Wait or Buy...or something else.

Discussion in 'Videocards - AMD Radeon' started by lambchop, Dec 8, 2009.

  1. lambchop

    lambchop Member Guru

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    Hello, it's nearly christmas time and a convenient excuse to upgrade my pc, thank you pagans. So with the new ATI cards out and the new nvidias coming out Q1 2010 im debating whether to upgrade to the HD 5870...or maybe crossfire HD 5850, or if it's worth it hold out just a little longer for nvidia. Anyway my current rig is.

    E7200 @3.8ghz
    GTX 260 216 (715mhz,1500mhz,1200mhz)
    6gb DDR2
    OCZ gamerxstream 600w

    I play at 1920x1080. Do you think it's worth it to upgrade my gpu as of right now? or should i wait a few months? My cpu is getting a bit old aswell so i don't know if that should be my main priority and upgrade to quad until i see what nvidia is offering. I wouldn't be upgrading to I5/I7 just a Q6600 or something. If this is in the wrong section apologies, wasn't sure where to put it.

    Cheers
     
  2. DSK

    DSK Banned

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    Well i would probably upgrade to a HD5850 but thats about it i can't really see anything wrong with your system it should play all games @ 1920x1080 with much problems.
     
  3. Sever

    Sever Ancient Guru

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    at 1920x1080 a 5850 should be more than plenty, even with 4x aa 16x af. remember that a monitor can only display 60fps, unless youve got a 120hz samsung or a 200hz motion flow sony. so anything beyond 60fps is unnecessary.

    until dx11 games start becoming more available and start stressing graphics cards more, a 5850 will be more than enough. and at worst, you can always slap in another one.
     
  4. lambchop

    lambchop Member Guru

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    How is the scaling with ATI in crossfire? i did have gtx 260 sli and the performance increase was not satisfactory...most games didn't use SLI very well. The hd 5850 looks very nice in the benchies, more powerful than a gtx 285 it seems. Will my C2D bottleneck it much? Like you said my resolution is not big for todays standards,but i would like to slap alot of supersampling AA on my games which my single gtx 260 sometimes has problems with. Only a few games mind you. Most of the time im playing pre 2005 games though, but i do love an upgrade! :) But i would really like my next gpu choice to do me for some time.
     

  5. jmpnop

    jmpnop Maha Guru

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    At 3.8GHz bottleneck will be less. cfx scales really good in certain games and in some games its okay..its definitely worth.
     
  6. Mega_Death

    Mega_Death Maha Guru

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    If you have money to burn then get the 5850 or 5870 now. But if you want to save some cash wait for Nvidia to release Fermi, prices will drop a bit.
     
  7. tehalirigsho

    tehalirigsho Master Guru

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    your current rig looks good . . wait a couple months. :)
     
  8. 3T3RN4L

    3T3RN4L Master Guru

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    there scaling is great but you dual-core will not be quick enough keep up with 2 5850's. with single card solutions.yes your dual be fine. a 5850 you will see big improvements,but crossfire you will get very little improvements from a single 5850 or 5870.

    if you want not to pay much for great scaling in multiple gpu solutions. the phenom II 955 is a great choice and it be much faster then a q6600.

    it easily overclocks. 3.8ghz be fine.anything higher there is not much difference at all except for synthetic benchmarks like 3dmark06 or vantage.

    also people always(even on here it looks like) misconception that it's always bout clock speeds. yes increasin clock speeds does increase performance.it's common sense,but going by these people theories and beliefs,that'll mean a amd 3200@3.0ghz be more then enough.i know what your thinking(wtf?!)

    just saying there's more to it then just clock speeds.
     
  9. lambchop

    lambchop Member Guru

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    Cheers for the replies. While the phenom's look nice it would mean buying another mobo. I didn't purchase my current one long ago. I think i will buy one hd 5850, and then maybe a good intel quad at the start of next year. That should keep me going for a while, then if needed buy another hd 5850 down the line. Although i can't see many games coming out for a while that will need it at my res. Depends on the DX11 performance hit aswell when games start utilizing it i guess.

    Cheers
     
  10. JumperR

    JumperR Master Guru

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    GtX 570 @ 900/1950
    You see my spec ... I get low fps on certain game @ 1680x1024

    We really need something like 5870 to play at max with aa ,af on.

    However, my CPU is at stock because I have problems overclocking which I am going to sell this PC to my sister for $300.... and build a 1k PC :p
     

  11. JumperR

    JumperR Master Guru

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    it should be your main priority to upgrade to a quad core.... and then wait for fermi. :)

    I say to get a quad core and save up for fermi.
     
  12. Scoot_er

    Scoot_er Member

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    I wait 2 year for upgrade my PC..
    now wait in coming fermi to buy HD 5000 series....
     
  13. Sever

    Sever Ancient Guru

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    haha, i hope you can stick to your budget.

    my budget was originally 800 for my pc, and i just hit 1.5k. and depending on how good i am at ebay sniping, could hit 2k-ish.
     
  14. lambchop

    lambchop Member Guru

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    Nvidia are usually overpriced though when they launch compared to ATI, and i can't even be sure the price to performance will be worth it even if Fermi is faster. I don't really have any allegiances to either nvidia or ati...physx etc doesn't interest me so it's purely down to getting the most performance at a good price. Should i expect a nice little fps boost with a quad compared to my C2D? If so i may wait until fermi launches in hopes ati prices go down...and i just saw a good deal on a Q6600 this morning and it's tempting to purchase, i could probably get it up to 3.4ghz no worries.
     
  15. lambchop

    lambchop Member Guru

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    Well i received my hd 5850, just waiting for a new case to arrive before installing. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas about what i should do with my gtx 260 though? the first thing i thought of is obviously using it for physx...but i don't think the extra power usage is worth such a trivial thing. Could i maybe run both my gtx 260 and hd 5850 to my hdtv And pc? ie use a dvi to hdmi adapter and plug the gtx 260 into one of my hdtv sockets, then dvi into my pc. And do the same with the hd 5850 in regards to my hdtv and pc. Does this mean i could switch between what graphics card i would prefer to use on either my tv or pc monitor depending on what im doing? if that makes sense...
     

  16. Liranan

    Liranan Ancient Guru

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    As long as Fermi cards don't cost too much AMD will lower their prices, win for us.
     

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