To Crossfire or not?

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tRad23

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Hey guys, I am looking to increase my computers FPS in the games I play. My system specs are:
MSI K9A2 Platinum
AMD Athlon X2 5600+ 2.8Ghz
4 gigs Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800
Diamond ATI Radeon 5750 HD 1 gig
Ultra 700 Watt PSU (crossfire cert.)
WD 160gb SATAII HD

My ultimate question is whether or not to get another video card or to upgrade my CPU for the most increase in FPS. If I end up upgrading my CPU, I will have to update the BIOS on my motherboard. So what do you guys think? Another 5750 in crossfire mode or a quad core CPU? Which will yelled the most performance increase accross the board in newer games? Thanks for the advice! -tRad23
 

Timop

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What games do you play and at what res?

The thing with your system is that its pretty balanced. ATM, the CPU is holding you back slightly in most games but not much.

However, The CPU will hold you back substantially if you crossfire, yet if you get a quad, the difference for certain games wouldn't be as much as you expect due to your GPU being just average.

A nice option is getting a cheap Athlon II X3/X4, and OC your GPU.
 

tRad23

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Thanks for the advice. Im sorry, I forgot to mention that my video card is overclocked, stock is 700/1150. I have it set to 800/1300 and I can go way higher (tested at 870/1430 and worked fine). I play games such as battlefield bad Company 2, medal of honor, call of duty modern warfare 2, flight sim x, source games.... I love good grahpics but I also cant stand when its choppy so I play these games at 1024X768 or higher depending on FPS.
 

Timop

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Well both BFBC2 and FSX heavily tax your CPU, so its worth it to get a new CPU as performance will increase dramatically for those 2.
whats your budget though?
 

Timop

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You can even get a HD5770 if you can find a better deal. As long as the cards are in the same series you'll be fine.

Though one more thing, can you wait a couple of days and sell the 5750? If you can wait, a single HD 6850 for around ~$200 can most likely beat CF5750s when it gets released in a week.
 

tRad23

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That is where I am iffy. My motherboard is a little old so I dont know how a brand new vid card such as the 6850 would work on it. I've had issues in the past with older motherboards not running newly released video cards.
 

Timop

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your Mobo is actually quite good. The 890FX chipset on sale today as AMD's premium offering actually is 95% identical with your 790FX. With plenty of PCIe 2.0 slots, it should support at least the next 3 generations of cards flawlessly.

The only thing aging about your Mobo is the SB, With SB600 you lose ACC, which complicates OC somewhat and no core unlocking.
 


Good deal. :)

Timop is right though. FSX & BFBC2 both are fairly CPU intensive. So having a faster processor, and even a triple/quad core will help you in those two games.

There is one important thing to realize. If you put in a second 5750, I believe the two cards need to run at the same speeds. So you may either need to reset your current card to default speeds, or OC both to indentical speeds to make sure things run as smoothly as possible.
 

wiinippongamer

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it's all speculation, no one knows for sure. i've read in some sites that the 6770 will be quite a bit more powerful than the 5850, which would be a more logical thing, and i've also read that the top end 5970 card will be barely better than a single 5870, which doesn't make much sense, just lower power consumption
 

Timop

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The fact that real cards, boxes, and a listing with pricing should pretty much confirm that the 6850 is the Barts die. Which replaces the HD5700s.
 
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