Upgrade / Bang for Buck

[triggerthat]

Hi all,

I have a Q6600 at 2.9Ghz with a 4890. It plays everything quite well. I've been having problems with Metro 2033 where it gets very chopping. It didn't do this when I first installed the game so will need to troubleshoot that.

Anyhow, I was thinking of upgrading my graphics card and me always enjoying the bang for buck upgrade, I went from a 8800 GTX to a 4890. I want to ask what is a good upgrade to go for (second hand to save sweeten the deal)? I was considering the 5870. They go for around the £130 mark on the bay.

Is there any other card I should consider? Is there an overall benchmark which compares all cards?

 

[opethdisciple]

hmmm well Metro 2033 is a good looking game, but is a graphics hog.

My rig, managed to play the game max at 1920x1200 with DOF and MSAA off, but its still look fantastic.

A 5870 would be an upgrade for you, but maybe by about 30-40% boost.

You really need to do two things:

1. Get that cpu clocked higher (the magic number is 3.6Ghz... its a bit loose to say this, but it was found that with modern cpu, 3.6Ghz was high enough a frequency to lift the bottleneck from the cpu to the gpu in games) Obviously this overclock needs to be done with in safe volts and heat margins.

2. New GPU I would say 5870 and above....

As for benches:

Here is 4890 vs 5870 - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/175?vs=162

Seems there is quite a nice improvement.

 

[Ezyryder]

Not many Q6600 clock to 3.6 Ghz without a good mobo and a good chip.

Anything from 3.2 to 3.4 is definetely achievable.

 

[Skellig]

If your 4890 plays things quite well for now, I'd suggest holding off a GPU upgrade for a bit maybe? Buy a CPU cooler and OC your CPU. Save a bit more money and buy a new GPU later?

 

[opethdisciple]

Or for around the same price of a second hand 5870, you could get one of the new overclocked versions of the 460....

Safer bet than second hand..

Even the 460 is an upgrade:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/175?vs=180

But im saying dont get a cheap 460, get one of the sduper overclcocked varieties... will be new and be in similar territories as a 5870. (kind off) But will have the bonus of being new and in warrenty!

 

[Bumhug]

Can you crossfire? A 2nd 4890 would be nice and cheap and give amazing performance

 

[triggerthat]

If your 4890 plays things quite well for now, I'd suggest holding off a GPU upgrade for a bit maybe? Buy a CPU cooler and OC your CPU. Save a bit more money and buy a new GPU later?

Good idea. I can clock my Q6600 to 3Ghz. It's a g0 version and it has an artic 7 cooler. Anything higher then it crashes. I am assuming I need more volts to get it stable? What volts would it need for a 3.2Ghz?

 

[bcham]

im in the same boat as you.any higher than 3gig and my pc crashes.or wont boot up.