Upgrade card or run another 6950?

[t.oldaker]

Hi,

Haven't posted many new threads on here but getting to a stage where its probably best to get some advice.

I bought a computer a little while back as the price was too good to miss. Been running it fine no problem and its pretty much munched through everything i've thrown at it with no issues.

I have been toying however with starting to upgrade it and have looking into running another 6950 card on crossfire. I know the card is getting on a bit but just trying to see whether its worth the £100-£130 for another card or just upgrading to a new card by using the money and whatever I get for my current card.

Any advice would be appreciated. System specs are below:

· AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz (Socket AM3)
· Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD3P AMD 790X (Socket AM3/AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
· Corsair Dominator 8GB (4x2GB) DDR2 XMS2 PC2-8500C5
· MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
· Corsair Obsidian 800D Full Tower Case
· PSU CORSAIR GS800 GAMING SERIES

 

[Davedree]

I still use a 6950 unlocked and clocked 930/1375 on my 2600k sytem,and used to run the 6950 in a heavily overclocked amd setup.
If you're phII cpu is standard then 6950cf true potential will be held back a bit,
Your psu is great so could easily run 2x 6950s.
I've thought about getting another 6950 for cheap and having a play with cf, if it didnt work out you could just sell the 2nd 6950 on again.

few options I myself have gone for number 3
1. buy a cheap 6950 have a play.
2. sell the 6950 and buy a 7950/670 and overclock it.
3. wait for the next gen hopefully end of this year.

 

[Doomedspeed]

Im pretty sure whether you upgrade to a 7950 or get another 6950 (in Xfire) your CPU will bottleneck that performance increase.

I'd bide your time and upgrade your CPU, Motherboard, (RAM) and GPU together.

 

[t.oldaker]

Ahhhh this is why I thought about getting advice. So first id be recomended to replace the mb/cpu and ram and then get a card at a later date to match?

 

[LtMatt]

Im pretty sure whether you upgrade to a 7950 or get another 6950 (in Xfire) your CPU will bottleneck that performance increase.

I'd bide your time and upgrade your CPU, Motherboard, (RAM) and GPU together.

This.

After that get a current gen card 7970/50 or depending on how long you wait to buy Q4 8970/8950.

 

[MeMeMeMe]

Personallyt, I'd get the graphic card (either a 7950 or a new 6950) first. It's a substantial performance increase even if it is being bottlenecked.

If it's being bottlenecked, you'll lose 10-20% theoretical performance, maybe. People are advising you to spend £2-400 to avoid that, as an alternative to spending £150 to get a card that will give you an average 40-60% performance increase.

I had a phenom 2 965, and switched to an i7 2600k. Using 5850 CF, I noticed very little difference between the two machines. 6950CF is a bit more demanding, but you'll see a worthwhile increase.

I went looking for a review, but of course most reviews are done on Core i7. I did find this review which compared single vs crossfire 5870 (which is a little slower than 6950, but close enough that you should see equal or better scaling - since the 6000 series scales better than 5000).
http://alienbabeltech.com/main/core-i7-vs-phenom-ii-x2-vs-x4-scaling-performance-analysis/

The review has lots of CPUs speeds shown. You want to be zeroing in on JUST the Phenom X4 955 2.2Ghz and 3.8Ghz results, compare single card to crossfire. Ignore the intel stuff - you are just looking to see, "will I get a substantial improvement by going to 6950 CF?" The answer is, yes. Some games like Resident Evil don't scale at all, but in most games you are likely to see from 50-100% improvement.

Get the card now, and if the improvement is less than 50%, consider getting a CPU upgrade then, when you know need it.

Also note, I upgraded from 690CF crossfire, and found a single 7970 is very similar to 6950CF in bennchmarks at least. So, if you can afford it, i would go that route. But otehrwise, crossfire 6950 is a good option for you.

 

[Krisali]

I am in a similar boat.

My system is I5 3570K @ 4.6
Asus P8Z77-V
16gb vengeance ram
XFX 6950 1GB

The gfx card is from an old system and despite only 1gb it still performs fairly well. It only holds me back in certain games but I am getting upgradeitis. I really would like to wait for the next gen but how long will it be?

 

[t.oldaker]

Personallyt, I'd get the graphic card (either a 7950 or a new 6950) first. It's a substantial performance increase even if it is being bottlenecked.

If it's being bottlenecked, you'll lose 10-20% theoretical performance, maybe. People are advising you to spend £2-400 to avoid that, as an alternative to spending £150 to get a card that will give you an average 40-60% performance increase.

I had a phenom 2 965, and switched to an i7 2600k. Using 5850 CF, I noticed very little difference between the two machines. 6950CF is a bit more demanding, but you'll see a worthwhile increase.

I went looking for a review, but of course most reviews are done on Core i7. I did find this review which compared single vs crossfire 5870 (which is a little slower than 6950, but close enough that you should see equal or better scaling - since the 6000 series scales better than 5000).
http://alienbabeltech.com/main/core-i7-vs-phenom-ii-x2-vs-x4-scaling-performance-analysis/

The review has lots of CPUs speeds shown. You want to be zeroing in on JUST the Phenom X4 955 2.2Ghz and 3.8Ghz results, compare single card to crossfire. Ignore the intel stuff - you are just looking to see, "will I get a substantial improvement by going to 6950 CF?" The answer is, yes. Some games like Resident Evil don't scale at all, but in most games you are likely to see from 50-100% improvement.

Get the card now, and if the improvement is less than 50%, consider getting a CPU upgrade then, when you know need it.

Also note, I upgraded from 690CF crossfire, and found a single 7970 is very similar to 6950CF in bennchmarks at least. So, if you can afford it, i would go that route. But otehrwise, crossfire 6950 is a good option for you.

Perfect thanks for that, a good bit of advice there. Ive been seeing cards on egay going for around the £100 mark but from different brands with different coolers. Trying to wait out till one the same as mine pops up to try keep it all looking tidy in the case.