Need GPU advice for BF4

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eldraque

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May 23, 2013
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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
 
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Tom Tancredi
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ingtar33

ingtar33

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Dec 17, 2012
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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
 
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Tom Tancredi

Tom Tancredi

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May 9, 2013
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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!!!!).
 
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stormworm

stormworm

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Jan 3, 2012
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I7 doesn't have 8 cores, it has 8 threads. Also he doesn't need to upgrade CPU.
 
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ingtar33

ingtar33

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Dec 17, 2012
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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.
 
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Tom Tancredi

Tom Tancredi

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*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.
 
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Tom Tancredi

Tom Tancredi

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May 9, 2013
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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.
 
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eldraque

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May 23, 2013
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can i play BF4 in Ultra with a 7870 ?
 
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ingtar33

ingtar33

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Dec 17, 2012
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sure. you should be alright.
 
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Tom Tancredi

Tom Tancredi

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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-images-stories-Test_GPU-Action-Battlefield_4-test-bf4_proz_2.jpg
http://gamegpu.ru/images/remote/http--www.gamegpu.ru-images-stories-Test_GPU-Action-Battlefield_4-test-bf4_vram.jpg

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

 
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