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Will my system cope with the latest Graphics cards

Soldato
Joined
10 Jun 2010
Posts
5,158
Location
Scotland
Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a little advice. My current system is coming up on 3 years old now. I was wondering what sort of graphics card I could get before a bottleneck started to appear. I will list my specs below.

CPU- Q6600 @3.6Ghz
Ram - 4GB 1066Mhz Corsair Dominator
Mobo - Asus Maximus Formula
GPU - ATI Sapphire HD 3870
HDD - 2x Vertex 2E (Raid0)

I currently have a resolution of 1920x1200 and can play Call of duty MW2 and Black Ops on max resolution and high detail settings without any lag or stutter. I am relatively new to the gaming world and realise frames per second is an important factor in games. However I know my card is really old and there are so many better ones on the market.

I suppose I am asking, If I can currently play most games on high settings without any visible lag, how much of a benefit would it be to upgrade my Graphics card and secondly how high in the market could I go without creating a bottleneck?

I'm sure there will be a benefit and I hope some knowledeable person on here can educate me as to the differences I may see.

Thank's in advance for any helpful responses to my post.
 
5850, 6870, 6850
460, 470
Overclock cpu a bit and get a fairly cheap cooler for it and get one of the cards listed above and you should be fine
 
Aye - you will be able to slot in any top-end graphics card in that motherboard and you will get the maximum performance possible. Your boards appears to be one of the first to use the current generation graphics interface - PCIe v2.0, so in terms of graphics interface it should be as fast as a top-end X58 board.

As you point out - you have a heavily overclocked Q6600 quad core - so your CPU won't be limiting your performance (in the vast majority of games) unless you are using a seriously high-end graphics setup.

May I ask what PSU you are using? Judging by your other component choice I imagine it will be something quality, but if you can tell us the exact model of PSU we can give you an idea of what the maximum graphics setup you can accomodate.

As for how a graphics upgrade will affect your performance - if you spend ~£190 on a GTX 470 or HD 5850 level graphics card then this comparison gives you a graphical representation of how much better a new card will be.
 
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Aye - you will be able to slot in any top-end graphics card in that motherboard and you will get the maximum performance possible. Your boards appears to be one of the first to use the current generation graphics interface - PCIe v2.0, so in terms of graphics interface it should be as fast as a top-end X58 board.

As you point out - you have a heavily overclocked Q6600 quad core - so your CPU won't be limiting your performance (in the vast majority of games) unless you are using a seriously high-end graphics setup.

May I ask what PSU you are using? Judging by your other component choice I imagine it will be something quality, but if you can tell us the exact model of PSU we can give you an idea of what the maximum graphics setup you can accomodate.

As for how a graphics upgrade will affect your performance - if you spend ~£190 on a GTX 470 or HD 5850 level graphics card then this comparison gives you a graphical representation of how much better a new card will be.

Thank's very much for your response, really appreciate it. I am using a Thermaltake Toughpower 750W PSU. I was looking at the GTX470 and I'm glad to hear it won't be restricted.
 
With a ATI Sapphire HD 3870?

I very much doubt it

It's not really in my best interests to lie, With all settings maxed out on Modern Warfare 2 I can play smooth for hours without any disturbance. Although when I crank up the AA to 16x on black ops and max everything out my fps is averaging 30 which is of course pretty low. Without AAx maxed out it's fine 1920x1200.
 
It's not really in my best interests to lie, With all settings maxed out on Modern Warfare 2 I can play smooth for hours without any disturbance. Although when I crank up the AA to 16x on black ops and max everything out my fps is averaging 30 which is of course pretty low. Without AAx maxed out it's fine 1920x1200.

do you mean 4870? or 3870?
 
I have the same concerns as the OP, except my Q6600 oc is 3.2. Should I bother getting a 580 or maybe get something a bit lower (thinking 470, maybe 6870)? Native res of 1920x1080. Also I'll be limited to x8 speed because my 1st 2.0 PCI-E slot is occupied (controller card for the C300) :confused:
 
Well what you consider to be smooth now, will change quickly once you get used to a 470, it's a case of not having a referance point to compare

I thought Mass Effect was pretty smooth on my mates XBOX till i bought the PC version, and then saw the XBOX version in action again at a later date, i thought it was fine first time i saw it, but after getting used to the near constant 60FPS of the PC version the XBOX version seemed noticably less smooth and jerky in places by comparison

To be honest i dont know if the 480's will ever get that cheap, it's an expensive card to produce, with expensive components, it will likely linger on till stock has been sold, but i cant see it at £200 myself

Get a 470 it's a good £/Performance card and only slightly slower than a 480, if you want the best go for a 580, you current CPU/Mem should be good for at least 18 to 24 months of first rate gaming, and the life span of a top end card is also around 18 to 24 months give or take, so buy now and enjoy
 
Im running a Q6600 at 3.4ghz with 6850 crossfire and it runs everything I've thrown at it fine with max detail AA etc.

Black ops mutilplayer I get over 90 fps most of the time.
 
Im running a Q6600 at 3.4ghz with 6850 crossfire and it runs everything I've thrown at it fine with max detail AA etc.

Black ops mutilplayer I get over 90 fps most of the time.

Excellent. That's what I wanted to hear. What do you think of the 6850's in crossfire? Glad you made the choice. Tell me something, with a crossfire setup, what's the benefits over a single card of similar power, is it cheaper buying two low powered cards over one single powerful card etc.

Cheers
 
Just a word of caution - I am a Q6600 user on a P35 chipset and my 480 won't post for toffee. It could be a bad card but I'm intending to rule that out on Monday.
 
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