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Potential bottleneck? Help please!

F

Freddy1765

Senior member
I'm currently running a stock clocked Phenom II x4 925 (2,8 GHz), and an XFX Radeon HD 5770..
Lately I've found the 5770 simply doesn't cut it for me anymore, and I'm looking to buy a Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2GB
(Dirt 3 edition, which apparently has the recommended dual fans and BIOS switch thingy for the 6970 flash?)

I was just wondering whether this might create a bottleneck in gaming perfomance? The CPU isn't exactly top-of-the-line,
but sadly I haven't got the funds to upgrade both GPU and CPU to something like Phenom 955 BE
(or better still, get a Z68 mobo and i5 2500-k).

Oh, my PSU is an Arctic Fusion 550R, I assume it won't be a problem running 6950 on that?

Cheers for any reply in advance!
 
Freddy1765 said:
I'm currently running a stock clocked Phenom II x4 925 (2,8 GHz), and an XFX Radeon HD 5770..
Lately I've found the 5770 simply doesn't cut it for me anymore, and I'm looking to buy a Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2GB
(Dirt 3 edition, which apparently has the recommended dual fans and BIOS switch thingy for the 6970 flash?)

I was just wondering whether this might create a bottleneck in gaming perfomance? The CPU isn't exactly top-of-the-line,
but sadly I haven't got the funds to upgrade both GPU and CPU to something like Phenom 955 BE
(or better still, get a Z68 mobo and i5 2500-k).

Oh, my PSU is an Arctic Fusion 550R, I assume it won't be a problem running 6950 on that?

Cheers for any reply in advance!
Click to expand...

Is your Phenom II X4 925 revision C2 or C3? Do you have an aftermarket heatsink and would you be willing to overclock?

If you can get it to at least 3.5GHz and a 2400MHz CPU-NB it shouldn't have problems with a single Radeon HD 6950. If you're thinking of doing CrossFire, though, I advise you make a new build. As for the card itself, if you're not going 2560x1440 or higher, get the 1GB version. These unlock the shaders, too, and will be perfect for 1920x1200 or lower while costing less. I wouldn't worry much about the additional shaders, though: they only bring a performance improvement at the same clock speed of 3-4%. Instead, you should focus on getting the card with the best cooler and power phase system that will allow you to do good OCs while keeping temps low.

With that in mind, I recommend you ditch the DiRT 3 edition card and go for a cheaper card that has better a better cooling system like this Gigabyte or Sapphire model. Both cards are $240, and if you want to save more, the Radeon HD 6870 is also an option. You'll lose around 13-14% performance while also getting a lot less over-clocking headroom, but it's also 35% cheaper. Your PSU will handle both fine.
 
I've no idea if my CPU is C2 or C3? It's standard heatsink and everything, i just popped it into the motherboard and that's it, no thermal paste either. Wouldn't mind OC'ing, i just dont know how to - seems a bit dodgy with all the BIOS fiddling.
I suppose if it could be OC'd just a bit without having to mount another heatsink or fans or w/e I wouldn't mind doing it.

Pretty sure I've read several people state that only 2GB cards do the 6970 trick, like in this post http://www.overclock.net/amd-ati/942846-6950-1gb-vs-2gb-help.html .
Would hate to buy a card and find it can't unlock or doesn't have the secondary BIOS..
 
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