Curious about a few things. amd 560 and a 5850

[thatbonokid]

I sold my 1100t at 4.0 with SLI 560's for financial reasons.

I currently have an AMD black edition 560 3.3 dualcore with the multiplier set so it is running at 3.8.( are there other settings to make a more noticable improvement?) 4 gigs memory, and a GTS 450. Im trying to play battlefield 3 and it just wont go past 50 FPS on completely low settings even with it overclocked a little with EVGA precision.

as you can see, i grabbed a 250 dollar tower and am trying to max it out with casual overclocking in order to enjoy BF3.

Im wondering what is bottle necking my computer the most. Is this processor running correctly at 3.8? and will that be enough to push a 5850 with an aftermarket scythe cooler? a man on craigs list is selling a 5850 and that cooler for around 100 dollars. should I grab the 5850? or wait for something better? what would be the ideal card to match with this computer and get the best performance out of battlefield 3?

Here is a screenshot. My old 1100t would show its speed in my computer-properties. This one only shows it in CPUID
Just trying to get everything straight here

Any input would be helpful and as always, you guys are life savers.

 

[thatbonokid]

my processor went up 1 point when i put it at 3.8 with the multiplier only.

 

[thatbonokid]

the only cooling i have on it is the stock heatsink that came with my 1100t, so its a big step up from the stock cooler it had. it never goes past 38c at full load.

 

[davedree]

What resolution are you running bf3 at, the 450 isn't great to be honest, but should be enough for low settings at 1680x1050. Bf3 requires 4 cores to run smoothly at medium-high settings.

What motherboard do you have as the ht link only shows 1000mhz,
Also could you open the spd section of cpu-z and post an image of that, I'd like to see the speed of the nb-cpu link, Should be 2000 at default.

The callisto cores usually are able to unlock to a quad core or tri core. But that depends on your motherboard and luck. 5850 is good but depending on your monitor rez might not be worth it.

 

[thatbonokid]

yeah ive got an ASUS m4n68t-m-v2
I tried to do it, it was a little confusing and just wouldnt post

Right now im running at 1600x900

 

[thatbonokid]

Im leaning toward getting like a 570 equivalent card, what would be some good ATI models to look for in that range? do you think this processor can run it well in its current state?

 

[thatbonokid]

hell, if he does the 5850 for 80 dollars would that be good? I dont think ill pay 100.. though i do see them going for a pretty penny online

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102857

 

[Knufire]

I'd say a 5850 for under $100 is a great deal, actually.

They're selling for a lot because the Radeon 5xxx series is still the best hardware out for crunching bitcoins. Buy it from the guy cheap, and sell it to a Bitcoin miner.

 

[davedree]

Please dont be offended but that board is pants. Its an old am2 chipset so ht 1.0 and I imagine your nb-cpu will be low too so will hold back a quad core pII.

With your current cpu/board in dual core mode, and the res you play at it would be pointless getting any gpu over a 460-6850.

5850 is a good card, and thats a good price, depends on your budget.

 

[thatbonokid]

Please dont be offended but that board is pants. Its an old am2 chipset so ht 1.0 and I imagine your nb-cpu will be low too so will hold back a quad core pII.

With your current cpu/board in dual core mode, and the res you play at it would be pointless getting any gpu over a 460-6850.

5850 is a good card, and thats a good price, depends on your budget.

So the HT link is holding me back and this processor in dual core could run a better card if it was at 3.8? What do you think my performance would be at if i added a decent card to this machine? is my average 30 fps in battlefield due to my motherboard, processor, or the GTS 450?

 

[thatbonokid]

 

[thatbonokid]

 

[thatbonokid]

what if i grabbed like a 955 BE or something? quad core am3 proc. What do you think my best bet would be in that department? I want one that i can have at 3.8 without even doing anything besides the multiplier. Im gonna try to use this motherboard for a while, but i could probably find an amd quad core and grab this 5850? or a 560?

 

[thatbonokid]

honestly, i didnt like how my GTX 560 ran battlefield completely. But it was also the first model 560 to be released by EVGA.

 

[thatbonokid]

Thats why I was leaning toward ATI.

 

[davedree]

So the HT link is holding me back and this processor in dual core could run a better card if it was at 3.8? What do you think my performance would be at if i added a decent card to this machine? is my average 30 fps in battlefield due to my motherboard, processor, or the GTS 450?

The ht link won't be holding you back too much as theres enough bandwidth even at 1000mhz, the cpu supports 2000mhz, but the board is maxxed at 1000 The nb-cpu speed might be holding you back by about 5-7 fps which is why i asked you to check its current speed in cpu-z. And to check you are running the memory in dual channel mode.

As for your average fps, I'd say its a combination of all them as whole.
If you added a 5850,6850,460 I think you'd be able to play multiplayer with medium-high settings no deferred aa at around 45 fps. To run high settings you might get stuttering due to 4gb of system ram.

Plan of action I'd get the 5850 or something of similar performance/in your budget, give that a go if you still not happy then get a 955c3 stepping, get it clocked to 3.6-3.8 and it will help out for the time being.

 

[davedree]

Ok your board shows its running the nb-cpu at 2000, thats good news I didnt think the
630a could run that high.

So yeah go for a better card and take it from there

 

[thatbonokid]

also. Any tips on making this a 3 or 4 core processor could save me 100 dollars on a 955. Especially trying to find the C version. what happens if i get any 955? will i just be able to auto switch the multiplier like this and the 1100t? And why isnt it showing up in system properties as 3.8? like my 1100 did

 

[davedree]

What bios version does your board have at the moment?

asus core unlocker =enabled.
Cpu core activation= manual
2nd core =on
3rd core =on
4th core =on
5th core =off

Turn off the last core and see if it boots up as a tri-core.
If it doesnt go back into bios and disable that 4th core and enable the 5th core.
Make sure the cpu v-core is set manually to 1.40v for now.

With only 3+1 vrm on your board a c2 stepping would run hotter and require a lot more voltage and they don't overclock aswell as a c3. So if buying 2nd hand check the stepping if you can.
Yeah the 955 is multiplier unlocked like your 1100t.

 

[thatbonokid]