Hi, you guys helped me before with a PSU question... and it was great advice.. (and i took it..!)
Now i've got another dilemma i'm hoping you can help me with.. My next upgrade for my system is going to be the video card (currently a Radeon 4870 512mb)
budget: ~$200, res: 1920x1200
I'm contemplating between a single Radeon 6850 (and i would overclock it to about 6870 specs), or 2 x nVidia 450's in SLI (also both overclocked to about 850MHz on the cores)
The reason i'm not considering anymore (i was before) the Radeon 5750/5770's in CF.. is because that generation seems to be a tad behind now in the 'tessellation' and dx11 arena.. compared to now the Radeon 6xxx series and the current nVidia's...
After rebates i can get 2 x GTS 450's for practically the same price as a R6850... and also i'm attracted to the fact that nVidia has a 'hawx 2' coupon as well, as i'm planning on getting that game anyways so that's $50 worth right there... (Now having said that... 'hawx 2' is just 1 game... and if an alternative is ultimately a better choice overall... than i'd probably go with the better choice of course...
It seems that most review sites show that 2 x 450's SLI can be a pretty powerful setup... probably stronger overall than the 6850.. however... sometimes lower minimum frame-rates than a single card.. and also the slight complications sometimes of course with the 2 x video cards vs 1 powerful one, that's making it harder to decide. Another reason i'm attracted to 2 cards though.. is because it will be easier for me to "get rid of them" a couple years from now.. as my job is a 'mobile techie' if you will, and 2 x medium sized/powered cards are easier to put into client machines who need a used video card replaced... compared to a big monster card (like the one i'm stuck with now) that not only requires a big case (which most people don't have), but also a powerful PSU (which most people don't have too, haha)
So there's my dilemma... any advice and recommendations would be greatly appreciated..!
here's my setup for reference:
Core i5-750 @ 3.8GHz | A-DATA DDR3 2000 4x2GB @ 1.9GHz
ASUS P7P55D-E Pro | XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 | OCZ Vertex 2 60GB
Seagate Barracuda 2x80GB (RAID 0) | WD Caviar Black 640GB SATA3
Antec 900 Two | Corsair HX650W | Radeon HD 4870 512MB @ 800MHz/1GHz
Cheers,
Now i've got another dilemma i'm hoping you can help me with.. My next upgrade for my system is going to be the video card (currently a Radeon 4870 512mb)
budget: ~$200, res: 1920x1200
I'm contemplating between a single Radeon 6850 (and i would overclock it to about 6870 specs), or 2 x nVidia 450's in SLI (also both overclocked to about 850MHz on the cores)
The reason i'm not considering anymore (i was before) the Radeon 5750/5770's in CF.. is because that generation seems to be a tad behind now in the 'tessellation' and dx11 arena.. compared to now the Radeon 6xxx series and the current nVidia's...
After rebates i can get 2 x GTS 450's for practically the same price as a R6850... and also i'm attracted to the fact that nVidia has a 'hawx 2' coupon as well, as i'm planning on getting that game anyways so that's $50 worth right there... (Now having said that... 'hawx 2' is just 1 game... and if an alternative is ultimately a better choice overall... than i'd probably go with the better choice of course...
It seems that most review sites show that 2 x 450's SLI can be a pretty powerful setup... probably stronger overall than the 6850.. however... sometimes lower minimum frame-rates than a single card.. and also the slight complications sometimes of course with the 2 x video cards vs 1 powerful one, that's making it harder to decide. Another reason i'm attracted to 2 cards though.. is because it will be easier for me to "get rid of them" a couple years from now.. as my job is a 'mobile techie' if you will, and 2 x medium sized/powered cards are easier to put into client machines who need a used video card replaced... compared to a big monster card (like the one i'm stuck with now) that not only requires a big case (which most people don't have), but also a powerful PSU (which most people don't have too, haha)
So there's my dilemma... any advice and recommendations would be greatly appreciated..!
here's my setup for reference:
Core i5-750 @ 3.8GHz | A-DATA DDR3 2000 4x2GB @ 1.9GHz
ASUS P7P55D-E Pro | XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 | OCZ Vertex 2 60GB
Seagate Barracuda 2x80GB (RAID 0) | WD Caviar Black 640GB SATA3
Antec 900 Two | Corsair HX650W | Radeon HD 4870 512MB @ 800MHz/1GHz
Cheers,