Upgrading to a HD 6950 worth it?

[hyperreader]

hello , i have been toying with the idea of upgrading my graphic card for some time now.

CPU - E8400@3.00 ghz
RAM - 4GBDDR2@800mhz.
mobo - intel DG31PR.
PSU - 450 watts.
GPU - 9500 GT ( slightly overclocked.)

i want to play crysis , crysis 2 and other upcoming titles at 1400*900 resolution for the present though i think i will be buying a new monitor at 1920*1200 soon and i wnt to be able to use the card i buy for the next three years without it becoming outdated .

i have two choices

1. HD 6950 ( possibly soft-mod it to a 6970 ).
2. HD 6870.


if anybody has any other suggestions please tell me and if any other part of my computer will bottleneck the card please tell me.

 

[dalmvern]

Well, your computer as a whole is going to limit your performance on any of the high end games like Crysis 2. A new GPU will only get you so far.

Looking forward, go with the 6950, its a solid card with nice performance...even nicer in Crossfire.

As for your computer, if you have limited funds, there are many builds on this site that are under $1k that will still rock your socks off, so I would seriously look into building a complete new computer.

 

[hyperreader]

i actually have a budget of $300 for the GPU alone.
but that's it.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

you wont be able to play crysis 2 smoothly without at least a 3 core cpu http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crysis-2-directx-11-performance,2983-8.html

 

[hyperreader]

as long as i can play crysis 2 at medium settings, 2*AA at 25 or more fps , i don't mind , i think i can get a bulldozer rig by march next year in time for ME3.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

well if you read the link, no you cant get 25fps or more, you need at least a triple core not to dip below 25fps in crysis 2. It is likely your PSU may not be good enough for those graphics cards, what make/model PSU is it?

 

[hyperreader]

some cheap thing , but im thinking of getting something from silverstone , can you recommend anything?

 

[hyperreader]

so , should i buy a 6950 or 6870 , as the 6950 ( 2gb in case i forgot to mention it.) is a little out of my price range. and if my cpu will bottleneck it ill just go for the 6870 as i cannot afford to upgrade the rest of my cpu for another 2 years.the 6870 is well within my budget.

 

[hyperreader]

Best answer selected by hyperreader.