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Upgrade Advice

Infam0us

Infam0us

Infam0us

Soldato
Joined
16 Oct 2008
Posts
3,427
Location
Birmingham
Hey guys,

Just wanted some quick advice on what Graphics to upgrade ...

Current PC Spec

CPU
AMD Dual Core 6400+ (3.3Ghz)

RAM
2GB GIEL

GFX
ATI Radeon HD 4870 Sapphire 512MB

Monitor:
19" Widescreen

Soundcard:
SB X-Fi

Mainboard:
ABIT FATAL1TY AN9 32X nForce 590

Windows 7 Ultimate
Click to expand...

Budget is £150-£160 as its a Christmas Present for me, was looking at 5770, or the 5850 but not sure which is better? Will be playing mostly ArmA 2 on it if that helps?

Thanks :)
 
ATI 5870 for £179.99 and maybe lower in the next few days?

It's about 2x the performance of your 4870. The others are only about 60% faster.
 
Yeah, £180 is to far unfortunately.

Are the 6850 or GTX 460 both better than the 5770 and 5850 for ArmA 2 then, or other games? I'm not that clued up these days, I just want the most performance for my money :)
 
If you are insistent that you stick to £160 then wait a week for the 69xx range see if it pushes the price of the other cards down, otherwise you can buy a 5850 for £144.99 if you look around, or a 6850 at £139.99.
 
So I'm looking at either a 5850 or a GTX460?

Would a 6850 be the best choice as it has the latest components?

I just want to have an improvement on ArmA 2 from my 4870 512MB right now :)
 
With already a 4870 512MB and only at 1440x900 res, I say you should upgrade the rest of the system first than graphic card. If there's anything your 4870 512MB can't handle at that res (except Crysis and Metro 2033 etc), it would be more due to CPU/system limitation than the graphic card not fast enough (i.e. BFBC2 and Black OPs for example).

As for ArmaII, don't bother unless you have at least a Quad-core.
 
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Have to agree with most of the posts you won't see much improvement now through a gpu upgrade as your system is going to let it down. I came from e6600@ 3ghz 2gb ram p5w dh deluxe mobo to my current spec and now games are running great again.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys, but I can't upgrade the PC quite yet as this is a one off for Christmas and I've got no money of my own to invest. I'm just after more FPS at the moment and a new graphics card is one of the quickest ways towards it. I'm not sure I can find a faster AM2 Socket CPU either? ArmA 2's running fine at the moment, I just want more FPS from it :)
 
I ONLY have £150 to make a short-term upgrade, this is'nt my money its what someone has offered me for Christmas. I have no income of my own, I know what you are saying but I'd rather upgrade something than nothing at all ...
 
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No, upgrading graphic card would be pointless at your current res, especially when you already have a 4870 512MB and it is the CPU that's holding things back.

With your tight budget, I would suggest you get this motherboard, which will take both AM2+ and AM3 CPU, DDR2 and DDR3 RAM:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-028-AK&utm_source=froogle
(OcUK is out of stock, so you gonna need to look elsewhere)

A Phenom II X4 965BE 3.40GHz for £120...not from OcUK though since unfortunately it is being overpriced as expensive as Phenom II X4 970BE here at £150... (Phenom II X4 955BE seem to have discontinued...).

In the future when you can, add 2GB more of RAM (ideally identical to your existing DDR2 2GB RAM) , or you can just sell your DDR2 2GB RAM and get 4GB of DDR3 RAM.
 
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