What graphics card is recommended to replace an HD-4870 in a 775 system?

[sastusbulbas]

Hi all,

I have an old 775 system I would like to improve, and am thinking of an SSD and new GPU.

I currently have two GPU's here I can use, a Sapphire Vapour-X HD4870 1gb Toxic, and PowerColor SCS3 HD5750 1GB, but think something new would be an improvement? These two won't run World of Tanks at high settings well, but with selective low settings I get up to 120fps on the HD5750.

Anyone got any recommendations on what would be a decent improvement on the HD4870 or HD5750?

I have a few PSU's

I would like high settings and high frame rates up to 120fps. I play old and new games, World Of Tanks, MWO, PS2, C&C titles, Arma II, Minecraft etc.

The old system is currently as follows,

Asus Maximus II Gene 775 motherboard.
Intel Q9550 CPU. (Currently stock due to cooler failing at 3.5Ghz)
Be Quiet Dark Rock Advanced CPU cooler.
Corsair Dominator GT 1066c5 2x2gb memory.
PowerColor SCS3 HD5750 1GB. (Or the HD4870)
Samsung F3 500gb HDD, and WD 1.5tb Green for storage.
Silverstone TJ08B-E case.
Corsair HX-450w PSU. (Also have Seasonic 650w and BeQuiet 630w available here)
BenQ XL2420T 120hz 3D monitor (1920 x 1080).

 

[sastusbulbas]

A new PC is on the cards, in fact it has been for some time.

This PC though, will still be around, I have a few PC's here, so would like to maximize this PC's performance. It was my media PC previous, and only got put into gaming use when my main PC motherboard failed, and a new build was put of due to cycling and news of Haswell.

Regarding the CPU bottle neck, what cards are going to be an upgrade and suitable? I can run this Q9550 overclocked if I spend time resolving finer OC details and cooling, or can run an E8500 dual core overlocked. I will only be using this system until there is a Micro ATX Maximus Gene or equivalent motherboard for Haswell.

Surely there are current GPU's that will not reach a CPU bottleneck in this system, while bettering my old HD4870 and HD5750? All I want is to maximize this PC's performance. It will always be connected to a single monitor, it will never be expected to do more than 1920x1080 at 120hz. It gets passed on to my son later when Haswell comes out. So I do not need a GPU to pair with an i7 type Ivy/Haswell build as it will be the last GPU this system gets and stay there.

I can currently get 120fps on the likes of World Of Tanks with the eye candy off, and medium settings still give me 60+. Currently it always seems like the GPU and hard drives are holding back performance.

 

[sastusbulbas]

I have been trying to Google what sort of bottlenecks people have experienced with the Q9550 and so far found very little evidence of such with a single GPU?

In fact, I previously preferred the E8500 to the Q9550 for gaming, it overclocked better, but of course, back then not many games required Quad cores.

How much of an improvement would the HD7850 give me over the HD4870 or HD5750?

 

[sastusbulbas]

Cheers wazza!

So a 250gb Sammy 840 and an HD7850 this week, would probably be best bang for buck and all that's needed.

Or if I wanted to take it a little too far a 500gb Sammy 840 and a new HD7870 or HD7950 GPU in a week or two, which would be stupid as I could get an i7 3770k, Maximus V Gene, and 8gb Vengeance instead. Which I am putting off due to Haswell lol.

 

[sastusbulbas]

Well if an HD7850 performs well beyond the HD4870 and HD5750 then it should do as the last card this old system receives I guess. But I could push to an HD7950 if it's all I ever need and recommended over an HD7970 for a future build.

Out of curiosity, what card would be best for a single monitor such as the BenQ XL2420T 120hz 3D monitor (1920 x 1080)?

For most games maxed out, would something like an HD7970 or a GTX-680 would be overkill in an i5/Haswell system, even though most magazines recommend such?

To be honest I was thinking of the Gigabyte HD7970 GHz GPU for my i5 that's now put off for Haswell build, only due to reading reviews. But doubt I will ever run more than one monitor, though maybe I would try the Dell UltraSharp U2913WM 29" with it's 2560x1080 res.

Are the HD-7950 and GTX-670 all any single monitor would ever need? What would anything better bring to a single monitor party?

Currently toying with the following upgrade for this 775 system.

Samsung 250GB SSD 840 £131.99
HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 1024MB £139.99

 

[sastusbulbas]

Well current choices are,

HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB at £155.99

Sapphire HD 7870 XT rev2.0 2048MB at £209.99

MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Boost Edition 3072MB at £220.00

As it is I am tempted to go for the 7950 as it will give me a GPU to start with when I build a new PC later in the year.

 

[sastusbulbas]

Thankyou for the input all, I ordered the MSI 7950.

Wonder if the HX-450w will have enough juice or should I just pop a 600+ PSU in.

An SSD will probably be ordered in a week or two, and I am currently looking for a better CPU cooling option for the Q9550. A closed liquid cooler loop with a 120mm fan would be a good option.

 

[sastusbulbas]

I have a 650w Seasonic X series and a Be Quiet 630w L8. Most calculators seem to recommend 650w to 750w PSU's for an overclocked Q9550 with a 7900 series and a couple of HDD's?

In fact it seems the HD4750 and HD7950 have the same power supply requirements with both having a 500w PSU minimum rating recommended by AMD.

I have two Silverstone TJ08B-E cases here, so a 120mm fan closed loop liquid cooler will probably be the only option if pushing 3.5Ghz +.

 

[sastusbulbas]

The problem is the cost of those high-end all-in-one water coolers..air cooler could often achieve the same cooling capability at 1/2 or 2/3 of the cost.

Also for the kind of games that OP is playing (World of Tanks and PS2), plus on a 120Hz monitor, he would be better off trying to find a cheap 7850 2GB and spend the money saved plus the money on selling his current CPU bundles toward upgrade to a i5. Those games are extremely CPU dependent, and to be frank...even on a overclocked Q9550, the 7950 would most probably not offer better frame rate than a 7850...

Not sure of an i5 at this moment, not with Haswell round the corner. Though if I get bored waiting I may well stick with a Maximus V Gene and 3570K option. I originally had such planned.

Any new build will be going into my current case and possibly retain some items such as PSU, cooling, GPU, storage.

I am not sure what air coolers are recommended, but something like the NH-D14 is rather huge, noisy, and limits space and actually could inhibit cooling and a build inside the TJ08B-E in my opinion. It would certainly not allow me to use the HDD cage and software raid a couple of HDD's.

So any examples that would be better than for example, an H80i with a 775 back plate?

I have only spent around £60 more going for the 7950 instead of a 7850. I doubt I would get much for the 775 kit on the members market, but may well consider that in future. I had intended to later pass this PC's old components to my son or maybe even put it back together as a media PC, (the Q9550 replaced an E8500 which was passively cooled).

Not really noticed the Q9550 holding me back so far, and many online benchmarks seemed to indicate it was not that bad for gaming when i5 was released. I get that current games may see bottlenecks, but at the moment, with an HD-5770 passive cooled GPU and a Q9550 running stock, I get 100+ frames on WoT with selective low settings.

At the moment, as I am unsure what direction my next CPU and motherboard will take, I see no harm in adding components such as an SSD, GPU, CPU cooler and maybe even a 4tb storage drive that could be transferred to a Haswell later in the year.

They will still improve this PC's performance, even if bottlenecked.