Old PC + new 5870 = no gain

[jpeake]

So i have an older rig:

AMD Opteron 170, socket 939
2GB RAM
HD 4850

It cuts through most games pretty well with medium details @ 1680X1050. I am finishing Mass Effect, getting ready for Mass Effect 2, and decided to drop a new 5870 in to give me a boost. Got it from NewEgg yesterday and there is absolutely no difference in frame rates from the 4850 to the 5870. Still getting approx 40fps in Mass Effect, and 40-60 in Dragon Age Origins.

Tried running 3DMark on the old card and the new card. Scored a 7,700 with the HD 4850 and 8,083 with the 5870

Thoughts? Do i have a bad card, or is my aging rig holding it back that much?

 

[Tempered81]

super old mobo,cpu,ram

 

[dguy6789]

Your aging rig really is holding you back that much. An Opteron 170 is about as fast as a 1.5Ghz Core 2 Duo.

 

[fffblackmage]

That's not just an aging rig... that's an antique....

 

[Tempered81]

yah a 1.5ghz C2D with <1mb L2

Opty 170 = Athlon X2 4000 (2x2000mhz, 2x1mb, 90nm) ~ E2140 1.6ghz, 1mb

 

[soccerballtux]

Turn everything up to High, you'll get better eyecandy at least.

 

[Tempered81]

Turn everything up to High, you'll get better eyecandy at least.

haha! +1

Crank up all the eyecandy, AA, & AF... til you see it drop from 40 to 39 fps

 

[jpeake]

Turn everything up to High, you'll get better eyecandy at least.

yeah, i noticed that. the frame rate is the same no matter if I set all to low with no AA/AF or set all to max with AA and AF.

So i got that going for me!

Gonna head up to work and try the card in my Dell system there. Dell Precision with a Core 2 Duo@ 3Ghz (E8400 Wolfdale i think). Will run 3dmark on that system and see what happens.

Dang, i know my rig is old, but it's been a trusty steed for years now. how can it suck that bad!

 

[Qbah]

The Opteron 170 is a dual-core Athlon64-class CPU running at a lowly 2.0GHz. ME2 runs on UE3, a heavily multi-threading optimzed engine. CPU is very important for UE3-based games. That's why it sucks so bad By today's standards this is a very slow CPU.


EDIT: Here you can see how a better CPU influences Mass Effect 1. Your Opteron 170 is slower than the E6320, quite a bit slower too!

 

[daveybrat]

You'll see a massive increase in speed if you pair that 5870 up with that E8400 cpu.

 

[nonameo]

Consider overclocking the opteron? I dunno...

Anywhoo, from what I understand those things should go to around 2.8, right guys?

 

[happy medium]

Consider overclocking the opteron? I dunno...

Anywhoo, from what I understand those things should go to around 2.8, right guys?

Yes easy 2.6.

 

[happy medium]

So i have an older rig:

AMD Opteron 170, socket 939
2GB RAM
HD 4850

It cuts through most games pretty well with medium details @ 1680X1050. I am finishing Mass Effect, getting ready for Mass Effect 2, and decided to drop a new 5870 in to give me a boost. Got it from NewEgg yesterday and there is absolutely no difference in frame rates from the 4850 to the 5870. Still getting approx 40fps in Mass Effect, and 40-60 in Dragon Age Origins.

Tried running 3DMark on the old card and the new card. Scored a 7,700 with the HD 4850 and 8,083 with the 5870

Thoughts? Do i have a bad card, or is my aging rig holding it back that much?

I think you should return it or sell it and get a faster board ,ram,cpu and keep your 4850.
Even with your cpu at 2.8, it's just not worth it @ 1650x1050.

400$ can buy a nice little setup that will increase your framerates without a new card @ 1650x1050.

99$ Athlon II x4 620, Good Board 120$ and ddr2 800 ram 80$. Thats only $300 for a much faster system.

 

[Zstream]

yeah, i noticed that. the frame rate is the same no matter if I set all to low with no AA/AF or set all to max with AA and AF.

So i got that going for me!

Gonna head up to work and try the card in my Dell system there. Dell Precision with a Core 2 Duo@ 3Ghz (E8400 Wolfdale i think). Will run 3dmark on that system and see what happens.

Dang, i know my rig is old, but it's been a trusty steed for years now. how can it suck that bad!

Yeah, one of my friends did something similar. Just crank it all up and enjoy it

 

[toyota]

yeah thats what I would call a huge bottleneck. heck you were already holding that 4850 back by quite a bit.

 

[zerocool84]

yeah thats what I would call a huge bottleneck. heck you were already holding that 4850 back by quite a bit.

Yea seriously

This is why people should seek info on things when plunking down $400 on something.

 

[jpeake]

it wouldn't install on my E8400 at work. BSOD on driver install. Tried everything. It's only a week old install on Win 7 x64.

I did have an old E6320 machine (1.86Ghz) on the bench and it installed in that fine. Ran 3dMark and got 9,200 (vs the 8k I get on my rig)

Guess it's time to upgrade...

 

[jpeake]

Yea seriously

This is why people should seek info on things when plunking down $400 on something.

there isn't much info out there that I found for performance numbers on new GPU's on old hardware.

 

[toyota]

Yea seriously

This is why people should seek info on things when plunking down $400 on something.

well I am sure some people would have still told him to do it because "games are gpu limited". lol

yeah a $400 video card is not something you normally buy without doing a little research first. really at 1680 with a 4850 he should not have any trouble playing most games but it was that poky cpu that was already causing most of his slowdowns.

 

[Munky]

Like others have said, your cpu is a holding you back big time. My old Opteron 165 was holding back a 4890, a 5870 goes to waste completely with that cpu.

 

[jpeake]

So i'm torn between a P55 setup with i5-750 (about $500) or a Phenom II X2 555 with a AM3 board with SB790FX, which may allow me to unlock the extra cores. The AMD setup would save me about $150.

I'd just upgrade CPU, mobo and RAM

If i go AMD, and am unable to unlock the extra cores, should I still see a night and day performance boost over my current rig? My thought was maybe to go that route now, and the i can always upgrade just the CPU later if needed

or should i just say to heck with it and go the Intel route? looks like that i5 can OC to 4Ghz pretty easily

 

[toyota]

So i'm torn between a P55 setup with i5-750 (about $500) or a Phenom II X2 555 with a AM3 board with SB790FX, which may allow me to unlock the extra cores. The AMD setup would save me about $150.

I'd just upgrade CPU, mobo and RAM

If i go AMD, and am unable to unlock the extra cores, should I still see a night and day performance boost over my current rig? My thought was maybe to go that route now, and the i can always upgrade just the CPU later if needed

or should i just say to heck with it and go the Intel route? looks like that i5 can OC to 4Ghz pretty easily

I personally would go the i5 750 route. you really wont even have to oc it anywhere near 4.0 while using a 5870. just a small oc will do and then next year oc it a bit more when you get a faster card again.

 

[Munky]

I would go for the i5 750, it's a great cpu on its own that should last you a long time. Many games these days are multithreaded, and that trend will only continue, so a quad core is a better choice.

You'd still see a big improvement with an OC'd Phenom2 compared to your current rig, although in some games having only 2 cores will hold you back. I had a Phenom2 x3 for a while, and even at stock 2.8 ghz it was noticeably faster than a 2.6ghz Opteron 165.

 

[jpeake]

well I am sure some people would have still told him to do it because "games are gpu limited". lol

yeah a $400 video card is not something you normally buy without doing a little research first. really at 1680 with a 4850 he should not have any trouble playing most games but it was that poky cpu that was already causing most of his slowdowns.

I did many hours of research

My current monitor is 20" 1680, but my plan was to upgrade to a decent 24" IPS in the future. So with that in mind, and the fact that Newegg had an instant rebate on the 5870 with bought it to within $80 of a 5850 I figured screw it, go big

I knew a PC upgrade was due, but wasn't sure what to do first (either vid card, or CPU/mobo/RAM and keep my 4850) to get the most boost now. i thought the GPU would get me through summer and then i could upgrade after intel 6 core stuff comes out and the i5's drop in price.

Most of the 5850/5870 reviews I see also show the 4890 (which is about 20 - 30% faster than what i have). So based on those numbers, compared to what i was currenty getting with the 4850 in various games, i was hoping the GPU now and cpu/mobo/RAM later would work

I guess I was wrong

 

[Arkaign]

Given that you have to get new stuff anyway, and you're a gamer with a 5870, I think PhII makes perfect sense for you. I'd skip the unlocking gamble though, and just spring for the full X4 BE from the start. It will still be cheaper that the alternatives, and is a very well-rounded setup. With a 3.6ghz+ OC on the X4, you'll be video card limited anyway.