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Upgrade advice

The Scop

The Scop

The Scop

Associate
Joined
1 Aug 2008
Posts
194
Location
UK
Hi, long story short, at the moment I have an XFX 4890 1gb, great card. I got empire+napolean total war, and i must say great games but on most battle i'm getting major lag, shadewr model set on max game can do (3) maybe if i lower to 2, weird as XFX 4890 can technically do shader model 4, i reduced all other graphical setting, no AA, no AF, no HDR + Bloom, still no great improvement. So it got me thinking maybe time for a new card.

Basically I wantged your suggestions as to what to get, my current spec atm is:

- i7 930 @3.40ghz
- 6GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 Ram
- Gigabyte something UD3R DDR3 motherboard (typing this at work and cant remember exactly what it is, lol
- XFX 4890 1GB
-LG something DVD RW SATA Drive
- Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA II 7200rpm
- Lancool K62 Dragonlord case
- Corsair Tx 650w PSU
- Windows 7 HP 64 Bit

My budget i would say is no more than £200, and i dont want to purchase another power supply as i only got this one a little while ago to replace a broken one, it may be for that budget and psu restriction i cant get anything better than what i already have, but you guys know best.

Cheers in advance for the advice.


The Scop
 
 
Will there be noticable better performance over the 4890 and will it run ok with my current spec on the 650w psu ok?


Cheers

The Scop
 
+1 on a 6950 2GB.

If you dedicate to play Napoleon Total War, you'll need at least 1.25GB vram to max out at 1920x1200, and at least 1.8GB vram to max out at 2560x1600.

It is obviously not playable to max out the game with a single 6950 2GB, however it leaves you a future upgrade path to add another 6950 2GB into CrossfireX for a very cheap price when the 28nm cards are released (I'd say probably cheaper than selling the 6950 and getting the new flagship card). Your PSU is also capable of doing this CrossfireX.

Another solution is to go for a cheap single 1GB card. You will not be able to max out Napoleon Total War even if you add another for SLI/CrossfireX in the future. However by doing so, if you sell the 1GB card when the 28nm cards are released, you probably lose less money (but personally I wouldn't give any good price for a used 1GB card), and it enables you upgrading to a, say, better-tier 28nm flagship card.
 
Last edited:
harmony said:
+1 on a 6950 2GB.

If you dedicate to play Napoleon Total War, you'll need 1.25GB vram minimum to max out at 1920x1200, and 1.8GB vram minimum to max out at 2560x1600.

It is obviously not playable to max out the game with a single 6950 2GB, however it leaves you a future upgrade path to add another 6950 2GB into CrossfireX for a very cheap price when the 28nm cards are released (I'd say cheaper than selling the 6950 and getting the new flagship card). Your PSU is also capable of doing this CrossfireX.

Another solution is to go for a cheap single 1GB card. You will not be able to max out Napoleon Total War even if you add another for SLI/CrossfireX in the future. However by doing so, if you sell the 1GB card when the 28nm cards are released, you probably lose less money (but personally I wouldn't give any good price for a used 1GB card), and it enables you upgrading to a, say, better-tier 28nm flagship card.
Click to expand...

LOL - we finally agree on a card spec :p

THIS card is a nice stop gap until 28nm
 
I am in vrtually the same situation as scop.Just wondering what is the Nvidia equiv to the 6950?

EDIT - 560TI if i am not mistaken.
 
Last edited:
Kyo said:
I am in vrtually the same situation as scop.Just wondering what is the Nvidia equiv to the 6950?

EDIT - 560TI if i am not mistaken.
Click to expand...

yes, but the 570 is in the rough price range and is better. Not really a direct equivalent. there's one that's a bit better and one that's slightly worse :)
 
Kyo said:
I am in vrtually the same situation as scop.Just wondering what is the Nvidia equiv to the 6950?

EDIT - 560TI if i am not mistaken.
Click to expand...

560 Ti 2GB is the equivalent to the 6950 2GB. Napoleon Total War is a game very sensitive to vram size. (true experience)
 
harmony said:
560 Ti 2GB is the equivalent to the 6950 2GB. Napoleon Total War is a game very sensitive to vram size. (true experience)
Click to expand...

But even the 560Ti's are aimed at competing with the 6950. I believe that the 560Tis 2GB's, when oc'd can beat a 6950 oc'd
 
Cleeecooo said:
But even the 560Ti's are aimed at competing with the 6950. I believe that the 560Tis 2GB's, when oc'd can beat a 6950 oc'd
Click to expand...

When both 560 Ti 2GB and 6950 2GB are oc'ed to 900MHz, the performance can be very similar. One would outperform in some games, while the other could outperform in some other games.

e.g. 560 Ti 2GB dominates in Crysis 2, GTA4, Dirt 3 etc, while 6950 2GB dominates in Shogun 2, Dragon Age 2, Metro 2033 etc.
 
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