is upgrading vid card worth it with my cpu?

[LegionX]

hi ,
sorry haven't been here in ages but now i need help and in the past this has been the best place to get advice

i would like to upgrade my Radeon 4850 to a newer card - either another Radeon or an Invidia around 200-300$ canadian but am not sure if my processor will be a big bottleneck or not. i am using a E6750 2600 with 8 gigs of ddr2 ram running vista home premium 64bit.

i want the upgrade to be able to play world of tanks and medal of honor with more eye candy and higher resolutions plus other games i am considering buying.

also i before you say i should upgrade the cpu and everything i am not able too atm with my financial situation but hope a new vid card would give me some more juice til i can.

thanks in advance for any help

 

[RussianSensation]

How high of a resolution and what other games do you intend to play (more modern games>)? Your best bet is to overclock that E6750 to 3.2-3.4ghz (which it will do most likely with a $30 cooler).

If you are going to be gaming at 1920x1080 with AA, I think this Gigabyte HD6870 for $155 (after $30 MIR) and $5 off with coupon code "tackle" and 2 free games (shogun 2 and deusex) is a great deal.

 

[tweakboy]

hi ,
sorry haven't been here in ages but now i need help and in the past this has been the best place to get advice

i would like to upgrade my Radeon 4850 to a newer card - either another Radeon or an Invidia around 200-300$ canadian but am not sure if my processor will be a big bottleneck or not. i am using a E6750 2600 with 8 gigs of ddr2 ram running vista home premium 64bit.

i want the upgrade to be able to play world of tanks and medal of honor with more eye candy and higher resolutions plus other games i am considering buying.

also i before you say i should upgrade the cpu and everything i am not able too atm with my financial situation but hope a new vid card would give me some more juice til i can.

thanks in advance for any help

Your processor is a big bottleneck for a 5xx series nVidia card. For your CPU the best card would be a 460 768GB for around 100 dollars. You spend anymore your not gonna get higher framerates cuz of your CPU bottleneck. gl and gb

 

[Spikesoldier]

Your processor is a big bottleneck for a 5xx series nVidia card. For your CPU the best card would be a 460 768GB for around 100 dollars. You spend anymore your not gonna get higher framerates cuz of your CPU bottleneck. gl and gb

seconded. i would have recommended 460 or 5770/6770 but you already have 800 shaders with your 4850.

it would not be a worthy to upgrade the vga card with your CPU. i would attempt to OC the CPU. see if you can do 400fsb.

alternatively, a good last cpu for lga 775 is the q9550. see if you can get one cheap if you are on a budget.

above all, i would recommend doing a rebuild when you have the money.

 

[tweakboy]

You need a quad core @ 3.4Ghz to be able to use 5xx or ati 5xxx card and not have a bottleneck.

Spike is right, see if you can find a Q9550 , wish I had one, I would OC it to 4.2Ghz ...

We dont know if he wants to OC or not, but even OCing that dual I stand on my word grab a 460gtx 768mb for like 80 or 100 dollars. OC your dual to 3.4Ghz ask us how !!! well help you. You can OC your C2D very easily. I dont know if I want you to play with your FSB, or I dont know if you have done this before. Lets take the easy route. Simply change your multiplier and X it with FSB. Your going to need to raise the vcore voltage, Do you have good cooling ? We can do something like 333 x 10 with a voltage of 1.36v I believe... let us know... what you make sure your RAM speed is divider. Dont let it go over RAM spec.... gl

 

[gmaster456]

With the majority of PC mulitplats favoring the GPU over the CPU, I'd upgrade that first to something like a GTX560ti. And then try and overclock your CPU or get a new one as soon as possible. Something like a Q9550 if you can find one cheap.

 

[Attic]

If you are going to be gaming at 1920x1080 with AA, I think this Gigabyte HD6870 for $155 (after $30 MIR) and $5 off with coupon code "tackle" and 2 free games (shogun 2 and deusex) is a great deal.

:thumbsup: This.

Given your CPU can't be upgraded at the moment, the price after rebate of the card above can't really be beat for a immediate upgrade that will also be worthy of a faster CPU when you get around to it. The 2 included games are also well regarded, though shogun 2 is very cpu+gpu intensive.

Last time I checked the used quad core 775's were overpriced for their performance relative to newer offerings, though with your setup I think that path still makes sense given a vid card upgrade and all the ram you already have will make for a very robust gaming system without having to rebuild.

 

[LegionX]

thanks for the replies all
i haven't overclocked in along time and really dont feel up trying it again since it always causes my nerves to go up so ...

as for the card i was hoping to buy something decent now and then hopefully at Xmas upgrade the rest but can never count on that either.

as for 1920x1080 that would be awesome but for now it would be nice to get above 1000x800 (cant remember exact numbers) in world of tanks and have some eye candy while doing so.

sounds like i should save up and wait til i can do a full upgrade to sandy bridge,ddr3 and whatever is the highest vid card in my range at that time- unless as you suggest i can find the quad core cheap enough.

thanks again for all the help and advice

 

[edplayer]

sounds like i should save up and wait til i can do a full upgrade to sandy bridge,ddr3 and whatever is the highest vid card in my range at that time- unless as you suggest i can find the quad core cheap enough.

well if you do plan on upgrading your current cpu (but stick w the same motherboard) I also suggest you look at the Q6600. Yeah, the Q9550 is better but those usually go for $180 or so used while the Q6600 are around $100. It is not 80% better

don't know which to recommend to you (upgrade cpu or upgrade the whole thing) because I don't know your budget. But if you live close to a Microcenter you can get a good deal on a 2500K and motherboard. DDR3 ram is cheap

 

[Termie]

I think Russian gave you your best upgrade option - the HD6870, although I'd go for this one for $150AR right now: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150561

It's more power than you'll be able to use with your CPU, but it's powerful enough to be a worthwhile upgrade. It's twice as fast as an HD4850. Nothing below that level is worth the investment.

Yes you can spend ~$100 on an HD5770, but it's barely 25% faster than an HD4850. The only other relevant option, the GTX460, which is now around $135 AR/shipping, simply isn't worth it when a 6870, which is significantly faster, is only $15 more.

If you need to pinch pennies, you can wait for the HD6850 to come back down to $130AR - that was an excellent deal as well, but is no longer available.

 

[RussianSensation]

as for 1920x1080 that would be awesome but for now it would be nice to get above 1000x800 (cant remember exact numbers) in world of tanks and have some eye candy while doing so.

I meant, what monitor do you use? IF your monitor goes up to only 1280x1024 or 1680x1050 then you'll be more CPU limited. But if your monitor supports 1920x1080, then you would shift more of the bottleneck to the GPU. In that case the 6870 would start to make more sense.

I think Russian gave you your best upgrade option - the HD6870, although I'd go for this one for $150AR right now: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150561

:thumbsup: That's a great deal.

 

[tweakboy]

I think Russian gave you your best upgrade option - the HD6870, although I'd go for this one for $150AR right now: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150561

It's more power than you'll be able to use with your CPU, but it's powerful enough to be a worthwhile upgrade. It's twice as fast as an HD4850. Nothing below that level is worth the investment.

Yes you can spend ~$100 on an HD5770, but it's barely 25% faster than an HD4850. The only other relevant option, the GTX460, which is now around $135 AR/shipping, simply isn't worth it when a 6870, which is significantly faster, is only $15 more.

If you need to pinch pennies, you can wait for the HD6850 to come back down to $130AR - that was an excellent deal as well, but is no longer available.

These prices seem high. Let me check what a 460 768mb goes for,, pauses....Look here. 100 dollars for 460 768MB , soo you dont spend much and can upgrade video again along with your C2D to a 2500k or soo.
http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-...9A/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1315602945&sr=8-13

 

[TheMeanestGuest]

World of Tanks is very very poorly optimized. So I'm not sure a new card will help much on that front. While playing the game my GPU is usually between 20 and 30 percent utilization while I'm getting ~20 FPS -_-

 

[Termie]

These prices seem high. Let me check what a 460 768mb goes for,, pauses....Look here. 100 dollars for 460 768MB , soo you dont spend much and can upgrade video again along with your C2D to a 2500k or soo.
http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-E...602945&sr=8-13

Well, that's actually $110, and it's refurbed. If the OP is into refurbs, he can get a better deal from EVGA: http://www.evga.com/products/prodlist.asp?switch=20. GTX460 1GB for $110. But refurbs aren't directly comparable to new stuff.

 

[LegionX]

i have a 24 inch 1920x1080 but like i said the game i am playing right now (world of tanks) has me at the 1000xwhatever range (sorry cant remember all the numbers) and i have played the latest medal of honor and had to again play at a lower res than i liked with low eye candy.

usually i play games like world of warcraft and plan on moving to future ones and the ones i have even seen lately show my card as lower end.

if that 6870 would give me a better res and some more eye candy it might be worth it. i can spend between 200-300$ Canadian. i do have a store i buy most o my junk from but don't know if it breaks the rules to say the name so wont.

its really hard to think about doing a full upgrade since i will have to research mb's and best memory and so on and consider the new type of harddrive memory-sdd? easier to think of a vid card ATM

 

[RussianSensation]

You don't need to spend $300 CDN.

HD6870 is $160 CDN at NCIX.com

Canada computers also tends to have good deals and they should price match

If you play a lot of Blizzard games (SC2, WOW, plan on playing Diablo 3), then eventually a faster CPU is in the cards for you too.

 

[LegionX]

You don't need to spend $300 CDN.

HD6870 is $160 CDN at NCIX.com

Canada computers also tends to have good deals and they should price match

If you play a lot of Blizzard games (SC2, WOW, plan on playing Diablo 3), then eventually a faster CPU is in the cards for you too.

thats the store i was not talking about

with taxes and everything it will be over 200$ which is in my budget so will probably be getting it. i do hate how they judge the 30$ us rebate - it wont equal 30 bucks CDN after exchange and how thew banks take a share but still a decent price.

thanks again