Upgrade to 5850

[agw_01]

Hi guys,

Looking to upgrade the graphics card in my 'gaming' machine and just after some ideas on a card that would compliment the rest of the spec.

Phenom II x4 960T CPU
16GB DDR3
Asrock N68C-S UCC motherboard
Corsair HX850 PSU

I currently have a 1GB Sapphire 5850 connected to a 720P Panasonic plasma TV. Due to this, I don't game at higher resolutions but do feel that the GPU is holding back the frame rate.

I tend to play CM Dirt 4 and Grid 2 which run great but the machine does run into difficulty when trying to play BioShock and Fallout 3 with the texture settings cranked up.

I was thinking a 7970 would be a worthwhile upgrade. Is there anything else I should consider?

Thanks.

 

[DazQ87]

The 7970 is at least twice as fast as a 5850 with 3x the VRAM, so you should certainly see a pretty significant improvement. I would certainly make the upgrade.

 

[agw_01]

Haha, that answers that one then. Thanks

 

[Agnostic]

As someone who upgraded to a 7970 from a 6850 when I still had my 960T, I'd say go for it!

 

[agw_01]

Excellent, thanks again. A 7970 it is then.

I'm not a particularly heavy gamer and tend to stick to titles I know rather than want to play the latest games so hopefully a new card will allow a few more years out of the machine. It's a bit of a frankenstein build, with me upgrading the odd component rather sporadically as and when I come across a bargain.

 

[bigmac121]

I gave my boy my GTX 980 FTW to replace the ATI 2GB Toxic 5850 I gave him years ago
I will claim that back next time I see him

 

[agw_01]

The 5850 is still a good card. I bought mine a couple of years ago for about £30 and for light gaming, I'd still rate it as a decent performer. However when seeing the CPU is barely utilised during gaming, it's pretty clear where the bottleneck is.

A mate of mine has just offered me his Asus M5A97 Evo R2.0 very cheap, which matched with the 960T and 16GB DDR3 will make a nice machine if I can get hold of a 7970. The 5850 can stay with the Asrock, an X2 4400 and 4GB DDR2 as a backup machine if required.

Unfortunately my step-son is far too engulfed in GTA5 online with his friends on the Xbox to consider PC gaming otherwise he could have had it, and my 6 month old son is probably a bit too young for any kind of gaming at the moment

 

[pandem0nium]

Try unlocking the two extra cores, then overclock it to 4ghz+.

 

[agw_01]

I've tried on the Asrock. It won't post

I don't think the Asus supports core unlocks. Is it still worth going for 4GHz on 4 cores? What sort of vcore should I aim for?