Should I get another 5770 or upgrade cpu?

devinkoz

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Okay, heres the deal. I have a amd athlon x4 635 (2.9ghz) and one radeon 5770. I have two things i could do:

1: trade in current cpu, get a phenom x4 955 or 965, and get a corsair h50.
2: get another 5770 to crossfire

Which should I go for? Thanks.
 

jonpaul37

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What are you look to accomplish?

Some questions that come to mind...
1. What resolution do you play games at?
2. Are you finding that you are not getting good FPS in games?
3. Are you finding that you cannot use "full detail" settings in games?
4. What power supply do you have?
5. What kind of cooling solution do you haave on your CPU currently?
6. Do you overclock?
 

devinkoz

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I play at 1600x900, and I havent even finished my comp and it hasnt been started up yet (a 5770 would be fine...it would just be nice to play crysis at EVERYTHING maxed, but im not sure if my cpu would bottneck or get to hot?) I use the stock cooler, and getting a ocz coolermaster 600w powesupply. Yes, I am looking to overclock.

Another solution would be also to just get a h50 for my athlon 635 (overclock to 3.5ghz-3.8ghz do you think? with volt mod?) and have extra to get more fans for my case and stuff (i have a cm storm scout with 3 fans atm).
 

jonpaul37

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Playing @ 1600 x 900, you will be fine with the 5770. If it were me, i would go for the New CPU and CPU cooler so in the future, (when you get a monitor with larger resolution) you will have no worries adding another 5770 for crossfire.

Ps. Playing Crysis @ EVERYTHING maxxed is a myth, lol

I don't think your CPU would bottleneck with just one 5770 but it may be an issue with two of them.
 

devinkoz

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Myth? With quad gtx 480 or quad cf 2x 5970? True, because crysis scales horibbly with cf and sli i guess...

Ty for your help btw. Ill just get the h50 to cool my 635 for now (maybe upgrade cpu), but for now, is the 635 generally pretty fast in applications and internet etc. overall? This build is upgrading from a intel duo 2.0ghz proccessor, and 2gb of 667mhz ram & a 4850.

My new build is this so far:

cm storm scout
radeon 5770
amd athlon ii x4 635
g. skill 2x2gb 1600mhz
cm 600w powersupply
M4A88TD-V EVO/U Socket AM3 880G ATX Motherboard

I'm asuming I'll see faster application and game loading/fps and everything eh?
 

jonpaul37

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yes, that setup will run marginally better than your previous. it will not be a gigantic difference but it will be a noticeable difference none-the-less. Overclocking both the Video Card & CPU will help a bit too...
 

devinkoz

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With a corsair h50, could I get my athlon 635 to 3.5ghz or possibly 3.7-3.8ghz stable? Would I have to use voltage modding? Thanks bro

ps. would i notice a difference in fps and overall window browsing by overclocking 600mhz to 800mhz my cpu?
 

jonpaul37

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i don't think you will really notice a difference in normal windows operations/browsing as the 635 @ stock will be more than enough to handle those tasks. You will see about a 7 - 13% increase in FPS for games though, especially with a decent overclock.

With the H50 you should be able to hit moderate - high overclock on that CPU.

if going from stock (2.9) to lest say 3.3 or 3.4 you may be able to OC without upping the voltage but anything higher and you will have to increase the voltage in small amounts to see what is stable.

Remember, every motherboard and CPU is created different, so lets say i have a 635 and i can OC it to 3.8, using the same motherboard, yours might only make it to 3.6... that is just how it goes. Same holds true for motherboards, some motherboards allow for higher FSB's than others...