k deluxe mobo
Nvidia 9800 GTX (512mb)
Intel q6600 @ 2.4ghz
4gig ocz ram

Now my question is 1)will it be suitable for the motherboard? i read that the mobo is only pci-e 1.0 but you can use pci-e 2.1 on older mobo's just wont be at full potential.

2) Im also looking at over clocking the cpu to 3.0 ghz ive read on forums that the cpu shouldnt be so bad and its more my current graphics card.

Looking at benchmarks this card performs rather well so if im able to afford a full upgrade in the future i may be able to leave this card in for a while?

Im not looking at amazing results by buying this card alone, im just looking to raise it to level which is playable (not so bothered about graphic quality at this stage) will this do it or will i be held back by something else ??


many thanks

 

[-Aura-]

A 6850 will be compatible with your motherboard, your CPU will easily clock to 3Ghz (just watch the temps m8), you will get more than 30fps if you sacrifice some settings in-game but you won't have to use all low

 

[dan22]

excellent just what i wanted to hear, i have a Tuniq Tower 120-LFB cooler and antec 900 case so i think temps should be ok, whats the "safe zone" i should be looking at? under 70?

Update: well i oc'd to 3ghz, ran prime95 for around 10 secs(blend test) and the temps went through the roof, reset it back to 2.4 and during prime95 cores are showing up as 70-74-86-88c at 100% load which makes me think something isnt right

 

[Freddie1980]

That's really high even for an old 75nm quad core and the Tuniq Tower 120 was one of the best heatsinks you could buy when it came out and should be more then enough for your needs. Given that's 5 years old I suggest a) you get some new thermal paste and clean off all the old gunk from the HSF base and the CPU's heat shield and b) clean your Tuniq Tower fins and the fan, after 5 years its probably full of dust. Spend a good 20 mins or so with a vacuum cleaner, paper tissue and a can of compressed air and make sure its cleaned thoroughly. I had to cleaned my Radeon 5770 earlier this year and even though it was only 18 months old and inside case with plenty of dust filters enough dust had reached the heatsink to increase temps by about 15c at idle.

 

[Purgatory]

Also what Vcore did you use ? to get them temps ? Don't use auto Vcore setting that will stick the Vcore really high and as said above try some new thermal paste if it has been on for over a year. Just watch them Vcore settings and remember volts = heat too not just clock speeds. Also what is the reported VID of that chip ? I have never seen a Q6600 not hit 3Ghz at a safe temp if the Vcore is set correctly.

 

[x-bomber]

i've ran BF3 on a q6600 @ 3.2gig, with 4 gig DDR2 @ 1066mhz, on a 460GTX and runs at 1920*1200 all settings on high and apart from textures on ultra. AA deffered off, AA post high and Amb Occ off and Motion Blur off, average 45fps and plays fine and looks good. You should be fine with a HD6850 as long as you get at least 3 gig out of the cpu.

Definately look at your volts and your hsf as you shouldn't have a problem with temps @ 3 gig. As freddie says check for dust etc and even take off the hsf clean everything and re apply paste and put the hsf back on, make sure its secured properly and positioned correctly on cpu. Check what volts your running in the bios from memory i'd say 1.3v is more than amble however each cpu is different, start by seeing how far you can push the chip on stock volts.