Upgrading from Nvidia 9800 GT

Darknecron · 11-01-10, 04:11 PM

I am surprised how well my OCed 9800 GT (700/1750/1000) has performed, even in the more recent games (ie: Bad Company 2, Mass Effect 2), but it is starting to show its age. I am looking to buy a card able to run Bad Company 2 Maxed out (All high, 4xAA, 8xAF, HBAO on) in 1440x900 resolution while still maintaining 60+ frames. I have done my research and here is the question:

Should I go with a GTX 470, GTX 460 1gb, HD 6870, or HD 6850?

My specs are here:
Intel core 2 quad 2.83ghz ==> Here
4 gigs DDR2 RAM
580 watt PSU
500 gig hard drive
Generic 1440x900 monitor
1 side , 1 front , and 1 rear fan

I am currently leaning towards the GTX 470.

I do not think my quad core would cause any bottlenecking.

Knufire · 11-01-10, 04:36 PM

I run it max settings at 1280x1024 at only around 40ish FPS with a OCed 4890. So, you'd need something over double as powerful, which is NOT a 460, and probably not a 6850.

Darknecron · 11-01-10, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Knufire

I run it max settings at 1280x1024 at only around 40ish FPS with a OCed 4890. So, you'd need something over double as powerful, which is NOT a 460, and probably not a 6850.

Which is why im leaning for the GTX 470...it literally has 4 times the stream processors as my card.

don'tknow · 11-01-10, 09:37 PM

Either the HD 6870 or GTX 470 will do. But you'll be bottlenecked by your CPU and I doubt you can get 60 fps with those settings. BFBC2's engine is very CPU-dependent and scales well with multiple cores... so if you OC to around 3.6 ghz or above, that will make a big difference.

Cuiiey · 11-02-10, 05:14 AM

GTX 470 without a doubt, but if your going to be Overclocking your CPU as don'tknow suggested you should. Might want to look over your PSU, possibly purchase a larger one if it is not of a quality brand

e6600 · 11-02-10, 05:28 AM

at that resolution, a 6850 or 460 should be fine
the 470gtx offers really good price/performance, but i doubt the 580w psu and that c2d might bottleneck it at those clocks

Darknecron · 11-02-10, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by don'tknow

Either the HD 6870 or GTX 470 will do. But you'll be bottlenecked by your CPU and I doubt you can get 60 fps with those settings. BFBC2's engine is very CPU-dependent and scales well with multiple cores... so if you OC to around 3.6 ghz or above, that will make a big difference.

Quote:

Originally Posted by e6600

at that resolution, a 6850 or 460 should be fine
the 470gtx offers really good price/performance, but i doubt the 580w psu and that c2d might bottleneck it at those clocks

You think a quad core will bottleneck a GTX 470? I never would have guessed. O_o

Cuiiey · 11-02-10, 05:46 PM

Its the speed and frequency of your CPU not how many cores you have that determines the bottle neck. At your current speed you would bottle neck most new midrage/high end Graphics cards right now.

repilce · 11-02-10, 06:46 PM

Get the 470 imho, and then make that yorkfeild do what it was born to do.. 4ghz.. glancing at your specs i would agree with the PSU check with running that card and oc'n.. and ofcourse anything else.. but you'll breath a lot more of life into that thing even with a mild 3's OC

and

to the forums!

Darknecron · 11-02-10, 09:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cuiiey

Its the speed and frequency of your CPU not how many cores you have that determines the bottle neck. At your current speed you would bottle neck most new midrage/high end Graphics cards right now.

I see...

Quote:

Originally Posted by repilce

Get the 470 imho, and then make that yorkfeild do what it was born to do.. 4ghz.. glancing at your specs i would agree with the PSU check with running that card and oc'n.. and ofcourse anything else.. but you'll breath a lot more of life into that thing even with a mild 3's OC

and

to the forums!

What kind of heating issues may I run in to with a core frequency of 3.6 ghz? I have a 80 mm front fan, one 120 mm side fan, and one 80 mm rear fan.
The rear and side fans are as big as they can get, but the front fan will soon be a 120 mm...

And thanks for the welcome.

CompuTamer · 11-02-10, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darknecron

I see...

What kind of heating issues may I run in to with a core frequency of 3.6 ghz? I have a 80 mm front fan, one 120 mm side fan, and one 80 mm rear fan.
The rear and side fans are as big as they can get, but the front fan will soon be a 120 mm...

And thanks for the welcome.

C2Q at 3.6 may or may not warrant a new heat sink. Some of them run cooler than others. I remember there was one that ran really cool, but can't remember the model number for the life of me :/

xoke · 11-02-10, 10:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cuiiey

Its the speed and frequency of your CPU not how many cores you have that determines the bottle neck. At your current speed you would bottle neck most new midrage/high end Graphics cards right now.

Careful with this one...you are right, but BFBC2 is extremely multi core friendly/hungry. It runs a million times better on a quad than a dual for me. More cores going faster is always a good idea, lol.

Cuiiey · 11-03-10, 01:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xokeman

Careful with this one...you are right, but BFBC2 is extremely multi core friendly/hungry. It runs a million times better on a quad than a dual for me. More cores going faster is always a good idea, lol.

yeah yeah

it is a varying issue as different games stress different parts e.g. RTS being more CPU intense

but i was giving a general overview of what bottleneck between GPU and CPU

But you have made a good point! Guess these days if you want a power GFX card, you need an equally powerful CPU to balance it out

Darknecron · 11-03-10, 08:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CompuTamer

C2Q at 3.6 may or may not warrant a new heat sink. Some of them run cooler than others. I remember there was one that ran really cool, but can't remember the model number for the life of me :/

So I should be good whith my crappy little fans and stock heatsink?
I was considering this heatsink as a replacement.

Cuiiey · 11-04-10, 04:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darknecron

So I should be good whith my crappy little fans and stock heatsink?
I was considering this heatsink as a replacement.

Either this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835608018

or Possibly at TRUE 120 would be much better for you if you want minimal temps

however that all depends on how much you want to spend

Darknecron · 11-04-10, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cuiiey

Either this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835608018

or Possibly at TRUE 120 would be much better for you if you want minimal temps

however that all depends on how much you want to spend

That looks like a high quality cooler, but it's a bit out of my price range...and it's a bit to large for my case...I think. I just need a reasonably effective cooler that can keep a Q9550 @ 3.6ghz below 65C....

I'ma put a thread about this in the intell cpu cection.

shant · 11-12-10, 04:34 PM

im not sure if you would need to oc that to 3.6, ive run bfbc2 on my Q6600 2.4 without seeing any slowdowns, although i haven't checked fps, i haven't felt slowdowns, but if a minimum 60+ fps is a must then you probably need to

11-01-10, 04:11 PM	Thread Starter #1
Darknecron Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Tamriel and Atacama Desert	Upgrading from Nvidia 9800 GT I am surprised how well my OCed 9800 GT (700/1750/1000) has performed, even in the more recent games (ie: Bad Company 2, Mass Effect 2), but it is starting to show its age. I am looking to buy a card able to run Bad Company 2 Maxed out (All high, 4xAA, 8xAF, HBAO on) in 1440x900 resolution while still maintaining 60+ frames. I have done my research and here is the question: Should I go with a GTX 470, GTX 460 1gb, HD 6870, or HD 6850? My specs are here: Intel core 2 quad 2.83ghz ==> Here 4 gigs DDR2 RAM 580 watt PSU 500 gig hard drive Generic 1440x900 monitor 1 side , 1 front , and 1 rear fan I am currently leaning towards the GTX 470. I do not think my quad core would cause any bottlenecking. Last edited by Darknecron; 11-02-10 at 09:47 AM.
	QUOTE Thanks

11-01-10, 04:36 PM	#2
Knufire Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Bloomfield Hills, MI	I run it max settings at 1280x1024 at only around 40ish FPS with a OCed 4890. So, you'd need something over double as powerful, which is NOT a 460, and probably not a 6850. __________________ i7-920 3.8 Ghz \| Venomous-X w/ Panaflo HS \| Sapphire Vapor-X 4890 EVGA X58 SLI LE \| 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600 \| 500GB Samsung OEM \| Rosewill 850w \| Thermaltake Armor Series \| OCZ Vertex 2 60GB Secondary Rig: CM Elite 430 \| A8-3870K stock \| Radeon HD 6670 \| 500GB WD Caviar Blue \| 4GB G.SKILL DDR3-1333 \| ASUS A55 HEATWARE
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11-01-10, 09:37 PM	#4
don'tknow Member Join Date: Sep 2008	Either the HD 6870 or GTX 470 will do. But you'll be bottlenecked by your CPU and I doubt you can get 60 fps with those settings. BFBC2's engine is very CPU-dependent and scales well with multiple cores... so if you OC to around 3.6 ghz or above, that will make a big difference. __________________ Asus P5Q Pro Q9550 E0 @ 3.8 Ghz 1.25v XFX RHD 5850 (max stable 1025/1225/1.33v) 6GB G.Skill PC8500 Corsair 550VX Windows7 Ultimate x64
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11-02-10, 05:14 AM	#5
Cuiiey Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Melbourne Australia	GTX 470 without a doubt, but if your going to be Overclocking your CPU as don'tknow suggested you should. Might want to look over your PSU, possibly purchase a larger one if it is not of a quality brand __________________ My system ------> Mobo: Asus Sabertooth\|CPU: i7 950\|HDD: WD 750GB 5400rpm green, 808.08GB 7200rpm\|GFX:CF XFX 6870 1GB\|RAM: 6GB RipJaws 8-8-8-20\|PSU: Antec TP Quattro 800W\|OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64\|Mouse/KB: Razer DeathAdder V2/Razer Lycosa
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11-02-10, 05:28 AM	#6
e6600 Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Los Angeles	at that resolution, a 6850 or 460 should be fine the 470gtx offers really good price/performance, but i doubt the 580w psu and that c2d might bottleneck it at those clocks __________________ Heat
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11-02-10, 05:46 PM	#8
Cuiiey Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Melbourne Australia	Its the speed and frequency of your CPU not how many cores you have that determines the bottle neck. At your current speed you would bottle neck most new midrage/high end Graphics cards right now.
	QUOTE Thanks

11-02-10, 06:46 PM	#9
repilce Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: E600000 - E60000FF	Get the 470 imho, and then make that yorkfeild do what it was born to do.. 4ghz.. glancing at your specs i would agree with the PSU check with running that card and oc'n.. and ofcourse anything else.. but you'll breath a lot more of life into that thing even with a mild 3's OC and to the forums! __________________ It's got a cpu, mobo, ram, video card, and PSU... Black belt Ubercloxx0r My Heat
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11-12-10, 04:34 PM	#17
shant Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Lebanon	im not sure if you would need to oc that to 3.6, ive run bfbc2 on my Q6600 2.4 without seeing any slowdowns, although i haven't checked fps, i haven't felt slowdowns, but if a minimum 60+ fps is a must then you probably need to __________________ 3770k l 4.5Ghz l 1.26vcore Maximus V Extreme 2x2GB Patriot Sector 5 2133Mhz+2x2 2400mhz,all running @ 1866mhz 2x WD Caviar Black 64mb/1TB(raid 0) + Seagate 500GB Backup Drive Evga Gtx 460 ee Xfx 650W psu Black Edition Hafx
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