I want to upgrade from gtx260, any good cards?

[mtwow789]

Hi,

I built pc a year before and I am looking to upgrade, I am wondering which one is bottle necking my performance.
I am playing games like The Witcher 2 and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. I am having problem getting playable FPS on high settings.

Any suggestion like "get a new gpu like Geforce XXX or AMD XXXX" will be appreciated.

Here are my current specs.

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 95W
GPU: EVGA Superclocked GTX 260 896mb
RAM: Corsair 2*2GB PC10666, 1333MHz, 4096MB
HDD: WD Caviar Blue 7200RPM 500 GB
PSU: OCZ Fatal1ty 550W Modular Gaming Power Supply

The cpu is overclocked a bit to 3.3ghz, currently using all stock cooling.

What should I upgrade?? and to what?

Thanks!

 

[mtwow789]

forgot to add motherboard
MB: MSI 790X-G45

 

[Outlander_04]

The thing to upgrade for better gaming performance is the graphics card .

Either a GTX 560 ti

or Radeon 6870

will run fine with you current power supply and give you a decent frame rate boost .
I'd go with the 560ti just because installation will be easier .
The AMD works fine too , but you will have to clean your system of all nVidia drivers and utilities before installing the software

 

[megamanx00]

You know, you have a crossfire motherboard. If you had gotten a 4870 you could have simply added another one. Oh well.

Anyway, since you have a crossfire board get a 6870 or a 6950 as a 6850 wouldn't be too much of an upgrade for you. I also recommend getting a good CPU cooler so that you can overclock it a bit more.

 

[browsingtheworld]

Because pairing 6850/6950s in crossfire is a good idea with a 3.2ghz AMD.

 

[megamanx00]

This 6870 should be a nice upgrade for you

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102948

but if you can afford to spend a little more it's worth it to get a 6950

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102921

Some of the more expensive 6950s have a dual BIOS switch which is ideal if you are interested in attempting to unlock the other shaders and turn it into a downclocked 6970. I wouldn't do it on a card that didn't have the BIOS switch though

 

[megamanx00]

I should also add that if you wanted to use two 6870s or two 6950s that would honestly be a bit too much power for a single monitor in any game and they would generally be held back by your CPU. If you wanted to use eyefinity though and game across 3 screens then I would certainly recommend getting two such cards

 

[mtwow789]

Thanks for suggesting 6870 and 6950.
Seems like its a good idea to buy 6870 and buy another one later for crossfire.
I should've bought AMD/ATI to begin with... oh well.

However, do you think my current cpu will bottleneck the system if I crossfire 6870?
I am thinking about just buying single 6950 so I don't have to upgrade psu also. So I can wait a few months or so and buy another 6950 with better psu.

 

[megamanx00]

If you're only using a single monitor then yes your current CPU will generally bottleneck two 6950s, but then you often only need one such card to get playable framerates in most games. I myself sometimes disable crossfire on lower spec games just so it won't get so hot ^_^. I mean it's not like I need to use crossfire in Fallout 3 . If you want to play Crysis 2 in DX11 mode at 1080p though then you may appreciate the overkill ^_^

 

[megamanx00]

By the way, overclocking your CPU will help lessen the bottleneck and allow you to get more performance out of two 6870s in crossfire. Just understand that you won't always get the same results as the reviewers who are using an overclocked i-7 980X @ 4.0Ghz. AMD really needs to get bulldozer out the door -_-

 

[ps3hacker12]

i would reccommend putting the gtx260 in the second PCI-E slot you have and using it as a dedicated PPU once you get your new card. even a 6850 would do well, im suprised no-one has asked what resolutions you play at yet, so what resolution do you play at?

 

[megamanx00]

^ hah good point, I just assumed 1080p PS3

 

[mtwow789]

Oh,

I have 24in monitor with 1980*1200.
But for AC: Brotherhood, I am getting slaughtered so using lesser resolution but keeping it same aspect ratio.

What is this PPU? I searched briefly, and it looks like two GPU's are sharing the load.

Is it possible with 6870 and GTX 260?
I was thinking of just buying 6950 and sell off GTX 260.

 

[megamanx00]

PPU, physics processing unit. Basically you can use an nVidia card for physX, but ever since nVidia changed to drivers to disable that feature whenever it detects a Radeon card you need to apply some hacks to get it to work right with a Radeon card present. Anyway, since so few games use PhysX I wouldn't think it worth it (except maybee for Batman ^_^) but it's up to you.

 

[mtwow789]

Best answer selected by mtwow789.

 

[ps3hacker12]

yeah, if your gonna sell it off that would be a good way of getting some cash.

 

[mtwow789]

I have bought 6950 and now I can play The Witcher 2 on ultra without any framskips!!!!

Man! that game is beautiful!! I love the performance!!!
Indeed it was my GTX260 choking before, now I have plethora of fps to please my eyes!!

Also listed my gtx260 on the ebay!

Thanks everyone for helping me out!