Thinking about upgrading to 5970 or dual 5970's

[jeffreyyliu]

Hi, I'm thinking about upgrading to 1 or 2 5970's but dont know if my system will be bottlenecked at the CPU.
I currently have a Core2Quad 8200 2.33 GHZ CPU, 8GB RAM, and Dual Radeon 4850's, and a 750W power supply.
And would a 750W power supply be enoguht to power 2 5970's?

 

[rolli59]

You would need a big overclock for two!

 

[jeffreyyliu]

Would i need an i7? or a phenom x4?

 

[rolli59]

I7 to get the most out of it

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Even for 1, you still need to overclock your Q8200 (preferably at least to 2.8-3.0GHz).

1 5970 is almost equal to 2 5870s, which in turn is equal to Quad Xfired 4870s (w/ better scaling).

Hell, even 1 5870 would be somewhat bottle necked by a stock Q8200 due to its low speed.

For 2 5970s, you determinately need an i7 860 or i7 920 to prevent large bottlenecks...

 

[jeffreyyliu]

ty, now the next step is how to overclock my processor..

 

[belial2k]

before you get started on any of this....what resolution is your monitor?

 

[jeffreyyliu]

before you get started on any of this....what resolution is your monitor?

1920x1080

 

[Ehsan w]

in that case, one 5970 would be more than enough,
I'm guessing you're not playing crysis, so it should max everything out.
if you want another one, you should add that later

but if you don't overclock, it'll be a total waste of money

 

[jeffreyyliu]

so how do i overclock it, and what speed should and can i overclcok it to safely?

 

[rolli59]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/240001-29-howto-overclock-quads-duals-guide

 

[belial2k]

I'm not convinced of the value of the 5970 at its current prices...performance is almost exactly what you would get from 2x4890s in crossfire for only about $370. Even crysis will play maxed out on high settings at 19x10 with the 4890s, so it seems like a waste of money unless you really needed the eyefinity or buy into the DX hype.

 

[jeffreyyliu]

i just basically want ot buy 1 card, and then later buy another, futureproofing my setup. My mobo can only support 2 sli/crossfire cards at a time anyways. So i'm just wondering if my Q8200 would b good enough and if not, if i upgrade to a 3.0ghz processor, would taht be good enough so tehre wont be a bottleneck in the cpu when i am running a 5970 or later, dual 5970's.

 

[rolli59]

The best CPU on the market I7 as of current probably isn't powerful enough to run two 5970 at full potential.