Worth Upgrading From 4870 to 5870 with E8400? Or: Suggest an upgrade

[sundev]

I've been looking this up on the Googles but can't find a clear answer, my question is if I will see an appreciable difference FPS going from a 4870 1GB to 5870 with my current setup (E8400 @ 3.6, 4GB RAM).

I understand the E8400 might bottleneck the 5870 on some games but will I still see a decent FPS jump despite the potential bottleneck? Games I play the most are TF2, L4D2, BF: BC2.

Thanks for any help.

EDIT: Forgot to mention I am at 1920x1080.
EDIT: Also if you think the 5870 is too much, suggest a better match for my current setup

 

[BD231]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/176?vs=162

Definitely a much faster GPU for anything DX10 and up, you'll be impressed. BUT. I don't know anything about that CPU, and whether or not it would be a bottleneck. If its not, yes you'll notice a big jump in frames.

 

[sundev]

Yeah, it's just a question of if I will see an improvement or if my CPU will bottleneck it too much. I'm not interested if the performance jump is only say 10%.

Alternatively the question I'm asking is what is a good video card that I should upgrade to that will give me a good performance boost (~25%+), considering my CPU?

 

[Fallengod]

You kind of have a similar system to me and play similar games. I run a C2D @ 2.9ghz and have same amount of memory. I kind of quit TF2 and L4D2 but they were the last 2 games I played 3-4 months ago. However, I game at much lower resolutions than that for sure. I only play league of legends now at 1024x768. I dont know much about those vid cards.

Heres one benchmark review you might look over. It has both vid cards compared. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5870,2422-15.html

That benchmark shows left4dead and it looks like about a 60fps difference at that res you mentioned. Is that worth a totally new video card? Well...yeah probably I guess.

Its possible, since that benchmark hes using an i7 @ 4ghz, those results could be significantly less with a lower end cpu like yours or mind but....I dont know.

 

[BD231]

I thought it was obvious dual core is not enough to fully utilize that GPU my bad, like I said you'll notice a difference.

 

[Termie]

I don't think you'll get much from the upgrade. All those games are probably cpu limited for you at this point. While the 5870 is technically about 50% faster than the 4870, I doubt you'd get even a 25% improvement. For tf2 and l4d2, I seriously doubt you even need an upgrade, and for bc2, you need to go quad core.

One caveat... if you have the 4870 512mb, you might get more out of the upgrade in bc2. The memory could be a bottleneck.

 

[happy medium]

if I will see an appreciable difference FPS going from a 4870 to 5870 with my current setup (E8400 @ 3.6, 4GB RAM).

With those peticular games , no not really

 

[Spikesoldier]

is your 4870 512mb or 1gb

 

[toyota]

yeah if you are coming from the 4870 512mb then its much more of an upgrade at 1920x1080 than if you have a 4870 1gb. like happy said though, for the games you listed your cpu will keep you from getting much of an improvement. in BC 2, I doubt you would see even a single fps increase in multi player. only advantage in BC 2 would be the use of more AA and the ability to run HBAO a little smoother. you should already be able to run crazy high settings in L4D 2 and TF2.

 

[Borealis7]

yes! my O/Ced 5850 plays anything i want with my E8400 @ 3.6 at 1600x1200 resolution.
i play mostly RPGs, forced 16AF and mostly without AA.

plus you can keep the card when you next upgrade your platform.

 

[toyota]

yes! my O/Ced 5850 plays anything i want with my E8400 @ 3.6 at 1600x1200 resolution.
i play mostly RPGs, forced 16AF and mostly without AA.

plus you can keep the card when you next upgrade your platform.

he listed 3 games he plays the most and for those its basically a useless upgrade.

 

[sundev]

is your 4870 512mb or 1gb

It's a 4870 1GB, I've updated the OP.

Thanks for all the responses so far. Please keep in mind that those are the top 3 games that I play currently, obviously I plan to play newer games as they are released (e.g. BF3, Diablo3, whatever else).

 

[toyota]

It's a 4870 1GB, I've updated the OP.

Thanks for all the responses so far. Please keep in mind that those are the top 3 games that I play currently, obviously I plan to play newer games as they are released (e.g. BF3, Diablo3, whatever else).

and B3 will make the upgrade seem useless too as it looks to be even more cpu intensive than BC 2. the only games you have listed so far are either easily handled by your 4870 and/or will not show any improvement because of your cpu. only for games like Just Cause 2 or Metro 2033 will going to a 5870 be worthwhile.

 

[Termie]

OP - you really have a perfectly balanced system now. Even my GTX460 is bottlenecked on my e8400, and that's halfway between a 4870 and a 5870. Honestly your best upgrade is a full system upgrade. The newer games will demand a quad core.

 

[Spikesoldier]

OP - you really have a perfectly balanced system now. Even my GTX460 is bottlenecked on my e8400, and that's halfway between a 4870 and a 5870. Honestly your best upgrade is a full system upgrade. The newer games will demand a quad core.

agree - your system is pretty well rounded right now.

to get a little extra life out of the system i would recommend picking up something like a Q9550 if you can get it cheap, but the smarter choice is a full platform upgrade along with your gpu upgrade.

maybe wait later this fall to do a full rebuild when your anticipated games come out?

 

[RussianSensation]

Games I play the most are TF2, L4D2, BF: BC2.

The first 2 games don't need an upgrade. The last game needs a Quad Core CPU.

 

[Mandres]

I have the same processor and recently upgraded from a 512mb 4850 to a 1gb 5850 xtreme.

I honestly can't tell much difference in the games I play (Aion and CoD4). I'm going to sell the 5850 and apply the funds towards a total system upgrade when BF3 comes out. Fortunately the bitcoin craze has driven up the price of my card so that I'll actually make a profit when it sells.

 

[sundev]

Alright so sounds like the consensus is that there is no point in upgrading since I will see little/no benefit for current games and the same for future games.

 

[rockyjohn]

Here is a great article on balancing GPU and CPU - unfortunately it is almost 2 years old so it uses older cards:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-balanced-platform,2469-12.html

However one of the reference CPUs is an E8400 and it shows a substantial increase in performance from a HD 4850 to something in the range of a GTX 260 but little after that. Of course your 4870 will put you at a higher starting point and you will need to interpret to current cards by comparing them with the reference models. Still I think it is a very informative article. I wish they would do an update.

 

[sundev]

Here is a great article on balancing GPU and CPU - unfortunately it is almost 2 years old so it uses older cards:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-balanced-platform,2469-12.html

However one of the reference CPUs is an E8400 and it shows a substantial increase in performance from a HD 4850 to something in the range of a GTX 260 but little after that. Of course your 4870 will put you at a higher starting point and you will need to interpret to current cards by comparing them with the reference models. Still I think it is a very informative article. I wish they would do an update.

Great link, thanks!

 

[tweakboy]

A dual core is a bottleneck on any current video card.

 

[sundev]

A dual core is a bottleneck on any current video card.

Right but that doesn't necessarily mean there is no upgrade for me. But it looks like the consensus is that the 4870 more or less maxes out what my CPU can handle.

 

[lavaheadache]

lol, at some of the GUESSES in this thread. I have a system with a 3 ghz e6300 in that shows sizable gains with each step up in graphics card and I have many to choose from.

I have an amd 3800 x2 rig
e6300 rig
q9300 rig
i7 930 rig

I have pretty much stuck each one of my cards in the systems to see what would happen. Only the 3800x2 rig really bottlenecks the powerful cards.

BTW, nowhere am I implying that you are getting maximum potential with the e8400 but It is definately a capable cpu

 

[toyota]

Right but that doesn't necessarily mean there is no upgrade for me. But it looks like the consensus is that the 4870 more or less maxes out what my CPU can handle.

like we have said...in the games you have listed, the 4870 can either already max them or your cpu is going to limit you from the 5870 being worth it. also again if this was Just Cause 2 and Metro 2033 then you would see a pretty large improvement upgrading the 4870.