Upgrade..

[Nickson]

Hey guys,

This is probably the dumbest question you are likely to hear all year, but here goes..
I am currently the owner of an i7 920 D0, R2E x58, 6GB Corsair Dominator, and a 9800GTX..
Im obviously looking to upgrade the 9800GTX as shes a bit outdated now, and isnt upto speed with the latest games.
I was wondering if any of you could recommend a good GFX card setup to go with my build? and that would be suitable for current and upcoming titles to be played at max settings. Crysis + Crysis 2 etc.
Whether it be SLi, Crossfire or single card..
Any help would be greatly appreciated

Cheers

 

[Nickson]

 

[Nickson]

What budget? I'd recommend a 5870 at least to go with your set-up.

Thats what I was looking at, but I also saw that 5850's can almost match performance with a little overclock?

Do you mind what brand card you have?

If your budget can stretch then get a 5970 or a GTX470/480

If you havent got a high budget, you could try Crossfiring 5770's

Nah, im not a fanboy, I will be happy with either..
Although my last ATI was an X800GTO and that died within a month..
I was looking at 5770's, but I could get a 5850 for the price of them, overclock it and have near 5870 performance?
As for the 5970, bit out of the budget atm unfortunately, as much as I would love one.. Same goes for the GTX480.

as MiNxYyY said, 5770's in Xfire being so you have an X58 board could be the way forward as they will plough through anything at speeds that can shadow a 5870. so for multi card i reckon that could be the way to go and cost circa £250

5850's are fantastic single card options that remove the niggles that crossfire could give you, although the drivers are getting better. overclocked the 5850 is nearly up there with a 5870 performance wise and wont disapoint, even at stock clocks.

Money no object......well its a 5970 as said ....or wait for the refresh later this year and hold on to the 9800GTX for a bit longer

Do you have any idea what will be coming on during the next refresh?
Would be very interesting to know, so that I could possibly plan ahead

Cheers for all of the replies guys!

 

[Nickson]

Which games can't your 9800GTX play?

With max settings its struggling as of recent..
Crysis + Crysis Warhead
Battlefield 2: Bad Company
COD: Modern Warfare + World at War
Even L4D2, gets to certain parts of the game and just slows down to 15-25 fps .
She's been a loyal card, never had any issues, just doesnt quite stand upto spec with the rest of the build

 

[Nickson]

anyone can feel free to correct me if i am wrong, but i dont think that ATi has mentioned a lot about whats coming yet with regards to the refresh.

Thats annoying.. When is the next refresh?

A single 5870 won't max out crysis @1920x1200

I would go 5870cf, 5970, gtx 470 sli, gtx480 sli under water or 5970cf

Expensive shizz!! Especially the 5970 CF woah haha, £1k+ on graphics cards? lol. Unfortunately most of what you have listed is way above what im willing to spend on a graphics card(s). They will be out of date soon enough and it will be a waste!

The most graphic demanding game to date is probably still Crysis. I recall from review that at 1920x1200, high setting, 16xAF, 4xAA, a 5870 only managed minimum 22fps, average 40fps.

So if you really want a smooth game play for Crysis, you should probably consider at least crossfire 5850 or a 5970.

I was looking at either a 5850 or 5770 crossfire setup.
Currently using a 22" Samsung monitor, res 1650x1050.
But I am looking up upgrade to a 24, so either 1920x1080 or 1920x1200? (if im correct).
Why oh why does this all cost so much?! Haha

 

[Nickson]

I think metro 2033 has taken it's crown now

A little off topic.
But any idea when this is coming out on Steam?
They have videos, but no game to buy!!

 

[Nickson]

Ok that is strange .. I'm still using an 8800GTX and don't have any problems running MW, MW2, L4D2 @ 1920x1200 with some AF/AA no problems. Crysis is a different barrell though.. What is your 920 clocked at?

im confused then!
Currently only running them on 1650x1050 and I get fps lag issues .
i7 currently clocked at 3.6Ghz.
But in all fairness a 920 at stock would easily be sufficient? (not for Crysis)
Its not all the time, just at certain areas such as heavy smoke, or a lot going on on screen etc.

 

[Nickson]

Bit of an idea..
I know they are old and everything..
But what about 2x9800GX2's?
What kind of performance would that put out compared to the 5770 CF and the 5850 CF?

 

[Nickson]

I would take it to 4GHz, but not at the moment!
Ive had 4.2 out of it, but I shutdown and put back to standard 5 mins later haha.
Problem being, for some reason I keep getting errors in Prime95.
I have literally fitted my 3rd different memory kit in it today and im still getting errors where one or maybe more of the workers stops because of a hardware malfunction.
I honestly have no idea whats going on!
3rd different memory kit now..
So it cant be mem can it?
Mobo or CPU?

 

[Nickson]

The 3 games you just mentioned are essentially based on what 5 year old engines at their heart and are really brilliantly tweaked(Cod engine anyway) but still very limited in features. BC:2 is a completely different prospect to Cod/L4D engines, as are other newer engines/games like Crysis, Metro and I'm sure many many more games to come in the next year.

If you can find a good deal on 5850's(which is fairly easy to do) then for £426, 5850 cfired nothing can touch it at that price. You might need to spend a bit more to be assured of better overclocking as really the only certainty's now for great overclocking are Asus/MSI cards, which does push you into 5970 price territory but two Asus's should overclock quite a bit better than a 5970, and be quieter and be quite a bit faster, and lose less value when the next gen comes.

The next gen is highly unlikely to be a massive push as its stuck on the same process, normally you move to a new process and can roughly double the transistor count, roughly double the available shading power, and get maybe +80% performance. Thats simply not going to happen when stuck on the same process so the 68xx cards aren't likely to be a huge leap forwards, 30-40% if we're lucky. Though that should mean decent prices or conversely, that any card you buy now is unlikely to be crushed in October when the new cards come out.

That is what I was worried about!

Thanks so much for the input.
Im thinking maybe just keep it until October. I mean, Crysis 2 doesnt come out until November