Upgrading Video Card Advice

DazWass

DazWass

DazWass

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Joined
4 Feb 2010
Posts
64
Im looking to upgrade my computer, since im not enjoying the fact its starting to get a little slow for my liking.

I have found two parts that im going to purchase these are,

SSD: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-076-OC

Memory: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-309-CS

But im looking into finding a different graphics card,

i am currently using: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18162190

Over clockers don't sell this any more so i found this thread from a couple of years ago

I was thinking about get two of these:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-259-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=

And then putting them in crossfire, my question is would it be best for me to buy two of these and crossfire them, or buy one that costs the same as them two ?

My current build:

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz

6GB Ram 3 x 2GB Stick

Asus M4A785TD-V Evo AMD 785G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache

OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w Silent SLI Certified Modular Power Supply

Akasa 200 Case - Black

Sony Optiarc AD-7240S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter
 
Firstly do you really need 16gb of ram? If not 8gb should be plenty for almost anything:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-300-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517
If you want to be even cheap it might just be easier to find another 2gb stick that matches your current stuff and run it all in dual channel?

As for the ssd, everyone seems to recommend the crucial M4:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-009-CR&groupid=1657&catid=2101&subcat=2103
If you don't want to spend quite that much at least go for the corsair force 3. Apparently the OCZ drives have a tendancy to fail.

Buying two 6450s is pointless. If I were you I'd stretch to one of these:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-178-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1866

I doubt the 6450s would be an improvement to your system and this card is really good value for money.
 
Hi there,

A graphics card is a good upgrade for that system, as is a SSD (it won't make games faster, but loading times and general windows performance will be much better).

However, the HD 6450 graphics card (even 2 in crossfire) is not a good option. These are low power HTPC cards and not suitable for gaming. In fact a HD 4850 will be over four times faster than one of these 6450 cards (see here - the HD 5750 shown in that tests performs on the same level as the HD 4850).

Instead, a good gaming card would be something like a hd 6850. this will provide a nice performance boost over a hd 4850.

as for the ssd, i would strongly recommend going for a crucial m4 128gb over the agility 3. it is generally a faster and more reliable drive - albeit a bit more expensive.

as for ram, 6gb should be plenty if you are mainly gaming. however, i would check in CPU-Z that the memory is running in dual channel mode. If you really want to upgrade the RAM, then I would recommend buying a compatible single 2GB stick and bring the total up to 8GB (running in dual channel mode).
 
I would agree with CM_Andi

YOUR BASKET
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £126.98
1 x OcUK HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £88.79
Total : £226.57 (includes shipping : £9.00).



Is your 955 overclocked? Might be worth adding a aftermarket heatsink, depending on your mobos overclocking options. If nothing else atleast try and up the multiplier by 1 so you have a 965.

I certainly don't think you need to add more RAM. I have 6GB (over 3 sticks) in my 555BE HTPC, it's the GPU killing your gaming experience i have an OC'd 460 in my HTPC and that plays BF3 in high settings.
 
i have decided to go with your suggestions, thanks a lot for your advice i have two other questions.

i checked CPU-Z

i currently have 2x2GB crucial sticks running in dual channel, and 1 x 2gb patriot stick. i had 2 patroit but one of them broke last year, i was wondering if i took out the patriot on put in http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-300-CS would these also run in dual channel with the other crucial memory running in dual channel at the same time.

also could i put http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-178-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1866, in the other pci port and leave my current in aswell or would it be best to just replace my current graphics crad, aslo further down the line could i buy a second 6850 and put them in crossfire, would my PSU have the sufficent amount of watts?

sorry for all the questions, i do know my stuff but its better to ask people who know more :)
 
For the memory, would you be able to tell us the full model number of the RAM sticks you currently have (as you want the specs to closely match to increase the chance of the different memory sticks working together)?

As for the graphics card, you will want to put the HD 6850 in the top full-size PCIE slot (dark blue) since that one runs at x16 speed. The lower full-size slot (white) runs at only x4 speed - therefore it will work with a graphics card, but isn't ideal for the primary card since the bandwidth will be restricted.

May I ask why you would want to keep the HD 4850 connected? The HD 6850 can connect to a maximum of three monitors and won't work in crossfire with the HD 4850.

As for crossfire, yes the OCZ 600W PSU should be fine with your system and two HD 6850 cards. However, you may find that the second PCIE slot running at x4 speed restricts performance a bit.
 
These are my slot 1,2 and 3







What i want to do is keep the 2 crucial sticks in and then put in the vengeance blue aswell

as for the video card i just thought if i kept the 4850 connected i would get better performance with them both connected together, shows how much i know doesnt it :P
 
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Looks good. In that case I would go with this RAM kit, since it is the same manufacturer (this can help with compatibility) and it uses low-profile coolers (so there is no interference with large CPU coolers).

As for running the HD 4850, it won't provide any performance boost unless you are running some tasks that can make use of multiple non-identical GPUs - like distributed computing projects. For games you wouldn't see any performance bonus - as only the primary GPU or those in a crossfire arrangement affects gaming performance (for crossfire the cards need to be of the same family to work eg 6870 and 6850).
 
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