Upgrade or OC advice

[Medwynd]

Here is what I am currently running:
2XEVGA 512-P3-N841-AR GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz
Mushkin Enhanced Redline 4GB (2 x 2GB)

I have been getting some unacceptable framerates in some newer games and wondering if OC'ing the GTS's and possible the cpu would yield better or at least acceptable results versus just buying a new card.

I am running games in 2560x1600 on a 30" Dell. Looking at potentially buying a single Radeon 5870 if it can handle pushing that resolution on its own.

Any advice out there would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Udgnim]

since the res is 2560*1600, upgrading to the 5870 is probably the best route

 

[Rezist]

I don't even think a 5870 could max 2560*1600 on all games

 

[FalseChristian]

You'd need a 1GB card at that res. 512MB just doesn't cut for resolutions over 1680x1050. A single Radeon HD 5870 1GB should do the trick for now.

 

[Medwynd]

I don't even think a 5870 could max 2560*1600 on all games

The nice thing about running at 2560x1600 is I can get away with only 2x AA and still look really good.

Does stepping up to a 5970 make sense or am I going to start to get issues with the CPU bottlenecking the system at that point?

 

[fffblackmage]

At high resolutions like that, a gpu upgrade will net you the largest gains over any cpu upgrade. A E8400 isn't slow anyways, you could also OC it to 4GHz-ish, if you really want to.

 

[Medwynd]

At high resolutions like that, a gpu upgrade will net you the largest gains over any cpu upgrade. A E8400 isn't slow anyways, you could also OC it to 4GHz-ish, if you really want to.

That was my thought as well.

Think the 5870 might work alright and/or is the 5970 just overkill?

 

[fffblackmage]

That was my thought as well.

Think the 5870 might work alright and/or is the 5970 just overkill?

Some 5970 reviews:
@anandtech
@techspot
@bit-tech

I think the 5870 is sufficient for the majority of games.

I mean, if you have the money to spend, the 5970 would be awesome - assuming you can also find it (OOS at newegg). I'm not sure if I would say it's overkill, but I can certainly say it's pretty darn expensive.

 

[Medwynd]

I'm not sure if I would say it's overkill, but I can certainly say it's pretty darn expensive.

Yeah it's definitely pricey but seems to be giving good performance at the resolution I'm looking for. If it ever comes in stock somewhere I'll have to give it some serious consideration. Plus I still need to see if it would even fit in my case. Thanks for the advice.

 

[betasub]

At 2560x1600 you are probably exceeding the 512MB buffer on the GTS. Overclocking won't overcome that.

Good luck with your purchase of a new high-end card - I see 1GB of DDR5 in your future.

 

[MrK6]

I'll throw in my recommendation for a 5870 @ 2560x1600. It literally handles every game I throw at it perfectly with the exception of the Crysises (which are perfectly playable with everything cranked, you just get 25-35FPS, not 60FPS). The 5870 is also a piece of cake to overclock, with adequate cooling you can hit 1GHz+ with no sweat. I personally don't like using dual GPU solutions, but it's more of a user perception issue and some people are fine with it.

 

[Medwynd]

It's good to here for someone with real world experience with it at 2560x1600, makes me more confident that it will be the solution I was looking for.

As for OC'ing the cards, I didn't have much luck with it. I got about 800 on the core and 1000 on the memory, I could have probably pushed it further but the gains were minimal, maybe 1000pts in 3DMark.

 

[MrK6]

It's good to here for someone with real world experience with it at 2560x1600, makes me more confident that it will be the solution I was looking for.

As for OC'ing the cards, I didn't have much luck with it. I got about 800 on the core and 1000 on the memory, I could have probably pushed it further but the gains were minimal, maybe 1000pts in 3DMark.

That's still a respectable overclock on the core for the 8800GTS. The cards responded well to memory overclocks. I don't know if you've tried to get them higher, but it will help, especially at such a high resolution. That said, the 58xx series is easy to overclock because the voltage is software adjustable, which gives much more flexibility and greatly increases the ceiling without using extreme methods.

 

[Medwynd]

That's still a respectable overclock on the core for the 8800GTS

I agree, a pretty respectable OC, but not going to get me to be able to jump to 2560x1600 in the games I'm running poorly in unfortunately. I'm going to keep my eyes out for a sale and see if I can pick up a card on a bit of a discount.