Worthy upgrade from X4 955 / 5870?

[uh-oh_polio]

Thinking of upgrading my now 2 year old pc.

Looking for the best bang for buck upgrades or any suggestions that would noticeably increase performance.

Current setup is

X4 955 oc'd
xfx 5870
Corsair 750 psu
4gb

Would it be wise to find another 5870 to cf with or would I be better off selling it for what I can then purchasing a better, single card?

 

[uh-oh_polio]

Budget would be less than $500 total.

This is also for games only.

Newegg is preferred but any reputable US store is fine.

 

[uh-oh_polio]

at 1920 x 1080

 

[flyboy86]

What games do you play/ want to play in the future?

 

[wolfram23]

CF 5870s would definitely be worthwhile and can easily max out any games at 1080p.

Might want to look at going with an Intel CPU though, like an i5 2500k. You could reuse your RAM, or sell the CPU, mobo, and RAM and buy all new.

 

[uh-oh_polio]

What games do you play/ want to play in the future?

Nothing specific, just everything I can play now and whatever comes along in the future. But at a much smoother rate. Might be thinking of going with eyefinity eventually when the funds come around as well.

 

[uh-oh_polio]

CF 5870s would definitely be worthwhile and can easily max out any games at 1080p.

Might want to look at going with an Intel CPU though, like an i5 2500k. You could reuse your RAM, or sell the CPU, mobo, and RAM and buy all new.

Would the i5 differences be noticeable in gaming, or would it be more for everyday tasks? Converting files and whatnot.

 

[ross_mitchell]

Would the i5 differences be noticeable in gaming, or would it be more for everyday tasks? Converting files and whatnot.

In most games the i5 will make virtually no difference, especially if you have 2 radeon 5870s.

I have a phenom ii 955 (@3.75GHz) and 2 radeon 5850s and they run almost anything with a good fps.

also the 955 seems to be good for most daily computing tasks (like converting videos or browsing the web), have never had any regrets about buying the phenom ii and i don't see any reason to upgrade unless you are looking for top of the range performance.

 

[spentshells]

You seem to be looking to waste money wait another year.
But if you feel the itch then if your motherboard supports it go CF like wolfram23 said. The OC the CPU a little bit. 3.6-3.8. Then enjoy.

I get a little bumbed when I see a setup like that then hear "I want to upgrade".

 

[rdzona]

Yeah I agree with the last post. What kind of frame rates are you getting anyway? I have a 5870 also, and I've been getting 55-60fps on BF3 on high settings at 1920x1200. I don't see what the big deal to upgrade would get you.

 

[spentshells]

ULTRA!

 

[uh-oh_polio]

Yeah I agree with the last post. What kind of frame rates are you getting anyway? I have a 5870 also, and I've been getting 55-60fps on BF3 on high settings at 1920x1200. I don't see what the big deal to upgrade would get you.

On BF3 im getting ~ 40s on custom video options at 1080 with some of it on high, ultra, lowered aa, hbao on.
On all ultra im getting 30 or more often than not, less.

Crysis im getting ~ 30 at 1080 with no aa, but mods knock it down to low 20s.

Also, if im going to be using eyefinity eventually. I might need a bit more power.

 

[spentshells]

at 1080 @ ultra ditch AA and watch the frames jump 10 in some places..
Crysis or Crysis2 ?

 

[uh-oh_polio]

at 1080 @ ultra ditch AA and watch the frames jump 10 in some places..
Crysis or Crysis2 ?

Crysis / Warhead.

2 plays fine ~55 before the dx11 update turned on. With it on, frames unsurprisingly drop like a rock as I would imagine they should.

 

[jyjjy]

Unless the need for an upgrade is urgent I would definitely wait for the HD7000 cards in Dec/Jan.

 

[spentshells]

And overclock a more. Spend 2-3 hours in a row one day and get the other 400mhz.
You say the CPU is oc'd but to where ? If your at 3.6 or3.8 maybe forget it.
If you are at 3.4 fight for 3.8 it will help. I did well in crysis warhead by upping my clocks even with a 5770 clocked right out without a voltage increase.

 

[uh-oh_polio]

And overclock a more. Spend 2-3 hours in a row one day and get the other 400mhz.
You say the CPU is oc'd but to where ? If your at 3.6 or3.8 maybe forget it.
If you are at 3.4 fight for 3.8 it will help. I did well in crysis warhead by upping my clocks even with a 5770 clocked right out without a voltage increase.

3.6

Im not sure how well it will handle pushing a bit further but I can try.

 

[spentshells]

With warhead every lil bit counts. I've fully beaten that game on the hardest level and killed every singe "person" in the game. Aliens not so much. God I still love that game.

 

[uh-oh_polio]

With warhead every lil bit counts. I've fully beaten that game on the hardest level and killed every singe "person" in the game. Aliens not so much. God I still love that game.

Agreed, I must have played that game at least 50 times. Same with crysis, but I still havent completed 2 :/ I guess I just dont like it.

 

[spentshells]

Agreed, I must have played that game at least 50 times. Same with crysis, but I still havent completed 2 :/ I guess I just dont like it.

JAcked........... C2 the suite controls suck but the suite upgrades rocked so I took it as that.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

if you want to do eyefinity you will want to do that with 2gb cards. 2 6970's in crossfire will do the trick

 

[wolfram23]

The i5 would help with minimum framerate a bit, but yeah it's not really a big upgrade in gaming performance.

I'd still get CF 5870s. Yeah it's almost going to be 2 generations old, but it'll power max settings in everything. I have overclocked CF 5850s, and in BF3 I'm playing everything at Ultra/enabled except 2xAA with over 60fps. I can run 4xAA but it gets sporadic slowdowns to 20-30 FPS before jumping back up again. I think I might be running into a 1gb VRAM limit perhaps, that or it's just a little too demanding.

 

[spentshells]

Wolfram Im pretty sure it's video memory.

 

[wolfram23]

Probably. It happens at strange times, I think it has to swap out a bunch of textures and such and then it's fine again. Either way, I'm happy with it at 2xAA and everything else maxed.

I remember back when Metro 2033 came out, if I enabled 4xMSAA and DoF (which is to say, every feature on/max) I would run at 10fps lol, but with one or the other off it ran fine at around 50fps. But for some reason - maybe driver updates - when I played through the game again recently I was able to run everything enabled and it was 30-40fps and quite playable, although I opted to run DoF off anyway just to keep it nice and smooth at 50-60fps.

So... I guess what I'm saying is it probably is VRAM but it's also probably a bit to do with unoptimized drivers.