Upgrading GC but use old system.

[Tarpy]

Hi All,

I have been pretty absent in the hardware arena since i bought my last PC a couple of years ago.

Cut things short, i'm planning to play the upcoming Battlefield 3, and since my current GC won't be good enough (8800GTS), i would like to upgrade.

My plan is to get 2x HD6950 (in crossfire) so that i could set all graphic settings to high, i'm tired of playing while lagging, especially in the heat of battle.

The issue is that i only have budget to get the GCs, the rest will be using my current setup, my mobo is Asus Maximus Formula, proc is Q6600, RAM is 4GB DDR2 1066, will using these old hardware hamper or cause a bottleneck in graphics performance?

Also i'm on a Silverstone ST75ZF (750watt) PSU, and case is CM 690, will the PSU be enough to power the GCs in crossfire? (I have 4 HDDs) will they even fit in the case in the first place?

Many thanks in advance

 

[amuffin]

Your cpu may bottleneck your gpu's, however you can upgrade to an i5-2500k which is a great deal atm. But if your cpu does bottleneck your 6950's then you may have to overclock it to reduce bottlenecking. However I am not sure if the q6600 will bottleneck it, this is just what I think.

 

[king smp]

The Q6600 OCs to 3.0 or higher on air really easy

 

[Tarpy]

So basically at stock speed it will bottleneck my GC? I've OC'ed it to 3.0 before (on air) and it was ok until my RAM crashed the PC and mobo got reset to stock, couldn't be bothered to re-OC it. I don't play any other games except the BF series.

 

[wa1]

Your current system is still good enough to play any games recently, but you might want to OC it a little bit (3.0GHz or more). ANd I think a single HD6950 is more than enough to feel the power difference between 6950 and 8800GTS.

What is your monitor? resolution?
Note than your current PSU is enough to run dual cards configuration, so don't worry about power problem...

 

[Tarpy]

Your current system is still good enough to play any games recently, but you might want to OC it a little bit (3.0GHz or more). ANd I think a single HD6950 is more than enough to feel the power difference between 6950 and 8800GTS.

What is your monitor? resolution?
Note than your current PSU is enough to run dual cards configuration, so don't worry about power problem...

Thanks. I will re-OC it to 3.0.

I'm on a 23" monitor playing at the native resolution of 1920 x 1080. Is a single 6950 really enough to play BF3 at max settings without lag? Since that is what i'm aiming for.

Also will the GC even fit in my CM 690 case?

 

[wa1]

Thanks. I will re-OC it to 3.0.

I'm on a 23" monitor playing at the native resolution of 1920 x 1080. Is a single 6950 really enough to play BF3 at max settings without lag? Since that is what i'm aiming for.

Also will the GC even fit in my CM 690 case?

Since BF3 is a very demanding game, so I'm pretty sure you can't maxed out that game without lags or glitches...
Surely a single HD5950 is not enough, but remember that your CPU is still from old generation which will limited your PC performance.

Take a look at this:

I'm sure any GC will fit into your case.

 

[Tarpy]

I'm planning to upgrade my mobo and to i7 2600K within a few months time. So i should just stick to 1 HD6950 first eh? Hmm...oh well its better than nothing though.

 

[wa1]

Yes, that's a GOOD plan, get one of HD5950 for now and you can add another one later when you finish upgrading CPU+Mobo...
You will still see HUGE performance increase from 8800GTS to HD5950.

 

[Tarpy]

Best answer selected by Tarpy.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey