- Joined
- May 22, 2011
- Location
- Greece
Hello. I'm troubled and after some serious multi-hour google research I decided to come to the experts 
So I'm looking to upgrade and I'm between the cards specified in the title. Which I shall repeat:
MSI GTX 560 Twin FrozR II/OC(PCI-Express, GDDR5, 1GB)
Sapphire 6950 (PCI-Express, GDDR5, 1GB)
Sapphire 6950 (PCI-Express, GDDR5, 2GB)
The choise might seem obvious but bare with me I have some things to think of. First of all all I need is a card that will play every single game out there(including upcoming titles like COD MW3 and BF3) in 1080p resolution maxed out(anti aliasing full etc). I'm not going to use 2-3 monitor setups or anything just a single monitor. My psu is a 550w corsair which I can't upgrade. I'm on a really tight budget and the cards mentioned are all I can afford. I also won't be overlocking them cause my mobo is just a random asus one which crashes when I do so(unless I use software to overclock which doesn't work well with my gts 250 1gb green edition)
My cpu is an intel core 2 quad q8400 @ 2.66ghz
I have two 2 gb ddr2 rams (total of 4gb)
I'm running on win7 32 bit but I also own 64 bit and will install if necessary.
Here are the basic problems:
Will I run into cpu/gpu bottleneck?
Is it true that ati cards like amd cpus more and nvidia like intel cpus or is that just a commercial thing?
I need to record gameplay with AT LEAST wegame. I rly would love to record using fraps with the full size recording option enabled but if it's impossible with my specs, half size recording would be good too. Wegame is just a last resort (since it doesn't mess with the framedrop much but has worse quality).
Needless to say that during recording I need the games to run fine without annoying framedrops(a bit of framedrop is fine obviously, I just don't want it to bother my gameplay)
Another problem is that I live in Greece and with summer coming my machine might struggle. Temps often reach 40c here and I'm not really an a/c guy I prefer to use a simple room fan(i'm kinda heat tolerant but I know electornics aren't). So that might be an issue. My case is just a random case with basic airflow. I've heard that the 2gb ati card gets to high temperatures easily so should I be worried about performance issues or about the card just... dying?
Also I'm aware of the ability to flash the 6950 to make it a 6970 which is getting quite popular. Should I try this out? Is there a chance that it will kill my card after a while?
Last but not least I've been rolling with nvidia since I first got a pc in my hands so even though I'm ready to make the change for a better gaming+recording experience I'm still naturally inclined towards nvidia. I've also heard that they release better drivers for nvidia than ati cards and that nvidia has partnerships with many developers leading to many games being optimised for nvidia cards. Should that be a reason of concern?
And also will there be a picture quality difference between the two? I know that hardcore gamers usually love ati cards(please don't start a fanboy war here I just need opinions followed by reasoning that makes sense)
I've heard that single monitor gaming won't need the extra gigs but I feel safer going with the 2gb card, as the way I see it, it might be more tolerant towards recording while gaming and because it will probably be useful in the future.
Wow that was a long post(i was just trying to make sure you have all the info you need I hope it won't bother you guys)
Thanks in advance. I'd also appreciate quick replies since I'll be making my choise within the next 1-4 days.
So I'm looking to upgrade and I'm between the cards specified in the title. Which I shall repeat:MSI GTX 560 Twin FrozR II/OC(PCI-Express, GDDR5, 1GB)
Sapphire 6950 (PCI-Express, GDDR5, 1GB)
Sapphire 6950 (PCI-Express, GDDR5, 2GB)
The choise might seem obvious but bare with me I have some things to think of. First of all all I need is a card that will play every single game out there(including upcoming titles like COD MW3 and BF3) in 1080p resolution maxed out(anti aliasing full etc). I'm not going to use 2-3 monitor setups or anything just a single monitor. My psu is a 550w corsair which I can't upgrade. I'm on a really tight budget and the cards mentioned are all I can afford. I also won't be overlocking them cause my mobo is just a random asus one which crashes when I do so(unless I use software to overclock which doesn't work well with my gts 250 1gb green edition)
My cpu is an intel core 2 quad q8400 @ 2.66ghz
I have two 2 gb ddr2 rams (total of 4gb)
I'm running on win7 32 bit but I also own 64 bit and will install if necessary.
Here are the basic problems:
Will I run into cpu/gpu bottleneck?
Is it true that ati cards like amd cpus more and nvidia like intel cpus or is that just a commercial thing?
I need to record gameplay with AT LEAST wegame. I rly would love to record using fraps with the full size recording option enabled but if it's impossible with my specs, half size recording would be good too. Wegame is just a last resort (since it doesn't mess with the framedrop much but has worse quality).
Needless to say that during recording I need the games to run fine without annoying framedrops(a bit of framedrop is fine obviously, I just don't want it to bother my gameplay)
Another problem is that I live in Greece and with summer coming my machine might struggle. Temps often reach 40c here and I'm not really an a/c guy I prefer to use a simple room fan(i'm kinda heat tolerant but I know electornics aren't). So that might be an issue. My case is just a random case with basic airflow. I've heard that the 2gb ati card gets to high temperatures easily so should I be worried about performance issues or about the card just... dying?
Also I'm aware of the ability to flash the 6950 to make it a 6970 which is getting quite popular. Should I try this out? Is there a chance that it will kill my card after a while?
Last but not least I've been rolling with nvidia since I first got a pc in my hands so even though I'm ready to make the change for a better gaming+recording experience I'm still naturally inclined towards nvidia. I've also heard that they release better drivers for nvidia than ati cards and that nvidia has partnerships with many developers leading to many games being optimised for nvidia cards. Should that be a reason of concern?
And also will there be a picture quality difference between the two? I know that hardcore gamers usually love ati cards(please don't start a fanboy war here I just need opinions followed by reasoning that makes sense)
I've heard that single monitor gaming won't need the extra gigs but I feel safer going with the 2gb card, as the way I see it, it might be more tolerant towards recording while gaming and because it will probably be useful in the future.
Wow that was a long post(i was just trying to make sure you have all the info you need I hope it won't bother you guys)
Thanks in advance. I'd also appreciate quick replies since I'll be making my choise within the next 1-4 days.
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