Help me updgrade my son's Radeon 5700 HD

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mlah384

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I'm getting my son a BenQ XL2730Z 27" 144hz monitor for Christmas, but I figured I needed to upgrade his video card as well for gaming. His computer has an older Radeon 5700 HD, i7-920 2.67ghz CPU, with 16gb of ram, so I'm hoping his system will keep up with a video card such as a GTX 960? or a Radeon R9 290?

What is the sweet spot for video cards in the <$300 price range? Especially considering that monitor and what he currently has for a cpu...

Thanks!
 
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bononos

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RussianSensation

RussianSensation

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mlah384 said:
I'm getting my son a BenQ XL2730Z 27" 144hz monitor for Christmas, but I figured I needed to upgrade his video card as well for gaming. His computer has an older Radeon 5700 HD, i7-920 2.67ghz CPU, with 16gb of ram, so I'm hoping his system will keep up with a video card such as a GTX 960? or a Radeon R9 290?

What is the sweet spot for video cards in the <$300 price range? Especially considering that monitor and what he currently has for a cpu...

Thanks!
Click to expand...

That monitor is 1440P and FreeSync. The best choice is a used after-market R9 290/290X or a new R9 390. I'd also recommend getting a $40 CPU cooler and overclocking you i7 920 to 4Ghz OR go into our CPU forum sub-section and ask advice for what the best $100 6-core Xeon CPU to buy for X58 motherboard drop-in. That would be a solid upgrade.

Guide to Overclocking the Core I7 920 or 930 to 4.0ghz

Overclocking Intel i7 920 Guide - Part 1
Overclocking Intel i7 920 Guide - Part 2

Overclocking Intel's Core i7 920

bononos said:
After recent price cuts, the 970 and AMD 390 are below $300 or less including rebates.
http://wccftech.com/nvidia-cuts-prices-900-serie/
http://wccftech.com/amd-r9-fury-x-nano-price-cuts/

But the old cpu will be a bottleneck, and there will be a new round of cards next year which are not refreshes with only minor improvements. So maybe something cheaper like the Nvidia 950 might do. Check your psu if you intend to get an AMD $300 card.
Click to expand...

950 for a 2560x1440 144Hz monitor? No. He can just overclock his CPU to 4Ghz or drop in a Xeon 6-core and overclock it to 4.3-4.5Ghz. R9 390 pairs nicely with that monitor and overclocked/upgraded CPU choices.

Arachnotronic said:
Nab a GTX 970. To fix that CPU bottleneck that bononos referred to, you can grab a Xeon X6560 and overclock it:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon-...230797?hash=item35f6d2190d:g:ewsAAOSwnipWYieq

After selling the 920 on eBay, you can probably make that CPU upgrade cost you maybe $60 total.
Click to expand...

Great suggestion on the X5650 Xeon drop in or similar but 970 is a bad pick for his monitor which is both a FreeSync and 1440P. 970 loses to an R9 390 at 1440P. If the OP wants 970, then for comparative purposes, it should be paired with a GSync 1440P 144Hz monitor such as this Dell.
 
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Arachnotronic

Arachnotronic

Lifer
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Great suggestion on on the X5650 Xeon drop in or similar but 970 is a bad pick for his monitor which is both a FreeSync and 1440P. 970 loses to an R9 390 at 1440P. If the OP wants 970, then for comparative purposes, it should be paired with a GSync 1440P 144Hz monitor such as this Dell.
Click to expand...

Whoops, that monitor is totally FreeSync. Then yeah, I'd recommend the AMD equivalent in this case (R9 390)...variable refresh is awesome :thumbsup:

BTW, if I were the OP, I would buy a 1920-by-1080 144Hz FreeSync/G-Sync monitor and plow the savings into better gear.
 
Arachnotronic

Arachnotronic

Lifer
Mar 10, 2006
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@OP

I'd recommend going with the Acer XG270HU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009769&cm_re=144hz-_-24-009-769-_-Product

It's 1920x1080, 144hz, FreeSync, $469.

Then you can use the $200 that you save over the 1440p monitor you're looking at to go with the R9 390 (this one should be pretty good: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127874&cm_re=r9_390-_-14-127-874-_-Product) as well as a more substantial CPU/platform upgrade.

It's also worth noting that your son would be able to get higher FPS and actually enjoy the high refresh rate monitor if it's a lower res display since a 970/390 isn't going to be able to really push 144hz in the latest games.

In this case I'd recommend going with a cheap i5 4590 ($199 on Newegg) + Z97 board ($79.99 AR for this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130779&cm_re=z97-_-13-130-779-_-Product).

You'd be $100 over the initial budget but your son would have a vastly superior/balanced system as a result w/o the need to overclock :thumbsup:
 
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mlah384

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What vid card/cpu setup would be smart to go with for the BenQ? The R9 390 and a drop in processor? Will Xeon work on the same mobo that the i7 920 is on? Same ram will be ok? Power supply is Corsair 650w and it has an OCZ Vertex 3 SSD... It does have an after market CPU cooler as well, but can a drop in Xeon be overclocked well?
 
Arachnotronic

Arachnotronic

Lifer
Mar 10, 2006
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mlah384 said:
What vid card/cpu setup would be smart to go with for the BenQ? The R9 390 and a drop in processor? Will Xeon work on the same mobo that the i7 920 is on? Same ram will be ok? Power supply is Corsair 650w and it has an OCZ Vertex 3 SSD... It does have an after market CPU cooler as well, but can a drop in Xeon be overclocked well?
Click to expand...

R9 390 + a drop in CPU would be solid. RAM should be fine, PSU should be good.

Xeon can be overclocked, yes, which is why it's such a good value if you have an x58 platform :)
 
Arachnotronic

Arachnotronic

Lifer
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mlah384 said:
I guess PCI Express 3.0 is backwards compatable with 2.0? any performance loss?
Click to expand...

The card should work fine and I doubt you'd notice any performance loss in real world usage due to the PCIe bus. The limiting factor here is the CPU, but with a good overclock (as RS suggested), you should be able to get a lot of performance from a used hex core X5650.
 
Arachnotronic

Arachnotronic

Lifer
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mlah384 said:
would that x5650 be the best choice for cpu? would i have to overclock to eliminate bottleneck?
Click to expand...

For that board I think it's the best bang for the buck when you factor in over clocking. At stock the additional cores will be helpful in the future but won't fundamentally solve the fundamental problem of relatively low single threaded performance in this day and age.
 
crisium

crisium

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What's your PSU? The 5700 series only used 1x6pin connector, so make sure you can handle high end cards like the 390 and Fury series.

I have this monitor, and you can see my specs in my signature, FWIW. The 390 is certainly the best bang for the buck, assuming your PSU can handle it.

http://cdn.sweclockers.com/artikel/diagram/10954?key=38b51967afcfa7be6d07511428391c18

After that, 390X, Fury, and Fury X all provide marginal increases. It's up to your budget.
 
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Piroko

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Jan 10, 2013
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Hello mlah,

for a christmas present I would play it safe, because nothing sucks more than a present that doesn't work on christmas eve.
Which means: Could you check the PSU first? If it's older and 450W or lower I would think about replacing it for something like this.
Another factor is, does the case have decent ventilation? A 390 dumps around 250W into the case, the 5770 was a 100W GPU if I recall correctly. Those additional 150W need to be dealt with I'm afraid. Two 120mm fans, one in the front, one in the back are probably enough.

For the GPU there are two decent options currently, one is the 380 with 4GB at ~200$, that is around 4 times faster than a 5770. It'll dump around 180W into the case which is easier to handle as well (would still go with 1+1 fan). The second option is the mentioned 390 at ~300$, that is around 6 times faster than a 5770.

For the CPU I would probably stick to the stock cooler and bump it to 3 GHz if paired with the 380, or get a better cooler and bump it to 3.5GHz for the 390. It'll be fast enough for most games.
 
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mlah384

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The psu is a CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 650W and the case is an Antec Nine Hundred with extra fan on side blowing in towards video card and cpu.

And the CPU cooler is a Prolimatech Megahalems with two fans
 
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RussianSensation

RussianSensation

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mlah384 said:
The psu is a CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 650W and the case is an Antec Nine Hundred with extra fan on side blowing in towards video card and cpu.

And the CPU cooler is a Prolimatech Megahalems with two fans
Click to expand...

You are fine with any single GPU as far as power requirements are concerned. Your best bet on the CPU side is to sell the 920 and get a Xeon. You can go into our CPU & Overclocking section to get better advice on what Xeon to get. The one Arachnotronic linked is very good. Your heatsink is top-of-the-line and should be easily able to handle 4.5Ghz overclock on the 6-core Xeon.

The main decision you have to make is 1440P 144Hz monitor vs. 1080P 144Hz one and TN vs. IPS panel. Once you pick the display, you just pick between a GTX970 and the 390. If you already purchased the display in your original thread, then it's the 390.

If your son might be interested in Rainbow 6 Siege or Assassin's Creed Syndicate, then either of those games comes free with a 970.

For help on picking the Xeon drop-in and overclocking it, you can also private message Burpo. He is well versed on the subject.

BTW, whoever built your last system (you?) did an excellent job picking excellent components. Now you don't even have to get a new PSU, a new CPU cooler, etc.
 
Arachnotronic

Arachnotronic

Lifer
Mar 10, 2006
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mlah384 said:
The psu is a CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 650W and the case is an Antec Nine Hundred with extra fan on side blowing in towards video card and cpu.

And the CPU cooler is a Prolimatech Megahalems with two fans
Click to expand...

Great PSU, case, and HSF.

Grab an R9 390 and overlock the current CPU for a solid performance boost. That'd probably be enough for a while as those 920s (if you got the good stepping) could overclock quite nicely.

That said, if you can spare the cash, nab the X5650 and overclock away :)
 
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Piroko

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Arachnotronic said:
Great PSU, case, and HSF.

Grab an R9 390 and overlock the current CPU for a solid performance boost. That'd probably be enough for a while as those 920s (if you got the good stepping) could overclock quite nicely.

That said, if you can spare the cash, nab the X5650 and overclock away :)
Click to expand...
This would be my answer as well. You made some great choices back then.
 
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mlah384

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Dec 17, 2008
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Thanks everyone! I gave him one of my old computers I built awhile back. I've built and overclocked computers since the early 90's starting with the pentium 90mhz cpu, but I work so much these days that I'm extremely out of touch with the "latest and greatest". It's always a comfort to know I can come here and get top notch advise!

The monitor is pretty much purchased, I believe in getting awesome monitors that will last for several systems. I may try the i7 920 overclock first, because in the future I may build a new pc for myself and give him my current one which is a liquid cooled newer i7.

Thanks again for all the help!
 
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