Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Your question
Solved

Need GPU advice for BF4

Tags:
  • GPUs
  • Graphics Cards
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
Share
November 25, 2013 1:21:58 PM

Hello, I believe that my dated graphics card is the weakest link in my system, This setup is for GAMING, the games im playing is Battlefield 4, and Skyrim, I can run BF4 on High with 40-55 FPS and so i want to upgrade sometime in the next 4-5 weeks, or if i find an amazing deal on black friday.

System specs:

Intel Ivy Bridge i5 3570K overclocked at 4.0 Ghz
Radeon HD 6870 1GB GPU
Colrsair TX650 650w PSU
Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO heatsink
8 GB DDR3 1600 RAM
24 inch HD monitor

Im not an expert, but i believe that the GPU is the weakest link, I want to spend no more than $150-$200, I have no preference between AMD or nvidia cards, just want bang for the buck, would like multiple options in that price range, Amazon preferred source, Newegg if the deal is too good to pass up,

Thank you

More about : gpu advice bf4

a c 105 U Graphics card
November 25, 2013 1:42:13 PM

mmm... i'd wait till Monday... 7 days from now, you might be able to get a killed deal. that said... i'll give you some pointers.

Today you can get a 7870 Ghz Ed (which is the same as the r9-270x) for $129.99 after rebates. generally that's a $200, and you'll be hard pressed to find a better deal. If you want to find something BETTER then that the following are gpus which are better then the 7870 ghz ed / r9-270x, which might be on sale for $200 or less in the next few days

GTX 660ti
GTX 760
HD 7870xt
HD 7950

(the hd 7950 and gtx 760 are the best cards listed, the 7870xt and 660ti are a little better)

If you see any of those on sale for less then $200 you'll be getting a better gpu then a 7870 GHz Ed
m
0
l
Related resources

Best solution

a b U Graphics card
November 25, 2013 2:04:31 PM

eldraque said:
Hello, I believe that my dated graphics card is the weakest link in my system, This setup is for GAMING, the games im playing is Battlefield 4, and Skyrim, I can run BF4 on High with 40-55 FPS and so i want to upgrade sometime in the next 4-5 weeks, or if i find an amazing deal on black friday.

System specs:

Intel Ivy Bridge i5 3570K overclocked at 4.0 Ghz
Radeon HD 6870 1GB GPU
Colrsair TX650 650w PSU
Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO heatsink
8 GB DDR3 1600 RAM
24 inch HD monitor

Im not an expert, but i believe that the GPU is the weakest link, I want to spend no more than $150-$200, I have no preference between AMD or nvidia cards, just want bang for the buck, would like multiple options in that price range, Amazon preferred source, Newegg if the deal is too good to pass up,

Thank you


You can upgrade but eventually you will hit the limit on the i5 (4-6 cores depending on which you got) and would need to move up to a i7 next to remove the 'limitations' a 8 core would provide (yes I was beta tester for BF4 and still using my 1st Gen i7 core and I was using ALL 8 cores in the game). NO I am not a fanboy, simply look at the performance charts with the same video cards but i5 vs i7 and you will see there is a ceiling reached eventually.

Really your performance is par for the course and perfectly FINE, if not 'DAMN I wish I was so good' many would say (they play at medium and get 15-20fps on 1440x900 displays). I wouldn't mess with it IMHO, and just be glad your getting such a nice setup. DO NOT FORGET if you change Video cards YOU MAY need to change PSUs as well (some are now requiring 750-800W MINIMUM!!!!).
Share
a b U Graphics card
November 25, 2013 2:13:25 PM

Tom Tancredi said:


You can upgrade but eventually you will hit the limit on the i5 (4-6 cores depending on which you got) and would need to move up to a i7 next to remove the 'limitations' a 8 core would provide (yes I was beta tester for BF4 and still using my 1st Gen i7 core and I was using ALL 8 cores in the game). NO I am not a fanboy, simply look at the performance charts with the same video cards but i5 vs i7 and you will see there is a ceiling reached eventually.

Really your performance is par for the course and perfectly FINE, if not 'DAMN I wish I was so good' many would say (they play at medium and get 15-20fps on 1440x900 displays). I wouldn't mess with it IMHO, and just be glad your getting such a nice setup. DO NOT FORGET if you change Video cards YOU MAY need to change PSUs as well (some are now requiring 750-800W MINIMUM!!!!).


I7 doesn't have 8 cores, it has 8 threads. Also he doesn't need to upgrade CPU.
m
0
l
a c 105 U Graphics card
November 25, 2013 2:17:37 PM

the i7 is not an 8 core.

it's a 4 core with 8 threads due to efficient scheduling... coding or software, however you look at it. there isn't an extra physical part that gives it another core. that's what hyper-threading is... super efficient scheduling... pushing extra tasks into unused cpu cycles. It's a cool tech, that when works right gives you as much as a 25% boost in per core performance. turning that 4 core i7 into a "virtual" 5 core cpu.

Of course AMD fanboys hounded intel fanboys for years about intel's marketting of hyperthreading as "extra cores" as they did in it's early days. The irony of course is intel fanboys are now hounding amd fanboys about bulldozer/piledriver... you see the bulldozer archetecture has something called a core module, where 2 physical cores are paired to save space and power, sharing parts on both the front and back end. Now in theory it's an ingenious design, and AMD had high hopes for it. In reality AMD has had massive issues with... get this... scheduling. Because of AMD's scheduling issues both of those paired cores spend most of their time doing nothing, as they can't get data to work on. So bulldozer is sorta the anti-hyperthreading, taking two perfectly good cores and reducing their performance down to less then their theoretical power. Its the opposite of hyperthreading. AMD is getting less performance from it's cores then it should, while hyperthreading gives intel more performance from it's cores.

So the fx octocores are true 8 core cpus, and the i7s are 4 and 6 cores with hyperthreading creating virtual 8 and 12 cored cpus.
m
0
l
a b U Graphics card
November 25, 2013 3:51:18 PM

ingtar33 said:
the i7 is not an 8 core.

it's a 4 core with 8 threads due to efficient scheduling... coding or software, however you look at it. there isn't an extra physical part that gives it another core. that's what hyper-threading is... super efficient scheduling... pushing extra tasks into unused cpu cycles. It's a cool tech, that when works right gives you as much as a 25% boost in per core performance. turning that 4 core i7 into a "virtual" 5 core cpu.

Of course AMD fanboys hounded intel fanboys for years about intel's marketting of hyperthreading as "extra cores" as they did in it's early days. The irony of course is intel fanboys are now hounding amd fanboys about bulldozer/piledriver... you see the bulldozer archetecture has something called a core module, where 2 physical cores are paired to save space and power, sharing parts on both the front and back end. Now in theory it's an ingenious design, and AMD had high hopes for it. In reality AMD has had massive issues with... get this... scheduling. Because of AMD's scheduling issues both of those paired cores spend most of their time doing nothing, as they can't get data to work on. So bulldozer is sorta the anti-hyperthreading, taking two perfectly good cores and reducing their performance down to less then their theoretical power. Its the opposite of hyperthreading. AMD is getting less performance from it's cores then it should, while hyperthreading gives intel more performance from it's cores.

So the fx octocores are true 8 core cpus, and the i7s are 4 and 6 cores with hyperthreading creating virtual 8 and 12 cored cpus.


*FACEPAWS!* Here I been waiting and waiting for AMD to get it's head out of its but and provide a real competitor to the iSeries, and yet they have the solution but badly implement it. Sighs.... I always got AMD until the iCore came out because they always performed better, less problems, and cheaper. Since iCore not seen anything from AMD compare, and this explanation is better then any I seen to make it more clear.
m
0
l
a b U Graphics card
November 25, 2013 3:57:23 PM

kristianAA said:
stormworm said:
Tom Tancredi said:


You can upgrade but eventually you will hit the limit on the i5 (4-6 cores depending on which you got) and would need to move up to a i7 next to remove the 'limitations' a 8 core would provide (yes I was beta tester for BF4 and still using my 1st Gen i7 core and I was using ALL 8 cores in the game). NO I am not a fanboy, simply look at the performance charts with the same video cards but i5 vs i7 and you will see there is a ceiling reached eventually.

Really your performance is par for the course and perfectly FINE, if not 'DAMN I wish I was so good' many would say (they play at medium and get 15-20fps on 1440x900 displays). I wouldn't mess with it IMHO, and just be glad your getting such a nice setup. DO NOT FORGET if you change Video cards YOU MAY need to change PSUs as well (some are now requiring 750-800W MINIMUM!!!!).


I7 doesn't have 8 cores, it has 8 threads. Also he doesn't need to upgrade CPU.

Ye it would be really dumb and waste of money to upgrade from 3570k for an i7 right now as that i5 can run run easily all games highest at least 2 years still to come



My point to the OP (since the OP is totally open to what they will buy) is there is a 'limit point' that just because he buys a Sapphire AMD Radeon R9 280X Vapor-X OC 3GB does not mean his performance will not hit a bottleneck because a i5 will limit as compared to a i7, so why waste the money on a SUPER HIGH END card if NO intentions to further update to i7 level platform. Be like getting a Ferrarri engine and putting it a Hyundai, your gonna hit the bottleneck.

StormWorm & Night Owl: IF you didn't worry about my speaking about INTEL Cores / Threads and read what I said ENTIRELY (see BOLD ABOVE) you would see I said there wasn't any reason to upgrade now anyway.
m
0
l
November 26, 2013 9:49:22 PM

ingtar33 said:
mmm... i'd wait till Monday... 7 days from now, you might be able to get a killed deal. that said... i'll give you some pointers.

Today you can get a 7870 Ghz Ed (which is the same as the r9-270x) for $129.99 after rebates. generally that's a $200, and you'll be hard pressed to find a better deal. If you want to find something BETTER then that the following are gpus which are better then the 7870 ghz ed / r9-270x, which might be on sale for $200 or less in the next few days

GTX 660ti
GTX 760
HD 7870xt
HD 7950

(the hd 7950 and gtx 760 are the best cards listed, the 7870xt and 660ti are a little better)

If you see any of those on sale for less then $200 you'll be getting a better gpu then a 7870 GHz Ed


can i play BF4 in Ultra with a 7870 ?
m
0
l
a c 105 U Graphics card
November 27, 2013 7:55:30 PM

eldraque said:
ingtar33 said:
mmm... i'd wait till Monday... 7 days from now, you might be able to get a killed deal. that said... i'll give you some pointers.

Today you can get a 7870 Ghz Ed (which is the same as the r9-270x) for $129.99 after rebates. generally that's a $200, and you'll be hard pressed to find a better deal. If you want to find something BETTER then that the following are gpus which are better then the 7870 ghz ed / r9-270x, which might be on sale for $200 or less in the next few days

GTX 660ti
GTX 760
HD 7870xt
HD 7950

(the hd 7950 and gtx 760 are the best cards listed, the 7870xt and 660ti are a little better)

If you see any of those on sale for less then $200 you'll be getting a better gpu then a 7870 GHz Ed


can i play BF4 in Ultra with a 7870 ?


sure. you should be alright.
m
0
l
a b U Graphics card
December 25, 2013 9:20:16 PM

Actually, only if you want low (maybe 30FPS) game play performance if your on ULTRA, according to all test scores listed. Simply because the i5 does hit a limit because it is a i5 as compared to a i7, just as a i3 would performance worse then a i5 if set to above medium/high levels usually at 1080p.

As noted here for your CPU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsfPsPGoXI0 the percentage use (i.e. the CPU getting to 'maxing out', before the GPU even gets involved). Here is a older video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Cj8RP4kEGo

http://gamegpu.ru/images/remote/http--www.gamegpu.ru-im...
http://gamegpu.ru/images/remote/http--www.gamegpu.ru-im...

Some more numbers. Basically all articles, vids, reviews say what I said previously if you have a i5, you want Ultra you need a i7

m
0
l
!