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Upgrade from ATI 4890

boosted_sock

boosted_sock

boosted_sock

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Joined
21 Aug 2012
Posts
13
My Current system is actually quite old...

AMD Phenom 940 @ 3.8Ghz
8GB DDR2 8500
1TB SATA2 WD Drive
Asus HD4890 Graphics Card
2nd Cheap Graphics Card

I have 1x 24" Widescren Monitor in the Middle and 2x 19" Non-Wide monitors either side...

Id like to change my graphics card for a few reasons...

1, cut down the heat in my box, 2 graphics card doing a job 1 modern card can do...
2, more power for Borderlands 2
3, Game accross 3 screens...


So Id like a new graphics card that needs to do the following things:

1, Run 3 Monitors 1x1920x1080 2x1280x1024. There all DVI but I believe the main one has HDMI...

2, Have dramatically more power to allow Borderlands 2 to run seemlessly on FULL. BL1 does at the moment on FULL, but when using multiple players with corrosive weapons becomes laggy!

3, The BL series have somthing called physx? I saw this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWFkDrKvBRU

Is there an ATI Equiv??

Im askign for your expert recommendations on a new card to suit? I dont mind spending 250-300quid if it does the job well... :)

Regards
Matt.
 
Would probably be a waste spending £250-300 for a gpu on that rig to be honest. Do some more research into physx and decide if that is a feature you definately want, if you do you are tied to Nvidia GPU's.
 
Brilliant...

Ok, so aiming more at the physx stuff... Is there an ATI equivilent?? That the game will plug into?

Is the only way to get the eye candy to go down the nvidia route?
 
boosted_sock said:
Brilliant...

Ok, so aiming more at the physx stuff... Is there an ATI equivilent?? That the game will plug into?

Is the only way to get the eye candy to go down the nvidia route?
Click to expand...

Physx is just physics processing that's normally handled by your CPU.
How about this for an alternative, a little more yes but you'll get much better FPS

578750_10151858888046494_838750615_n.jpg
 
dave_beast said:
Physx is just physics processing that's normally handled by your CPU.
How about this for an alternative, a little more yes but you'll get much better FPS

578750_10151858888046494_838750615_n.jpg
Click to expand...
You seriously recommending someone to "upgrade" from a Phenom II at 3.8GHz to a FX-4100? Talk about wasting other peoples' money...

And talk about giving misinformation (or half truth) about PhysX just because you like Red more than Green...
 
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Sorry, dont want to cause a dissagreement, please enlighten me..

The system is rapid, I have no gripes with the PC, its not that old tech really...

Just the graphics I believe could do with the additional umph...
 
7850 and 7870 is still the best bang for bucks around the £200 and below price range, however specifically for Borderland 2, it might worth paying little more for a GTX660Ti (not that I'm saying it's good value considering's UK overpriced them, but with the bundle Borderland 2 game offered with it would make it feel slightly less overpriced).

Here's a video of of the PhysX demo for Borderland 2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo_zDkvazKI
It's up to you to decide if the extra PhysX effect worth the extra cost for you, if not then just go for a 7850 or 7870.
 
For the same price as a GTX660TI the HD7950 seems a better bet especially with is overclocking headroom. I would consider it a better long term choice for multi-monitor gaming IMHO. Moreover,I would get a GTX670 over a GTX660TI if you want a Nvidia card. I consider the HD7950 and GTX670 the best choices if you are spending £230 to £300.

TBH,with HD7850 cards now under £165 from several retailers,I would get one of those and overclock it a bit.

BL2 is based on the older UT3 engine anyway,so I would NOT be spending £200+ on a card for it.

If you want PhysX,I would wait for the GTX660 non-TI which should be under £200. However,a lot of the effects seen in the video should have been doable on the CPU,so it does look like the game was gimped,to give advertising fodder for Nvidia.Sigh.
 
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CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
For the same price as a GTX660TI the HD7950 seems a better bet especially with is overclocking headroom. I would consider it a better long term choice for multi-monitor gaming IMHO.

TBH,with HD7850 cards now under £165 from several retailers,I would get one of those.

BL2 is based on the older UT3 engine anyway,so I would NOT be spending £200+ on a card for it.

If you want PhysX,I would wait for the GTX660 non-TI which should be under £200.
Click to expand...
Actually I just remembered...may be get a 2nd hand GTX480 for under £120 or GTX470 for £85 and add a 3rd party cooler to it? But it's probably won't lower the temp of his PC comparing to the 4890 XD
 
boosted_sock said:
My Current system is actually quite old...

AMD Phenom 940 @ 3.8Ghz
8GB DDR2 8500
1TB SATA2 WD Drive
Asus HD4890 Graphics Card
2nd Cheap Graphics Card

I have 1x 24" Widescren Monitor in the Middle and 2x 19" Non-Wide monitors either side...

Id like to change my graphics card for a few reasons...

1, cut down the heat in my box, 2 graphics card doing a job 1 modern card can do...
2, more power for Borderlands 2
3, Game accross 3 screens...


So Id like a new graphics card that needs to do the following things:

1, Run 3 Monitors 1x1920x1080 2x1280x1024. There all DVI but I believe the main one has HDMI...

2, Have dramatically more power to allow Borderlands 2 to run seemlessly on FULL. BL1 does at the moment on FULL, but when using multiple players with corrosive weapons becomes laggy!

3, The BL series have somthing called physx? I saw this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWFkDrKvBRU

Is there an ATI Equiv??

Im askign for your expert recommendations on a new card to suit? I dont mind spending 250-300quid if it does the job well... :)

Regards
Matt.
Click to expand...

PhysX is not really noticeable unless you're watching dust particles rather than actually what's happening in the game. It's only used in ~10 games IIRC, and one game having it would definitely not warrant buying a card with PhysX for me anyway!
 
(!!!) YOU DONT NEED TO UPGRADE ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE GRAPHICS CARD YET IF YOU DONT WANT TO (!!!)

Though I will say that anything better than a 6970 / gtx570 will cause a slight bottleneck.
 
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