What will give me better performance than 2 ATI 3870 in CF

Solution
I wouldnt recommend a 5830 to my worst enemy, its just not worth it. If you want to see a big jump in performance get a 5850 or greater. The 5830's are crippled 5850's with a crazy price-tag. If you can get one for under 200.00$ then I say go ahead, if not get a 5850.

For WoW I would stick with what you have, buying a new GPU for that specific game is not worth it. If you were getting 50 frames or lower then a new GPU would be a great upgrade, for now you are fine. Do you play any other games besides WoW?

Simrin

Distinguished
Jun 16, 2010
12
0
18,510
Hello,

I was just about to upgrade my system before I decided to swap my cards around and upgrade to Windows 7.

My setup is a Intel DX38BT (latest BIOS), 2 GB DDR PC 1333, and an E8400. I have two ATI 3870's 512mb running in CF. I went after my Windows 7 Upgrade and a swap of the two cards in their slots, from 40 FPS in WoW to 110 FPS. Should I bother to upgrade to a 5830 or should I just wait now until the 5850 and 5870 come down in price.
 

Simrin

Distinguished
Jun 16, 2010
12
0
18,510
It is enough, my curiosity at this point is should I really be seeing that big of a jump just from windows 7 and being able to use DX 10 also going from 32 bit to 64 bit. My system is dated to about 2007/2008 and it just seems weird that its pumping that much power still. What am I looking at if I was to go to a single 5830. Will I get lower performance but gains elsewhere or what?
 
I wouldnt recommend a 5830 to my worst enemy, its just not worth it. If you want to see a big jump in performance get a 5850 or greater. The 5830's are crippled 5850's with a crazy price-tag. If you can get one for under 200.00$ then I say go ahead, if not get a 5850.

For WoW I would stick with what you have, buying a new GPU for that specific game is not worth it. If you were getting 50 frames or lower then a new GPU would be a great upgrade, for now you are fine. Do you play any other games besides WoW?
 
Solution

Simrin

Distinguished
Jun 16, 2010
12
0
18,510
Not consistently right now. I have been a big FPS player in the past (COD MW and MW2) and also Halflife. But I have been doing more of those games on consoles and sticking to the MMO world on my PC.

What about sticking to just upgrading my other components. E8400 to a AMD II Phenom x6 and a DX38bt to an MSI 890FX and 2gb DDR3 PC1333 to 4gb DDR3 PC1600?

Or am I simply in a place where I should run this rig into the ground.
 

Simrin

Distinguished
Jun 16, 2010
12
0
18,510
I might sell it....I could replace the equipment in my htpc...I could set up a windows server some of my windows development I have been monkeying with. There are options but I suppose I shouldn't spend money if I don't need to.

Thanks for all the advice. As much as I want to upgrade so far everything I have read points to there not being a point yet.
 


I say keep what you got, you can always sell your current GPU's and get a single 5xxx series later on if needed. The E8400 is superb, overclocks very well.


 

Simrin

Distinguished
Jun 16, 2010
12
0
18,510
Hrm I was never able to get it to overclock with any stability. I tried to do some minor OC to stick with stock cooling since I heard the cooling unit shipped with it was very good but I got horrible results out of it.

With my current components can you give me some ideas of what tools and and what numbers I should target for some stable overclocking?
 


I will help you out with your CPU once I get home from work.

For now read this thread/guide so you can get an idea of what you need to do.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/259899-29-core-overclocking-guide