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Replacing an ageing AMD Radeon 6850 any suggestions?

SY85

SY85

SY85

Associate
Joined
10 Feb 2003
Posts
180
Location
Haywards Heath, West Sussex
I have had this Radeon 6850 since probably 2010 so it's getting on a bit in tech terms. I does ok for what I need. No heavy gaming just World Of Warcraft which it will run on max although not perfectly but playable non the less.

I now need to replace it with something newer as the fans are making a racket and I don't want to faff about changing them. I don't need anything particularly powerful, WoW on full settings and a smooth frame rate would do the job. As long as it is more powerful than the 6850 it will be fine.

Having been out of the loop for some time I am not sure what is about, at what level all these cards are and how much/little I need to spend to get the required result so any suggestions would be most welcome. Also interested in anything that might be good value on the used market.
 
Not sure what resolution/monitor you play with, or what your budget but something like the following should still be a reasonable step up:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £368.47
(includes shipping: £10.50)



​

The RX560 and GTX1050 perform similarly, but that RX560 has 4GB of RAM which in my mind is a bit more future proof.

The 1050Ti again has 4GB and will be a little bit faster still.


To get a very rough idea of how older cards compare against newer cards, it's worth looking at something like:
http://www.logicalincrements.com/articles/graphicscardcomparison
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gpu-hierarchy,review-33383.html (slightly older article)
 
The whole system was built in 2010 so really it's all getting on a bit however right now I am just looking to replace the graphics card.

Motherboard is MSI M5A97 Pro
CPU is AMD FX-4100
16 Gb Ram
27" Asus 1080p monitor

@Armageus thanks for the suggestions, will definitely take a look.

@CAT-THE-FIFTH Yes I had not considered the Nvidia/WoW thing. Need to look into that.
 
Last edited:
SY85 said:
The whole system was built in 2010 so really it's all getting on a bit however right now I am just looking to replace the graphics card.

Motherboard is MSI M5A97 Pro
CPU is AMD FX-4100
16 Gb Ram
17" Asus 1080p monitor

@Armageus thanks for the suggestions, will definitely take a look.

@CAT-THE-FIFTH Yes I had not considered the Nvidia/WoW thing. Need to look into that.
Click to expand...


That CPU is terrible. That should be your first upgrade, and trust me I know... I own one :D
 
DomBruv said:
That CPU is terrible. That should be your first upgrade, and trust me I know... I own one :D
Click to expand...

I haven't found the cpu to be a problem at all. System is fast and always has been. Running Win10 with no issues at all. The graphics card is the main issue because although it runs "ok" using the Windows 10 drivers there are obviously no catalyst drivers for such an old card now.

Will update the cpu after I sort the graphics.
 
SY85 said:
I haven't found the cpu to be a problem at all. System is fast and always has been. Running Win10 with no issues at all. The graphics card is the main issue because although it runs "ok" using the Windows 10 drivers there are obviously no catalyst drivers for such an old card now.

Will update the cpu after I sort the graphics.
Click to expand...


I have an R9 270 which is quite outdated now and it seems that the CPU is bottlenecked by it... even with an overclock
 
Ahh yes but I forgot to mention I am now running an even older card. The 4850 which I think came out in 2007/2008? The 6850 was in an identical pc which I have now sold so everything is the same except the graphics card. I think your R9 270 is quite a bit faster than this ageing 4850 ;). At the moment I would guess it's the graphics card that is holding back the cpu ;)
 
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