Motherboard/graphics compatibility?

[julieski]

Hello,
I have an ASUS m4a89td pro usb board running xfx 5770 in crossfire.Looking to ugrade graphics. Any suggestions?

 

[ninjafishh]

Hey julieski, do you mind telling me the specs of your system?

Processor, PSU wattage, and how much you're willing to spend on an upgrade.

 

[julieski]

cpu is amd 1055 six core, psu is seasonic 600 watt i figure maybe 200- 300.$

 

[julieski]

the specs for the board read 2- 2.0 16 pcie the crossfired cards however are rated 2.1 pcie. Does this make a difference. the crossfire setup has worked fine.
just wondering were to go from here.

 

[julieski]

In that price range these r best options

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161400

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161411

Does it matter that these cards are rated pcie 3.0 ? My board seems to say its rated 2.0 and cards in crossfire are rated 2.1??????

 

[julieski]

I've thinking about a 7770 single or crossfire setup.

 

[ninjafishh]

cpu is amd 1055 six core, psu is seasonic 600 watt i figure maybe 200- 300.$

Alright, in that case, I would recommend either a radeon 7870, or a GTX 660Ti.

As it is now, your 5770's are dwarfed by the power of both of these cards.
The 7870 scores roughly 24k in 3dmark vantage. The 660 Ti scores around 26k, but the 7870 generally has better overclocking potential, if you're into that.

In comparison, the 5770's in crossfire score 20k, have inferior tessellation performance, and do not perform as well using Directx 11 effects. Not to mention the micro-stuttering of a dual card setup.

Here's a chart of the scores of various cards:
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_radeon_hd_7870_twinfrozr_iii_oc_review,14.html

Here's a review of 3 types of 7870:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5691/the-retail-radeon-hd-7870-review-his-7870-iceq-turbo-powercolor-pcs-hd7870

And 7 types of 660 Ti:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-ti-memory-bandwidth-anti-aliasing,3283.html


The 7870 and the 660 Ti are near the same price

If I were to buy a 660Ti, I would get this one:
http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3907660&CatId=7387

And were I to get a 7870:
http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2313501&CatId=7387



The 660 Ti will have better performance in a number of games (Skyrim, Battlefield) because Nvidia works with developers to optimize the games for their cards, not to mention the PhysX effects that are aesthetically pleasing (think more destructible objects, and object tracking) but more demanding (will reduce framerates). Nvidia generally has better driver support, also

The 7870 offers better overclocking, and is generally a very reliable card.

 

[ninjafishh]

Does it matter that these cards are rated pcie 3.0 ? My board seems to say its rated 2.0 and cards in crossfire are rated 2.1??????

It doesn't matter. The bandwidth provided by PCIE 2.0 isn't nearly saturated by the cards. Right now, the difference between 2.0 and 3.0 is ~3% in terms of performance on the same card.

 

[Sooth1]

Pcie 3.0 cards are compatible with 2.0. And there is hardly any performance difference between the 2 with current vid cards out.

 

[julieski]

what is microstuddering?

 

[julieski]

It doesn't matter. The bandwidth provided by PCIE 2.0 isn't nearly saturated by the cards. Right now, the difference between 2.0 and 3.0 is ~3% in terms of performance on the same card.

My 1055 amd cpu is overclocked to 3.5 g. this should'nt be an issue for the 7950 or 600ti ?

 

[ninjafishh]

what is microstuddering?

Well first, here's how crossfire/SLi works:

The cards process frames one at a time, back and forth. Card #1 renders a frame, and then card #2 will render the next frame.
Lets say you get 60FPS in a game. That means that every second, Card# 1 renders 30, same with card #2.

Now, the only difference between these two card and a single card is the Latency between each frame. With a single card, the latency is uniform, each frame is rendered consistently. In a dual-card setup, one frame might be rendered in 15ms, but the next frame could be rendered 1ms after that, resulting in a 14ms delay before the next frame is rendered. It isn't terribly obvious, but it can sometimes cause the game to hang for a very split second, once a minute or so, and it can be annoying,


You might not notice it, but if you move to a single card setup, it's a moderately sized difference in appearance.

 

[ninjafishh]

My 1055 amd cpu is overclocked to 3.5 g. this should'nt be an issue for the 7950 or 600ti ?

Nope, shouldn't be a problem at all.

 

[julieski]

Well first, here's how crossfire/SLi works:

The cards process frames one at a time, back and forth. Card #1 renders a frame, and then card #2 will render the next frame.
Lets say you get 60FPS in a game. That means that every second, Card# 1 renders 30, same with card #2.

Now, the only difference between these two card and a single card is the Latency between each frame. With a single card, the latency is uniform, each frame is rendered consistently. In a dual-card setup, one frame might be rendered in 15ms, but the next frame could be rendered 1ms after that, resulting in a 14ms delay before the next frame is rendered. It isn't terribly obvious, but it can sometimes cause the game to hang for a very split second, once a minute or so, and it can be annoying,


You might not notice it, but if you move to a single card setup, it's a moderately sized difference in appearance.

Nvidia has whats called Physic x . Dob you think it works better on certain games and not others? Is it a make or brake when purchasing?

 

[ninjafishh]

Nvidia has whats called Physic x . Dob you think it works better on certain games and not others? Is it a make or brake when purchasing?

I mentioned PhysX in an earlier reply. It isn't a make-or-break, but it's something to consider. If a game supports PhysX, which many do, that means that when it is enabled, the card will render more particles than it's AMD counterpart. This translates into things like more destructible objects, more reflective water, more realistic destruction when you shoot a wall, things like that. The trade-off is that the quality may go up, but the performance will go down, noticeably in a lot of cases. We're talking 5-10 FPS, depending on how heavy a load the particular scene places on the card.

 

[julieski]

I mentioned PhysX in an earlier reply. It isn't a make-or-break, but it's something to consider. If a game supports PhysX, which many do, that means that when it is enabled, the card will render more particles than it's AMD counterpart. This translates into things like more destructible objects, more reflective water, more realistic destruction when you shoot a wall, things like that. The trade-off is that the quality may go up, but the performance will go down, noticeably in a lot of cases. We're talking 5-10 FPS, depending on how heavy a load the particular scene places on the card.

My current systen is AMD based. Could there be major driver issues using a Nvidia card?

 

[ninjafishh]

My current systen is AMD based. Could there be major driver issues using a Nvidia card?

If you choose an Nvidia card, there should be no conflicts between your Nvidia card, and your AMD processor. In fact, Nvidia has fantastic driver support, so I'd be very surprised if you did have any problems.

 

[julieski]

If you choose an Nvidia card, there should be no conflicts between your Nvidia card, and your AMD processor. In fact, Nvidia has fantastic driver support, so I'd be very surprised if you did have any problems.

Thakyo Ninjafishh

 

[ninjafishh]

Thakyo Ninjafishh

No problem, hope I helped!

 

[julieski]

No problem, hope I helped!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133452 just purchased this item

 

[ninjafishh]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133452 just purchased this item

That's a good buy! I hope it all works for you!