Radeon 5850 Perform OK w/ 2560 x 1440 PLS monitor?

[krill]

Hi all,

I am using a Radeon 5850 and want to upgrade my monitor. Will it perform alright with one of those Koren PLS monitors at a 2560 x 1440 resolution? I plan to upgrade the card sometime in the next 1 to 2 years, but just not right now. I'm wondering if it can take the load of gaming with one of these monitors in the mean time, or if it is just not fast enough.

I'd really like to pick up a new monitor without having to do a full rebuild.

Thanks.

System Specs:
CPU: Intel i7-930
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R
RAM: G.Skill 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3-1600 (PC3 12800)
Video: Gigabyte ATI Radeon 5850
PSU: Corsair CMPSU-750W

 

[Zorander]

I used a 5850 at this resolution previously . The only games it could manage at that resolution were Deus Ex HR, Defense Grid and most 2D platformers (SPAZ, Limbo, etc). Saints Row 3, Arkham City, Dragon Age 2 and Crysis 2 literally crawled.

So yeah, the 5850 can manage some games at that resolution but it's safe to say it's not powerful (nor RAM-endowed) enough to play most games at 2560x1440/x1600. Forget about being able to keep using it in 1-2 years time.

Regards.

 

[krill]

Would it be a problem to just turn the resolution down for any games it had trouble with and use the higher reso for everything else, then? Would it run fine at something lower, like 1920 x 1080, for new games and just do stuff like old games, web browsing, etc. at 2560x1440?

Or is most of the issue the processing required for the 2560x1440 resolution, and the actual application you are trying to run has less to do with it?

What about playing a DVD movie, or Youtube, or something? Would the card stutter badly with that, as well? I don't mind turning the resolution down for most gaming, but if it's going to have trouble with common, everyday tasks like web browsing, maybe movie playing, etc, then I'm going to have to rethink this somehow.

Thank you!

 

[Zorander]

Would it be a problem to just turn the resolution down for any games it had trouble with and use the higher reso for everything else, then? Would it run fine at something lower, like 1920 x 1080, for new games and just do stuff like old games, web browsing, etc. at 2560x1440?

No problems. In fact, that's what I had to do back then. I will take non-native resolution over slideshow presentations any day. :biggrin:

Or is most of the issue the processing required for the 2560x1440 resolution, and the actual application you are trying to run has less to do with it?

The 5850 is not fast enough nor its RAM large enough to handle 3D processing at that resolution.

What about playing a DVD movie, or Youtube, or something? Would the card stutter badly with that, as well? I don't mind turning the resolution down for most gaming, but if it's going to have trouble with common, everyday tasks like web browsing, maybe movie playing, etc, then I'm going to have to rethink this somehow.

No problem with this one. I would classify these as 2D tasks, for which the 5850 is amply powerful.

 

[poohbear]

for everything except games it'll be fine. If u wanna turn ur resolution down during games it'll look ugly outside its native resolution i imagine.

 

[Red Hawk]

No point in using a 5850 for 1440p resolution for modern games. Either you have to run the monitor at a resolution lower than its native resolution -- thus defeating the point of having such a high resolution monitor -- or you have to cut down on graphical effects to get it to run smoothly at the native resolution, in which case it would probably just look better if you ran it at a lower resolution with those effects, defeating the point of running the game at a high resolution.

I mean, yeah you can run games, but you won't be able to use the 1440p monitor to its full potential over, say, a 1080p monitor.

 

[adnank77]

You will be paying extra premium for high resolution that you won't use .. I highly suggest you keep your cash until you have budget for both upgrades (Monitor and Video Card) .. By then, I'm sure 1440p will be cheaper .. If you are talking about 1-2 years, then you might even be able to afford 4k Mointor with the same price tag ..

 

[3DVagabond]

You will be paying extra premium for high resolution that you won't use .. I highly suggest you keep your cash until you have budget for both upgrades (Monitor and Video Card) .. By then, I'm sure 1440p will be cheaper .. If you are talking about 1-2 years, then you might even be able to afford 4k Mointor with the same price tag ..

If the OP is only gaming, I can see your point. For other tasks though, the 5850 will do just fine.

 

[beginner99]

If the OP is only gaming, I can see your point. For other tasks though, the 5850 will do just fine.

Agree. if the main reason for the new display is something else than gaming like programming, trading, poker,...whatever it's fine to just lower resolution in games. Of course the image quality will be worse due to up scaling but better than a slideshow.

I'm kind of in the same boat as OP. Have a 5850 and would like to get a 2560 x 1440 display but that would require a new GPU. Plus those IPS monitors usually have terrible input lag...

 

[krill]

I would want to use it for a mix of both gaming and non-gaming. I'm thinking if I pick it up now at least I'll be able to use it now for some tasks at the highest reso, and when I upgrade I'll be able to use it for all.

I tihnk what I'll do is try to figure out which vid card I can upgrade to on this setup without having to swap anything else out (I think I'll probably be limited by my mobo: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R), and then price that out and see if upgrading to that is worth it $$-wise if it will stretch me out another 2 or 3 years AND allow me to run this monitor full-time at 2560x14040.

Thanks for all the advice, all. Please let me know if there is anything else I should be thinking about = ) Appreciate the assist!

 

[3DVagabond]

Another consideration would be your CPU. Games are getting very CPU intensive and anything less than the fastest processors are becoming CPU bottle necked with current state of the art games. I know you are on a budget and don't want to upgrade everything. You aren't going to get the most out of some of the top cards, though with that CPU.

 

[krill]

Fair enough. That makes sense, and unfortunately is something I was concerned about happening.

If I'm reading this right, it seems like my mobo (with 2 PCIe 2.0 x16 (x16/x16 mode)) can still support most graphics cards. What is the lowest tier (assuming cheapest) GPU you'd recommend picking up for this?

If I can drop a GPU upgrade in for ~$175 or less and perform at 2560x1440 at "OK" levels, I'll probably do that. I'm looking at maybe the Radeon HD 7850 for this? I know this is a PCI 3.0 card and my mobo only supports 2.0, but is that backwards compatible? Would it be a good "stop-gap" upgrade until I'm ready to upgrade all the main components (mobo, CPU, RAM, etc.)?

If working this out is going to be $200+, I'll probably just wait until my next upgrade cycle. I don't play games until 2 years or so after they come out to pick them up on sale, so I don't need to worry about top of the line. For reference, I'm still getting a lot of play out of Civ 5 and Torchlight 2, and I don't do a whole lot of FPS.

Thanks again for all the help. I'm always a bit lost when I stop paying attention to the component market for a bit and then come back around = )

 

[beginner99]

You could alternatively just get a cheap second display that provides the real estate for the non-gaming stuff you do and play the games on just one display at native resolution.

 

[KingFatty]

Another consideration, is I've heard the 5850 will have trouble on the ebay 1440p displays when trying to display BIOS during bootup, and you'll have a black screen until windows loads. Not sure if that's a big issue, but if you mess around with stuff in BIOS a lot, it could be a drag unless you have a 2nd display connected that is lower than 1440p, so it will display the BIOS text and error messages etc. (e.g., when trying to overclock to squeeze the last life out of your CPU).

 

[krill]

Great points. I could always just use the 21" I'm using now for the gaming, with everything else on the PLS display. Might need to get a multi-monitor stand (available desk is small) ...

Nice! Thanks again

 

[Zorander]

I'd argue that your CPU is still sufficient and that any upgrades should be concentrated on the GPU instead.

I use a Lynnfield i7-860 myself (OC into 3.5GHz range) along with a 3GB HD7950 (Core OC to 1100MHz) and a 1600p display. This setup copes well with any current games I throw at it. I'm not even concerned whether or not my mobo supports the latest PCIe & SATA standards since they work just fine anyway.

Sell that 5850 to help fund a GPU upgrade. At that resolution, the higher you go, the better really.

Edit: Check out this thread I made. It's relevant to your situation as well and RS makes very good points in there.