Worth upgrading from HD 6850?

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src1425

src1425

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I'm rebuilding my son's rig for his birthday, upgrading from a C2D to an i5 3570k. His current GPU is an HD 6850. Is it worth upgrading the GPU (I can spend around $250) or is the processor upgrade going to be enough for good gaming at 1920 x 1080?

Thanks!
 
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goodguy713
well he already stated that he was already upgrading to the 3570k and that he had a budget of around 250 for a graphics card. I just laid out the obvious implementation options. crossfire or a 7870 personally I play with 2 6870s in crossfire .. they fixed the screen tearing issue a while ago. its not an issue and 2 6870s in crossfire is enough to play battle field 3 on high with ultra textures just thought I would throw that out there. as far as the 6850s are concerned it just depends on the games your interested in playing although like most of the other ideas I would strongly consider a single more powerful card over crossfire so if you can get a 7870 or 7950 go for it the 7870xt version is close to a 7950 in performance. I...
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imomun

imomun

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Good gaming at 1920 x 1080 will require both A good 1155 CPU like I5 3470 with HD7870 or GTX660

Therefore its not worth upgrade either the GPU only or CPU only.

Obviously best would be a complete platform change.

But If your current CPU is Core 2 Duo overclocked say 3.6GHz or so you can still squeeze out some decent gaming with the existing 6850 or a new HD7850 without much bottoleneck and ofcourse without spending $$$

(Theres lots of overclocking guide available if you google)

Thanks
 
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T

truprecht

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I'd consider getting a 2nd 6850 for crossfire. You can get one on eBay for ~$100, and your resulting GPU power will be in the vicinity of a 7870 / 7950.

Couldn't find the Tom's US link, but here's the UK version. They have 2x6850 CF between the 7870 and 7950, with the caveat about microstuttering.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-graphics-card-review,review-32501-5.html

I used to run 2x 6850's and it worked well. I replaced them with a 7950 because I needed the 6850's in 2 other computers.
 
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iam2thecrowe

iam2thecrowe

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i would not recommend 2 x 6850's at all. I ran them too, and the worked well in 50% of games, the other 50% was stuttering and FPS drops, things just werend smooth. I traded them for a single gtx660 and couldnt be happier now, smooth as butter in comparison to the 6850's. Didnt realise how bad the stuttering was with crossfire 6850's until i got the gtx660. would never go back to crossfire. Not to mention the 1gb vram of the 6850's is a limitation in many new games if you want to run high texture detail, which most people do.
 
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goodguy713

goodguy713

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well he already stated that he was already upgrading to the 3570k and that he had a budget of around 250 for a graphics card. I just laid out the obvious implementation options. crossfire or a 7870 personally I play with 2 6870s in crossfire .. they fixed the screen tearing issue a while ago. its not an issue and 2 6870s in crossfire is enough to play battle field 3 on high with ultra textures just thought I would throw that out there. as far as the 6850s are concerned it just depends on the games your interested in playing although like most of the other ideas I would strongly consider a single more powerful card over crossfire so if you can get a 7870 or 7950 go for it the 7870xt version is close to a 7950 in performance. I personally am waiting for 8000k series before I upgrade my crossfire setup. Im very happy with it.
 
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