Looking to replace a Radeon HD 6870 card with something slightly better

[Radical Dreamer]

I think I'm having video ram issues with my current video card, so I want to replace it, and as long as I'm going to buy a new card, I figure I might as well go for a slight upgrade. However, when I go to newegg, I'm completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of video cards that are there. I'm not sure which will work in my machine, which will be the upgrade I desire, and what all the little specifications mean.

This is my current video card:

XFX HD Radeon 1GB 256-Bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150506

It was purchased back in 2011 along with all of the parts for a whole build that I put together back then. Here are the other parts of my system that may be important to know:

Motherboard:ASRock 870 EXTREME3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157198

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb Quad-Core 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W HDZ955FBGMBOX Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103808

Power Supply: XIGMATEK ACXTNRP-PC602 600W ATX12V Ver.2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817815009


I'm not overly picky about the new card that I want. My main concern is that it is something that will actually work in my existing build without any other parts being changed. Other than that, I'd like it to be a slight upgrade to what I currently have. I'm not too concerned about price, but I imagine that my options for this particular build wouldn't be too pricey anyway.

Curiously, I also noticed that my card's interface is PC Express 2.1 x16, while my motherboard's is PC Express 2.0 x16. This build was actually made for me on someone else's recommendation, so I never noticed this until now. What degree of leeway and/or backwards compatibility is there between interfaces?

I am considering this:

SAPPHIRE DUAL-X 100314-4L Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202113&cm_re=video_card-_-14-202-113-_-Product

It seems to be within the parameters of my build, and to my knowledge the 6970 chipset was a tier above the 6870. However, I am not confident in my knowledge to know if this is actually a good choice.

There is also this:

GIGABYTE GV-R687D5-1GD-B Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity Factory Refurbished
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125760

But this basically seems to be the same thing as my current one.

So anyway, I'm looking for recommendations.

 

[clutchc]

You're looking at old cards. You will be better off buying something more modern. R9-270, 270X or GTX 760, 960. Here is a hierarchy chart to judge where the various cards fall in performance. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html
A R9-270X would be a good improvement, as would a GTX 760.
If you OC the old Phenom II, you could even use a R9-280 or GTX 960 w/o fear of too much bottleneck.

 

[Radical Dreamer]

You're looking at old cards. You will be better off buying something more modern. R9-270, 270X or GTX 760, 960. Here is a hierarchy chart to judge where the various cards fall in performance. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html
A R9-270X would be a good improvement, as would a GTX 760.
If you OC the old Phenom II, you could even use a R9-280 or GTX 960 w/o fear of too much bottleneck.

You actually gave me a hierarchy chart for CPU's.

 

[clutchc]

Lol... I got my bookmarks mixed up, sorry. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

 

[Radical Dreamer]

All of the cards I search for with the chipsets you mentioned have PCI Express 3.0 x16 interfaces. Would they work in a motherboard that has PCI Express 2.0 x16?

 

[clutchc]

All of the cards I search for with the chipsets you mentioned have PCI Express 3.0 x16 interfaces. Would they work in a motherboard that has PCI Express 2.0 x16?

Yes. PCI Express is a backward compatible interface. No problem.

 

[Radical Dreamer]

Still looking around, and it looks like I might even be able to go as high as a GTX 960, since most of the specifications I read say it requires a 400W power supply minimum, while most of the AMD cards I've been looking at have been saying 500W minimum. My power supply is 600W. Thoughts?

 

[clutchc]

If that 3rd tier PSU handled the 151W HD-6870, it should be fine with the 120W GTX 960. http://www.hwcompare.com/18486/geforce-gtx-960-vs-radeon-hd-6870/
Gfx cards are getting more powerful while using less power than they used to. You are a couple generations behind the curve with the HD-6xxx line.

You'll probably not get all the performance from the GTX 960 that you will be paying for, tho. The PhII X4 955 will be a bit of a bottleneck to the card in most games. That's why I suggested the 960 only if you could OC the old Phenom II X4. My 965BE @ 4.0 GHz just barely keeps up with my GTX 960.

 

[Radical Dreamer]

So... I have my new card. According to resources on the Internet, I should uninstall my existing GPU drivers before installing the new GPU. Those Internet resources say go to "Add/Remove Programs" and uninstall "AMD Catalyst Install Manager." However, for me, there is no such entry in the list of programs. Should I just go to device manager, click on my GPU, properties, and then uninstall driver instead?

EDIT: In fact, the only AMD/ATI program listed under programs is "Dual Core Optimizer," and I'm pretty sure that's for the CPU rather than GPU.

 

[clutchc]

The best, cleanest, and fastest way to uninstall gfx drivers and all their bits and pieces that get left in the Registry is with DDU: https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/550192/geforce-drivers/display-driver-uninstaller-ddu-v12-9-3-4-released-06-09-14-/
Even tho it is on an Nvidia site, it is manufacturer independent and works for both Nvidia and Amd drivers. Just run it and let it do the job automatically. If you run it from Win, it will ask if you want to boot to safe mode and have it run. Do that. It does a much cleaner job that way. I use it every time I change cards for benchmarking.

 

[Radical Dreamer]

Went with the GTX 960. Even if it is a bit bottlenecked by the CPU, I'm leaving room for if I upgrade further in the future, or build a new system and use this card. Overall I'm pleased with it.

I have tried overclocked a bit, however I have had mixed results. The first time I immediately went to 4.0 GHz, but then windows wouldn't boot and I got a post code of D5. Eventually it would boot, but it would result the CPU clock back to 3.2 GHz to do so. So far I ended up settling on overclocking it at 3.6 GHz. I found that overclocking the CPU changed what options I have for my RAM as well, so after going to 3.6 GHz for the CPU, I actually had to go from 1.6 GHz to 1.53 GHz for the RAM, because the new 1.84 GHz setting was also giving me that D5 post code with no boot.

Don't know a whole lot about overclocking either. Just went to the BIOS where it let me select speed, but was too afraid to push it much.

 

[clutchc]

Since you have a Black Edition Phenom II X4 955, you have an unlocked clock multiplier. If you want to OC the CPU, reset the BIOS settings you changed back to what they were. Then replace the stock cooler with a good aftermarket cooler and OC in this manner...

Increase the CPU clock multiplier a 'click' at a time, rebooting and checking for stability with something like Intel Burn Test using the default values in IBT: http://www.techspot.com/downloads/4965-intelburntest.html
Watch core temps while testing. Try to keep them below 62C except for an occasional peak now and then. (personally, I go with 72C as max)
If all is good, repeat.
Eventually you will have an unstable result in IBT. At that point you can either back off to the last stable result's setting, or begin to increase the vcore a bit at a time. 1.5v is the accepted max, but some folks take it higher w/o issue. And remember, you OC at your own risk.