I'm fricking stuck in the upgrade-swamp>=(

[kallamamran]

happy medium: Leaning towards the 5870, but missing out on PhysX is a pretty big hump to get over! Yes! Sweden is right...
The onlineplaces I use is one of the following: komplett.se
datorbutiken.com
dustinhome.se

RussianSensation: Wow. Thank you for that very insightful information, but I'm affraid that leads to yet another question. What about upgrading the CPU in the current motherboard. Shouldn't be to expensive huh!? Question is... What CPU then?

Qbah: Thanks for your thoughts. Doesn't make things easier though

Lonyo: I know... That's why GTX470 and the 5870 is my main targets

 

[kallamamran]

Thank you all for you replies. Something happened and a long reply disapeared right out into cyberspace so I'll re-write a shorter one >=(

Yes I'm from Sweden and I nkow the prices. That's why the HD5870 and the GTX470 is my choices.

RussianSensation: Thanks for the very useful link, but don't you think buying a graphics card that doesn't bottleneck if I upgrade my CPU would be a good idea?

This leads to another obvious question... Upgrading the CPU?! Would it be worth it in my motherboard (MSI P965 Platinum (MS-7238) - Socket 775) and if so... What CPU & what GFX-card should be best paired in my motherboard? =)

Thank you all for your time!

 

[happy medium]

q9550 (CO or C1 stepping only) cpu and a 5870 is perfect

http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-MSI/P965_Platinum_(MS-7238).html

ever try overclocking? It very simple with these cpu's.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Not sure how often you upgrade but there's like 2 good games released a year that use physx making it hardly worth it. I want it too, but not with Fermi. I'm just going to hold off on those games unill I get something acceptable from the green camp. And as I said before, 1 GPU running the game + doing physx probably won't give you the performance you'd want; which is why 2 GPU's is recommended.

 

[Axon]

+1 for a 5870. You won't miss PhysX. If you really feel like you will, then just get the 470. Otherwise, you're better off with the cooler running card.

 

[kallamamran]

Thank you all for you replies. I have decided to leave the Nvidia-camp for a while. My next upgrade will be a Radeon-one.
I'm leaning towards the 5870 since I believe 5850 will be to slow for me. I tend of overclock the current CPU. I'm also using my computer for 3D rendering alot, so a CPU upgrade is probably also needed. The 9550 looks promising, but I have to check up on 9505 a little more before deciding. Oh what a lovely swamp of hardware this is

Thank you all

 

[gramboh]

PhysX is a gimmick, I used to have my 8800GTS640 around before I sold it, so I messed around in Batman AA and Mirror's Edge (both awesome games). Yeah, the effects are cool, but those are 8-10 hour single player games (didn't get into speed trials for ME) and PhysX is just at certain parts of the game.

Figure out which games you will spend most of your time in (for me it's TF2 and BF:BC2), I've yet to see big MP titles talk about PhysX. It's like a neat little benchmark but not a dealbreaker.

PhysX has been around for a long time now, it does not appear it will be mass adopted into games (especially ports) as a vital part of the gaming experience, instead it is a tacked on "extra" in a few titles per year, who cares.

 

[kallamamran]

It's a good tip, but I don't spend so much time in certain games. I play new games through from the beginning to the end and then I move on to the next one. I'm hooked on graphics and run every game on the highest possible setting which is getting harder and harder wih my old 8800GT. I don't find multiplayergames entertaining enough on my own and only play those at gamedays when I meet with my friends to play and that's only like once or maybe twice a year!
Because I'm modelling and redering alot in 3D I'm quite interested in what's possible with realtime graphics today and thus I need a capable graphicscard. I'm even so hooked on graphics that I can spend hours just watching as a friend plays a game. Then I can really focus on the graphics and what has been done good and what has been done less great =)

 

[NoQuarter]

You might want to check what GPU acceleration your 3d rendering apps support.. if they have CUDA support and you also want absolute max graphics you may need to get a gtx 470 for those PhysX/CUDA effects they tack on.

Actually what you might want to do is pick up a 5870 and use your 8800GT as a PhysX card if your mobo has 2 PCI-e slots. You can use rivatuner to turn down the fan on your 8800GT a little bit if it's too noisy.

 

[RussianSensation]

What about upgrading the CPU in the current motherboard. Shouldn't be to expensive huh!? Question is... What CPU then?

I think you should overclock the Q6600 and get a 5850. Take the savings from 5870/GTX470 and save it towards your next upgrade, say in 18 months. I wouldn't bother upgrading your Socket 775 CPU since you have P965 chipset. On that chipset, you are better off overclocking Q6600 with 266FSB, than trying to overclock a 45nm Penryn which is not successful beyond 400-415FSB even on P35 chipset (excluding say Abit IP35 boards. I even doubt that 45nm is even supported on your board).

An overclocked Q6600 @ 3.2ghz isn't going to be much slower than say a Q9550 @ 3.4ghz (which is likely the very maximum your board will do, even if it supports it). The real difference in CPU speed is with Core i7 processors, but in your case that means changing the motherboard and RAM. I still think bang for the buck, 5850 purchased today + $100 savings towards a new graphics upgrade in 2 years is better than getting a 5870 right now. You can overclock the 5850 if anything, but 5870 has hardly any more overclocking headroom. This is why 5850 is a better deal overall, especially since you don't have the CPU speed to take full advantage of the GTX480 or say 5870.

Put it this way, even an Athlon II X3 440 with 5870 in CF cannot consistently outperform a Core i7 920 stock with a single 5850 in a variety of games at 1920x1080: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/athlon-ii-x3-440-gaming-performance,review-31906-9.html

Now a stock Q6600 is probably 50% or more slower than a Core i7 920. This is why I do not recommend you spending 50% more $ on a 5870 with such a processor for 1920x1080 resolution unless you plan on using 8AA to shift the bottleneck towards the GPU.

For example, in Starcraft 2, Q6600 stock combined with a 5870 cannot even manage 30 fps average at a lowly 1680x1050 resolution with 0AA/0AF: http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,...CPU-benchmarks-x-Core-i5/i7-leading/Practice/
In Borderlands, Q6600 stock cannot manage > 30 fps minimum frames and averages at 60 fps at 1600x1200 with 0AA: http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/18799/6

I am not saying that 5870 isn't a great card -- it is. However, in your situation, the 25%-30% performance advantage it enjoys over 5850, when combined with a high end Core i7 or Phenom II processor, will be all but eroded due to the lowly 2.4ghz speed of your processor given your resolution.

 

[kallamamran]

NoQuarter: I've had this in mind and it's kind of one reason why the Nvidia-cards are interesting. Being able to use CUDA as rendersupport would be awsome, but I don't think this is something that is easily set up. Having a quad core CPU is enough for what I do.
Turning down the fan is not something I want to do. I believe it speeds up for a reason :\

RussianSensation: Awsome reply dude! =)
The 5870 is 3870 SEK and the 5850 is 2875 SEK. That's a pretty big difference (1000 SEK ~ 124$), so I definately will take this advice into serious consideration.
Thank you so very much for the effort and time you put into this answer with links and all. Greatly apreciated!!! :thumbsup:

Best regards // Kallamamran

 

[ZimZum]

Listen to Russian. The 5850 can also be overclocked to 5870 levels without much effort.

 

[Petey!]

5850 for sure, if you had an i7 I'd probably say 470, but with those prices, the 5850 is a pretty easy decision.

 

[kallamamran]

I humbly thank everyone for their thoughts! I will be buying a HD 5850 very soon. I'm just trying to find out which one I want now =) I've liked XFX in the past, so I'm thinking that it probably will be one of those!

 

[ebolamonkey3]

Congrats on your decision, I think you'll be very happy with it.

For future reference though, if noise is a priority and you must have PhysX, the Thermalright Spitfire may be worth the consideration as it dramatically lowers your GPU temperatures while running much more quietly than the stock cooler. All depends on if your budget will allow it and whether you can fit it in your case though.

Though by the time you upgrade again something else will be out and hopefully the next iteration of Fermi won't be nearly as hot and loud.

 

[RussianSensation]

ebolamonkey3, remember that since 4870, VRM cooling has become a major concern for top end graphics card. That means that Thermalright Spitfire coupled with VRM-R5 cooling is going to cost you $90-95 or so without a fan. Add a decent 120mm fan and you are looking at $110+ for aftermarket cooling. That just doesn't make any sense. Also, you cannot use a Spitfire with any large mounted tower cooler on the CPU (which is what the OP will need if he plans to overclock the Q6600 anyway).

Besides, if one were to spend $100 on aftermarket cooling for 5850 or GTX470, might as well get a 5870 with aftermarket cooling to begin with such as HIS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-329-_-Product

Or, Palit GTX470: http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/palit_geforce_gtx_470,2.html

 

[MagickMan]

VRM cooling is a concern, but it may be a bit more inflated than some would think. Usually the only time a person should worry about keeping those temps low is for OC stability, not that the VRMs will be damaged. I've done some crazy 5800 overclocking w/o water, and the only time I've seen temps close to 100C is during Furmark. Usually they never top 80C in any game I've ever played, and that includes using in excess of 1.3V for extended periods of time. ATI reported that the max temps for 5800 VRMs is 120C.

As for the Spitfire, it's a great performer, there's no doubt. But the cost and incredible size makes it less practical for something like the 5850. The T-Rad2 doesn't cool quite as well, it's not much better than the stock reference cooler, but like the Spitfire it's almost silent under load.

http://www.koolertek.com/computer-parts/pc/Thermalright-T-Rad2-GTX-VGA-Cooler-190p2173.htm
http://www.koolertek.com/computer-parts/pc/Thermalright-VRM-R3-for-ATI-5870-5850-190p2169.htm
http://www.koolertek.com/computer-parts/pc/Xilence-Red-Wing-80mm-PWM-Fan-183p1520.htm

That's some great 5800 cooling for $55.

 

[Maximilian]

Maybe PhysX is not that big a deal!??!

This. Get a 5850, its fast, powerful, efficient and quiet.

 

[Dark Shroud]

Something to quickly add to the conversation, running PhysX on the same GPU as the game kills FPS in a very noticeable way.

 

[ebolamonkey3]

ebolamonkey3, remember that since 4870, VRM cooling has become a major concern for top end graphics card. That means that Thermalright Spitfire coupled with VRM-R5 cooling is going to cost you $90-95 or so without a fan. Add a decent 120mm fan and you are looking at $110+ for aftermarket cooling. That just doesn't make any sense....

Yea, that's why I said all depends on his budget and whether he can fit it in his case. But if silence is a top priority, it may warrant a consideration.