Best single-core graphic card?

Joeses

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Jun 12, 2010
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Hello forum.

I recently started thinking about getting a new graphic card when I noticed so many games are going to be released this fall. Games like Skyrim, Battlefield 3, Diablo 3 to name a few. All those I believe will be very graphic heavy which is making me wonder if my 5870 will be enough to run these games at high settings.

So, to my question. If you think it is worth upgrading, what card should I get?

My motherboard only supports single-core graphic cards so can't buy a 5970 or something similar, unfortunately. Is there anything better than the GTX 580 on the single-core market?

Maybe I should just get a new motherboard and focus on getting another 5870 letting me run crossfire?

Any suggestions are appreciated!


Joe
 
What do you mean by your mother board only supporting single core graphics cards?

As far as I know, as long as you have a PCIe slot, dual GPU cards, like the 5970, 6990 and 590 are all usable.

You likely are confusing the lack of SLI/Crossfire support by the motherboard as not allowing them on a single card. If the SLI/Crossfire takes place on a single card, as far as I'm aware, there are no restrictions other than not wanting to bottleneck them with a slow system.
 

Joeses

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My 5870 is placed in a PCIe slot, right? Then I only have 1 PCIe slot. Sorry, I'm not that experienced with computers.

Another problem is that I can't get a card any longer than the 5870, so I guess that would rule out the 5970, don't know the lengths of the other cards.
 
The 5970, 6990 and 590 only requires a single PCIe slot, but the length would be a problem with any of those. I'm not sure it's worth upgrading from a 5870 to a single GPU solution atm. The 6970, 570 and 580's are about the only cards that are faster, and they aren't going to be that big of an improvement. Either a new motherboard or enclosure would your best bet if you are eying a new graphics solution.
 

+1- the single chip flagship cards are only about 20% faster, which isnt worth the upgrade imo. Wait for the next gen which will be around 50% faster than the single chip flagships which will be approx 70% faster than the 5870 if predictions are accurate