Upgrade Video Card or CPU (C2D@3Ghz enough to keep a 5850/5870/GTX 285 busy?)

[Hickersb]

Looking for better frame rates on things like Crysis, etc.

Current rig is a E6300 @ 3.01Ghz w/ 512mb ATI HD4850)

Will upgrading video card to a 5850/5870 or maybe a gtx 285 give me a noticible improvment?

Or would I also need to upgrade CPU (was thinking about moving to an i5-based system) to see real results?

Would like to be able to play anything out there at 1650x1050 with all settings maxed out, some games still get choppy with my current setup.

 

[blanketyblank]

What games are you referring to? I do think you'd probably see better results with a new CPU though since some games are making use of quad cores now. Especially like GTA 4 or Dragon Age. 1680 x 1050 is usually OK for a 4850 as long as you don't max everything.

 

[Hickersb]

Crysis can get annoyingly choppy, even half life 2 episode 2 got a bit choppy at times.

 

[Udgnim]

if you OC the CPU and max graphics settings, then in most cases, the CPU will be enough and you'll be GPU limited

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd5870-cpu-scaling_4.html#sect0

look at the benchmark numbers that use 8AA, 16AF

 

[blanketyblank]

I'm seeing the CPU as a huge limit in absolutely all of those benchmarks. Even OCing the CPU to 4.0Ghhz which is very difficult on an e6300 (heck 3.0 is a pretty nice OC for those) can only push the minimum to 25 fps at 1280x1024. Minimum is what matters for choppiness so the average fps makes little difference.

Crysis the 4850 probably isn't enough, but then again neither is the CPU. That game just needs an i7 with a 5850+ to get over 30fps.
HalfLife 2 is just unusual since that game should be cake for a 4850.
Here's a benchmark someone made where a single 4850 gets on average 80fps in lost coast.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/259595-33-pearly-940x4-4850x2-4850

Strangely though both the core 2 duo and GPU should be plenty for a game that old. Possibly there are areas where 512 MB VRAM is not enough?

 

[zerocool84]

Crysis can get annoyingly choppy, even half life 2 episode 2 got a bit choppy at times.

If HL2:E2 is getting choppy then something else is wrong.

 

[MarcVenice]

A 3.0GHz is fine with a HD 5850, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Only in a few isolated cases would you not see the increase you might expect, but in all other games a HD 5850 will give a night and day difference compared to your HD 4850.

 

[Hickersb]

If HL2:E2 is getting choppy then something else is wrong.

Well, 80-90% of the time its fine, just certain scenes when it gets bad, esp if I have motion blur and AA on...

 

[toyota]

a 5850 would be a very big improvement but in a some games you are not going to get all a 5850 can do with that cpu especially at 1680. I certainly would not spend 100 bucks more on the 5870 at that res with your cpu. there are more and more games coming out where the cpu needs to be a very fast dual or preferably a quad and going above a 5850 wont help you in those.

 

[Hickersb]

a 5850 would be a very big improvement but in a some games you are not going to get all a 5850 can do with that cpu especially at 1680. I certainly would not spend 100 bucks more on the 5870 at that res with your cpu. there are more and more games coming out where the cpu needs to be a very fast dual or preferably a quad and going above a 5850 wont help you in those.

Any thoughts on if going to a C2Q would be worthwhile versus jumping to the i5?

 

[Udgnim]

Any thoughts on if going to a C2Q would be worthwhile versus jumping to the i5?

http://www.behardware.com/articles/778-14/giant-roundup-131-intel-and-amd-processors.html

there is a definite difference between C2Q and i5, but it's up to you if you think it's worth the additional monetary cost to get an i5

 

[toyota]

Any thoughts on if going to a C2Q would be worthwhile versus jumping to the i5?

as Udgnim said its really up to you. if you can get an i5 750, mobo and ram for a decent price and sell all your other stuff it might not even be more than 75-100 bucks more than going to a decent Core 2 Quad.

 

[happy medium]

Any thoughts on if going to a C2Q would be worthwhile versus jumping to the i5?

A quad core (q9xxx) will be good for the next 1 or 2 years and with a 5850 @ 1650x1050 you will play at max settings for quite a while.

All depends on price.

 

[zerocool84]

I went from an E6300 @ 2.9 to a Q9550 @ 3.5 and I can max everything out @ 1920x1080 with my 5870 so you should have no problem with any games in the recent future with that card at that rez.

 

[Hadsus]

Good article here on cpu scaling using the gtx 295 as an example.

http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=807&p=6

 

[CraigRT]

If HL2:E2 is getting choppy then something else is wrong.

That was my first thought too.. That game is so easy on the system.

I ran that game smooth as butter on an X1900 all in wonder and Opty 170.

Honestly an E6300 and 4850 is a pretty kickass budget combo... I think you would see more performance by upgrading the GPU, but my 4850 ran L4D2 pretty well at 1920x1080 with my i7. (I know, its a valve game)

Does your board support Xfire? Maybe just get another 4850 for now... They're like $100.

 

[Hickersb]

Thanks for all the responses and the links! Looks like it may be time to do a little shopping, especially since with the expiration of windows 7 coming up, I'll need to do some reinstalling anyway.

 

[BFG10K]

Well, 80-90% of the time its fine, just certain scenes when it gets bad, esp if I have motion blur and AA on...

That's a video card bottleneck, so upgrading your CPU/platform won't help.

A 3 GHz dual-core is plenty to push a GTX285 or a 5870 if you use a decent resolution with AA, and you'll see a massive difference with either card over your current 4850.

On my old E6850 @ stock, my GTX285 was up to twice as fast as my 4850. My i5 750 upgrade for me has so far been a waste of time and money because I got next to no performance gain from it.

 

[zerocool84]

That's a video card bottleneck, so upgrading your CPU/platform won't help.

A 3 GHz dual-core is plenty to push a GTX285 or a 5870 if you use a decent resolution with AA, and you'll see a massive difference with either card over your current 4850.

On my old E6850 @ stock, my GTX285 was up to twice as fast as my 4850. My i5 750 upgrade for me has so far been a waste of time and money because I got next to no performance gain from it.

Of course you get a performance gain from your i5 but probably don't play any games that make any use of it. I went from an overlocked E6300 to a overclocked Q9550 and it makes a huge difference in RTS's but most people don't play those types of games but yes he'll see a bigger difference in changing his graphics card.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I read an SSD will keep the FPS drops in Crysis to a minimum of 30fps, can anyone else confirm this?

 

[soccerballtux]

I read an SSD will keep the FPS drops in Crysis to a minimum of 30fps, can anyone else confirm this?

link? never heard of that-- I know it helps games some though

 

[zerocool84]

link? never heard of that-- I know it helps games some though

I forgot who did it but I read that benchmark. It only helped in the certain situations that it needed to read the textures off the harddrive which wasn't often so still showed that it's not worth the much larger price.

 

[toyota]

Of course you get a performance gain from your i5 but probably don't play any games that make any use of it. I went from an overlocked E6300 to a overclocked Q9550 and it makes a huge difference in RTS's but most people don't play those types of games but yes he'll see a bigger difference in changing his graphics card.

it makes a difference in several other games too whether he realizes it or not. somebody with a faster quad and 5750 can get better performance in Far Cry 2 and GTA 4 then I can even with my E8500 and a gtx260. same is looking true for BC2 and a few other games too. 90% of games the difference is not worth mentioning though.

 

[Udgnim]

The minimum frame rate graph is very interesting because it shows the impact loading textures from a slow disk can have on minimum frame rates in a game. The Crysis test is a bit exaggerated since it's streaming data as fast as possible, which you don't always do in a game, but if you've ever felt your game grind to a halt and hear your disk thrash this is a good test of that.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3403&p=14