Upgrading - From 4870x2 to ?

[donnniegoat]

I have a machine I put together back in (!) August of 2008 as follows:

Visiontek 900250 HD4870x2 2GB
Motherboard FOXCONN A79A-S AM2+ 790FX RT
CPU AMD|PH X4 9950 2.6G AM2+ R
PSU CORSAIR|CMPSU-1000HX 1000W RT (1k watts)
MEM 2Gx2|CORS TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF R

My big computer is starting to show some age, so I wanted to upgrade my 3d cards to get maybe two or three years out of her before having to do a totally new machine.

My thought is to swap the 3d cards for a new crossfire setup. I have a 30" monitor and run in 2560 x 1600 so I think I need to do crossfire (among other things, I need two DVI connectors to hook up my monster), which is fine because I have not had, for the most part, many problems with crossfire.

I don't need to totally break the bank, but am happy spending $500-$700. Ideally, the solution would be two cards integrated, which is what I have now from Visiontek, so I don't have to muck around with the crossfire bridge myself (I am old).

Any advice is much appreciated! Obviously, if anyone thinks that I have some other problem that is causing a bottleneck which would impair the upside of new 3d cards (e.g., processor, ram) I'd love hearing that, but my uninformed guess is that I'll get the biggest performance boost from a 3d card update.

Thanks!!!

 

[Don Karnage]

Main problem is your processor is going to bottleneck anything that you buy

 

[Concillian]

$500 budget you either get 2x 6950 2GB cards or you wait a month or two for the 7850 / 7870s to come out and see if those are better. I think the 7850 will be a better choice if you plan to OC, but non-OC it might be a toss up. Too early to tell for sure, since we haven't seen anything concrete.

And yes, CPU will be a limitation, but it doesn't hurt to update the video subsystem. You are likely not pegging your CPU right now, so you have some room to grow. If you have a $700 budget you might consider looking for used 6950 2GB cards and going for an i5-2400 and a cheap mobo. You might be able to get a full platform upgrade in your $700 budget.

Single cards like the 6990 are extra expensive, since they know people are lazy to install a crossfire bridge. You really are best off getting 2 cards and crossfiring. 6950 2GB is ~$250 and a 6990 is about $700.

 

[N4g4rok]

Main problem is your processor is going to bottleneck anything that you buy

That's something to consider. AMD hardware usually works best when it's part of the same "platform". IE: AM3 CPU, 890X Chipset and a 5000 series card, or AM3+, 990x, and a 6000 series card, etc.

The issue with keeping the first gen Phenom with a newer card is you're going to lose some of that performance potential due to bottlenecks.

 

[toyota]

there is no point in upgrading to a faster gpu setup with an old Phenom 1. even your current setup is being limited by that cpu. sure you may be at 2560 but that cpu is pretty slow in general and would be a massive limitation for a more modern high end crossfire setup.

 

[lehtv]

i5-2500K $220
Z68 mobo $120
8GB DDR3 $35
6950 2GB $250 AR

= $625 AR

Some options
1) buy another 6950 2GB when you have the cash
2) keep your 4870x2 for now, and buy 7970 3GB later ($500)
3) keep your 4870x2 for now, and buy 7850/7870 crossfire later

 

[TemjinGold]

OP: I would just sell your parts (keep the PSU) and use that cash along with your $500 - $700 to pick up what lehtv recommended.