What parts to upgrade for 1600p gaming?

V4FRP

V4FRP

V4FRP

Associate
Joined
19 Jan 2012
Posts
74
Location
Wokingham, Berkshire
I have the following spec'd PC and use it mainly for games, some photo editing etc. I want to get better performance in games as I use to have a 6970 and 120hz 1080p screen which was great for gaming.

I love the resolution of my 30" monitor but I hate having to turn down some of the settings in games to achieve reasonable FPS. I love the resolution though and don't want to change the screen.

I've been thinking about buying another 7970 and running them in crossfire but I guess I will need a new PSU? Or should I sell my 7970 and get a 690/7990?

Is there somewhere else I should spend my money to improve what I already have? Thanks for the advice :)

i5 2500k @4.3Ghz
8GB 1866mhz
7970 Ghz Edition (Gigabyte)
256GB Samsung SSD
2TB Seagate HDD (where games are stored)
HAF X Case
750w Coolermaster PSU
HP LP3065 Screen
 
I've got a Asus P8Z68 motherboard and the PSU is the GX series, came free with the case :)
 
Mainly playing FC3, BF and AC3 at the moment but keen to get Crysis. From what I've seen I'll barely be able to run it with Medium settings.

Would appreciate higher framerates in the other games too though so this is not just for one game.

Keen to understand if crossfire with 2 cards is the way to go or if a 690/7990 is a better bet?

Appreciate the responses!
 
crossfire/sli is probably a little faster than a dual gpu card, but if you dont have the space then they are fine.
I used to run on 2 295's, only upgraded to 480's due to vram requirements of new games. If you want stable 60FPS at 1600 you are most definately looking at dual gpu of some form. I wouldn't really bother with quad though, scaling seems to be like this 100% 80% 50% 20% for each card, on average, some games are much better/worse.

The only annoying thing is when a game comes out and flat out refuses to work with multi gpu, but they tend to not be too gpu heavy and are rare nowadays.

Single gpu cards are also easier to sell on, as some people dont like sli or performance wise they are still great but vram/tech limits them in future stuff.
 
Thanks, good point re resale, I hadn't thought about that.

Looks like I'll be on the hunt for another 7970 GE! What power PSU do I need?

Love 1600p gaming, I got the screen free from work so guess I shouldn't complain about having to buy another graphics card!

Thanks for the responses, much appreciated
 
not sure on PSU as i dont know anything about the amd 7 series, but for a normal dual gpu setup your 750 should be more than enough. setting mine to 2 480s with the million drives and watercooling etc i draw less than that from the wall.
 
I run sli gtx 580's on my 30", frame rates are very good - that said it was a nightmare to fit everything and ended up going the WC route.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom