Upgrade Time

[Neonine]

Hey all, this is a follow up post to one I made in the general forum.

I would like to upgrade my GPU and have up to £250 (maybe up to £300 if it was Really worth it. From my spec I see my current card as the weak link. The main game I play atm is BC2 @ 1650x1050.

Are there any recommendations that you all have for the best cards out there for my budget? I would guess a 5850 (or 2x 4870?) would be the best bet but there are so many different versions all running at slightly different speeds, are there actually any noticable differences?

(Also I was reading about ATI's Hyper memory, do you know if that is on all ATI cards now? or just a select few?)

Any ideas?

My current spec is as such

Intel core 2 E8600 (Will overclock when I fit it)
Nvidia Geforce 7900 GT/GTO
2 gig ram - Planning to upgrade to 4 gig but not out of this £250
Asus P5w DH Deluxe Motherboard
70gig 10000rpm boot disc
Seasonic 600w
Thermaltake Aguila case

 

[UKDTweak]

For your budget a 5850 would be perfect, but you will need to OC that CPU to get the most from it, though for BFBC:2 a quad CPU would be a better performer...

As for models... not much in it as most will OC to 5870 speeds fairly easily

 

[Neonine]

For your budget a 5850 would be perfect, but you will need to OC that CPU to get the most from it, though for BFBC:2 a quad CPU would be a better performer...

As for models... not much in it as most will OC to 5870 speeds fairly easily

Cheers for the quick reply

And aye would love to go up to quad core but the 250-300 budget has to cover the complete upgrade and paying 150-160 for a socket 775 quad seems a poor deal when compared to 190 for a 920 i7.

 

[kopking]

Cheers for the quick reply

And aye would love to go up to quad core but the 250-300 budget has to cover the complete upgrade and paying 150-160 for a socket 775 quad seems a poor deal when compared to 190 for a 920 i7.

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Yeah but when you have to upgrade your mobo, and especially ram to ddr3 which at the moment isn't cheap, it would be cheaper to buy a quad for 150 quid

Your looking at £500+ i would have thought

 

[Neonine]

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Yeah but when you have to upgrade your mobo, and especially ram to ddr3 which at the moment isn't cheap, it would be cheaper to buy a quad for 150 quid

Your looking at £500+ i would have thought

Hmm true, though would a 150 processor and 100-150 gpu be a better upgrade than a 250 gpu considering my current specs?

 

[Marine-RX179]

I think if you got a £300 budget, what you could do is get a 5850 around £220£230, and then try to find a 2nd hand Q6600 G0 stepping for £70-£80. I think I've seen people mention that's the prices the Q6600 going for in the 2nd hand market. And then sell off the E8600 may be. If not getting the Q6600, at least try to clock your current E8600 to as high as possible.

 

[Legionaire68]

Another option for CPU might be i5 750, mobos are reasonable prices and Cpu is about £150 and his ram might be re-usable if it is low voltage up to 1.65v stuff and they overclock to 4ghz. If he sells his current CPU and mobo he should still have enough left for an HD 5770 or 260 GTX if hes only playing at 1680 x 1200.

 

[Neonine]

(Also I was reading about ATI's Hyper memory, do you know if that is on all ATI cards now? or just a select few?)

Out of interest, anyone know which cards have Hyper Memory on them? Or if they rate it?