Which way to go?

JLuchinski

JLuchinski

Well-Known Member
So I plan on taking $300-$400 this next payday and doing some upgrades. I found a guy who is going to sell me an Asus Maximus Formula mobo, 650 watt Corsair tx PSU and a Vision Tek Radeon 4870 card that I can run in crossfire with my current card for $250. I also found a 4870 X2 for $300, but I'd have to upgrade my PSU. Am I looking at the same performance either way I go? The mobo runs both PCI-E slots @ x16, so will they run as good as the 4870 X2? Or should I go with a 5850? Decisions, decisions.
 
JLuchinski said:
So I plan on taking $300-$400 this next payday and doing some upgrades. I found a guy who is going to sell me an Asus Maximus Formula mobo, 650 watt Corsair tx PSU and a Vision Tek Radeon 4870 card that I can run in crossfire with my current card for $250. I also found a 4870 X2 for $300, but I'd have to upgrade my PSU. Am I looking at the same performance either way I go? The mobo runs both PCI-E slots @ x16, so will they run as good as the 4870 X2? Or should I go with a 5850? Decisions, decisions.
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If I'm right, usually when a company makes a card with two GPUs on the same card, the clock speeds are slower than they are on the single-GPU card. Because of this, I think that two 4870s would be faster than a 4870 X2. The 5850 is a tough one, though, IMO. It would be much better in scenarios that don't support crossfire, but with ones that do, I think that two 4870s would be faster.
 
Well that butt hole decided he didn't want to sell his stuff. Now I'm torn between going SLI or Crossfire, or getting a beefier card. I'm running my cousins GTX 285 but he wants it back soon. Darn.
 
Are you upgrading your GPU only? Because if you upgrade you are going to be bottlenecked. That GTX 285 is already being bottlenecked by your system.

If that is your system in your SIG, then it needs an upgrade before you get new GPUs ESP. in crossfire/sli.
 
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Yeah, I guess I should upgrade the processor first, this one has seen it's day. Still a damn good chip though. What's a good Quad Core for gaming? There's so many different models it makes my head spin. I guess upgrading to more RAM is a moot point until I get a 64 bit OS. And will a newer mother board make a big difference?
 
4870 x2 > 5850, however I don't know if 520W could push 4870x2...
Buy 5850/ 4870x2, $300
Sell your 4870, $100 may be?
Spend $250 going for Phenom II x4 955 with AM3/AM2+/AM2 mobo
Sell E5200 & G31 mobo, $60 - 70??

Total spend ~$400
 
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I see you live in canada (I do too) Have you tried this store for computer parts? Memory Express This is where i buy all my computer parts. I love this store. If you go for a new processor you need new ram and a mobo as well. 4GB of Kingston DDR3 is $119, or 2GB for $60 AM3 board could be as cheap as $100. And a Phenom II Quad core is $180 And it's free shipping.

If you use your current RAM then you need to buy and AM2+ mobo. A Phenom II quad core will still work with those motherboards (double Check manufacture websites so see compatability list). The only thing is next year a Octacore processor is coming out from AMD and is AM3 only.

If you need any help just PM me.
 
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Hey, yeah, I live in Calgary, Memory Express is like a second home to me, the wife hates it when I go there. I should of also mentioned I don't really like AMD, I'm an Intel person. So would a Quad Core really make my 4870 shine? I'll probably throw $200 at a processor, see how well that works. I also want something that will run Battlefield 2 maxed out @ 1440 x 900.
 
JLuchinski said:
Hey, yeah, I live in Calgary, Memory Express is like a second home to me, the wife hates it when I go there. I should of also mentioned I don't really like AMD, I'm an Intel person. So would a Quad Core really make my 4870 shine? I'll probably throw $200 at a processor, see how well that works. I also want something that will run Battlefield 2 maxed out @ 1440 x 900.
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You live in calgary? I live in lethbridge! Small world. So, I have to ask how much you have total to spend in a new mobo/ram/CPU, and would you rather go with Intel or amd or best bang for the buck?
 
Cool, did you get that wicked snow storm/mini hurricane? What a great start to spring. At this point I'm going to start out with an Intel Quad Core, socket 775 and see how well that works. I'm also thinking of a single dual card solution, such as the 4870 x2. Any other bottle necks in my system?
 
Tell me about it, I work outside all day so it has been terrible the last 2 weeks. Well, since you already have a 4870, I'd suggest holding on to that instead of getting a 4870x2.If you really want to upgrade your GPU though i'd go for a 5850 instead of a 4870x2. If you OC the 5850 you could probably reach close to what a 4870x2 would perfrom but on a single card which is always nicer. What CPU are you getting? Q8400? The only other thing you would need is more DDR2 memory. You have two 1 GIG sticks right now you could just pick up 1 or 2 more 1 gig sticks of the same brand and speed if Memexpress has any.
 
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Yeah I've been eye balling the 5850 for awhile now, plus I wouldn't have to upgrade the psu. And my mobo only has 2 slots for RAM, so I think it's time to upgrade that as well, plus it only supports up to 4 gigs max. And the Q8400 looks good, I'll probably pick that up on Friday. Man computers are an expensive hobby.
 
Well as you can see I got a newish rig, specs in sig. My cousin got some other super fast machine, not to sure what, but gave me his computer. It was a Gateway system, but I transfered everything to my old case. I bent the pins on the original mobo, had to get a new one, $200 isn't bad. Spent all day updating Vista, can't wait to get windows 7.
 
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