Upgrades!

[Wham!]

After seeing my 4890 perform worse and worse during 2010-2011 as is now required something new. A solid container with good air flow that can play BF3 on high settings (not max-max) and no performance drops.

Current setup:
-------------------------
• AMD X4 PII 940 [email protected]
• XFX HD4890 OC'd (Performs very well for being such an old card)
• GA-MA790X-UD3P
• 4GB of DDR2 RAM (Corsair TWIN2X4096-8500CS)
• 500GB HDD
• 650W Corsair PSU
• Windows 7 64-bit
• + a small chassis

I plan to get myself a XFX HD6970 shortly, with the reason for my current card is not enough. And a new chassis called Cooler Master Sniper: Black Edition.

What do you think I should upgrade? If you say that I shall upgrade my MB - upgrading RAM, HDD and eventually a CPU follows.

All opinions and ideas are welcome, thanks!

 

[claptonman]

If your motherboard can support DDR3, get some of that. Your CPU is still very capable. But if you would like to upgrade, I would suggest a new AM3+ board, and an upgrade to faster RAM and the new Bulldozer CPU being released in the future. Your PSU would work just fine.

 

[Wham!]

Okay sweet! The 6970 won't bottleneck anything at all, or what you know about?

 

[claptonman]

Definitely not. The 6970 is one of the fastest cards out there. I'm getting a 6950 with my bulldozer build.

Is your CPU socket AM3? If so, you can basically build everything and keep your CPU in there, and if you want, upgrade to the bulldozer. You could probably sell the old CPU for a little money.

 

[mihir]

I would recommend a GTX 570 1280MB or an HD 6950 over the HD 6970 unless you are gaming at resolutions which are greater than Full HD.

 

[Wham!]

Playing on 1680x1050.

Hmm, now when you're saying a 6950 would fit me better, but when comparing the specs the 6970 is almost better at every spec.

After reading about the 6950 lots of people say that it can be "flashed" to match a 6970 card. Is this true, or do you know anything about that?

 

[mihir]

Playing on 1680x1050.

Hmm, now when you're saying a 6950 would fit me better, but when comparing the specs the 6970 is almost better at every spec.

After reading about the 6950 lots of people say that it can be "flashed" to match a 6970 card. Is this true, or do you know anything about that?

The newer HD6950's cannot be shader unlocked to the HD6970.

The early cards were shader unlockable and then you can set them to HD6970's clocks and voila.
The HD6970 is overpriced.

And yes at that resolution the HD6950 would be awesome.
The GTX 570 beats or performs close to the HD 6970 in almost all the benchmarks at that resolution .

 

[Wham!]

And yes at that resolution the HD6950 would be awesome.
The GTX 570 beats or performs close to the HD 6970 in almost all the benchmarks at that resolution .

The 570 beats 6950 or 6970 at 1680x1050?

And about this shader - can you see any diffrence in games like BFBC2?

 

[mihir]

Yes once the HD 6950 has been shader unlocked and overclocked then you will see a difference in performance.

Source:http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...899-amd-radeon-hd-6970-hd-6950-review-19.html

 

[Wham!]

Thank you very much for your responses... Looked further on the review.

So, the main reason to get a 6970 is that it can handle the 1920x1080+ resolutions, and the main reason to get a 6950 is to save those money that differs from the 6970 and enjoying the same experience that the 6970 would have been giving at 1680x1050?

 

[StrangleHold]

Dont get DDR3 like suggested. Your processor or board doesnt support it.

 

[accessoriesguy]

dependin on what you use your computer for, get more RAM! or you can invest in the future with an SSD.

Lastly you can just wait for Bulldozer, spend some extra cash, get extra Bang! It all depends on how much money or bang you got/want!