upgrade time!

[casual123]

looking to upgrade for christmas

Current system

coolermaster scout case/coolermaster silent pro 700w
AMD phenom x2 550 black edition unlocked to quad
asus m4a785td-v evo mobo
3 gb ddr3 ram
HIS 6850 1gb
1tb sata,2 x 300 gb sata.


im upgrading my processor to the AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1090T Black Edition 3.20GHz & also buying an Asus Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Sound Card & now im stuck on a gpu choice, i play at 1680x1050 and i can max out most games at the moment apart from bf3, i'd like as much performance as i can get for the money but dont want to spend too much, nothing over 170, been looking at the 560 ti, any ideas? thanks!

 

[mickyflinn]

You could add another 6850 as long as your psu can handle it.

 

[Surveyor]

You could add another 6850 as long as your psu can handle it.

He could, but running the cards at x16/x4 (as his motherboard does) isn't the best way to do it and the reduced bandwidth to the second card can lead to reduced performance.

 

[casual123]

i did think about crossfire but as surveyor said my mobo only has 1 x16 pci-e, getting a new mobo that supports x16 x2 could be an option though

 

[Gerard]

He could, but running the cards at x16/x4 (as his motherboard does) isn't the best way to do it and the reduced bandwidth to the second card can lead to reduced performance.

According to hardocp its really only noticable at eyefinity and surround like resolutions.

 

[Surveyor]

According to hardocp its really only noticable at eyefinity and surround like resolutions.

Tested at single monitor resolutions with HD 6950's but a significant drop in some games, with an average of a 10% reduction for x16/x4 compared to x8/x8:

Does CrossFire Work At x16/x4?

 

[Gerard]

Tested at single monitor resolutions with HD 6950's but a significant drop in some games, with an average of a 10% reduction for x16/x4 compared to x8/x8:

Does CrossFire Work At x16/x4?

Hardocp went for dual 16x vs dual 4x and the differences at 2560x1600 were pretty small, crossfire and sli.;

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/08/25/gtx_480_sli_pcie_bandwidth_perf_x16x16_vs_x4x4/

Also done article based on dual 16x vs dual 8x as well, linked on the conclusion page.

 

[Surveyor]

Hardocp went for dual 16x vs dual 4x and the differences at 2560x1600 were pretty small, crossfire and sli.;

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/08/25/gtx_480_sli_pcie_bandwidth_perf_x16x16_vs_x4x4/

Also done article based on dual 16x vs dual 8x as well, linked on the conclusion page.

I've seen that before and often quoted it myself in the past.

Two tests, two different overall results.

Make of it what you will but there seems a big variation depending on the particular game.

 

[casual123]

You could add another 6850 as long as your psu can handle it.

forgot to add my psu is a cm silent pro 700w