SLI or just a big new card!?

[dunn2k]

Im currently running an ATI HD4850 512Mb with BF3 round the corner i want to upgrade. Is it worth getting another card for £60 and running an sli config or spending around £100 on a new big card?? what are your thoughts please

AMD X3 720BE @ 3.6GHz
4Gb Patriot extreme DDR2 800
etc....lol

 

[starravier]

depends on the card u plan on getting

 

[legendkiller]

Big new card... BF3 will use more than 512MB probably a bit pass or close to 1GB so a GTx 570 will be good!!! Since your budget is so low, you have 2 choice:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127573
or
Raise your budget by £10 or £15 and get this better one!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133326

EDIT: I Recommend you upgrading to a 4 Core CPU with DDR3 800MHz(1600MHz) RAM and if you got lower than a 500Watts PSU, I recommend getting a 500Watts+ PSU

 

[inzone]

With ATI you run crossfire , Nvidia is SLI. How much is that U.S. if it is what I think it is $160 isn't going to get you a very "big" card upgrade; EVGA SuperClocked 01G-P3-1557-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 for Nvidia and; HIS H685F1GD Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 for ATI , both come in at $160 on Newegg. Although I guess it would be an acceptable upgrade from what you currently have. I am not all that familiar with AMD so you would have to see if they would work with your cpu and you didn' list your psu so there is another area you have to look at in your upgrade.

 

[Embra]

What resolution are you playing at?? ..and what is your power supply?

 

[dunn2k]

sorry for the lack in details guys, was late at night i upgraded my PSU a little while ago to a 700W so i think im safe there

i have a 24" Samsung P2450 running at 1980 x 1020

to Inzone; you dont sound overly impressed with my small budget, well the 550ti seems like a prety good card and i can pick one up for like £90 or the HD6850 for £100. surely they will run bf3 on high detail??

Also i read that 4Gb of high performance DDR2 would be enough - please confirm!?

 

[spentshells]

6850 and 550 ti are not in the same class. The 6850 is a much better card.
As you have a 700 watt PSU the Sky is the limit as far as GPU goes.
You do not in any way need to upgrade ram or CPU Im not sure why that was mentioned

Perhaps a 460GTX so long as it isn't more than $10 over the 6850.

 

[jonnyrb]

sorry for the lack in details guys, was late at night i upgraded my PSU a little while ago to a 700W so i think im safe there

i have a 24" Samsung P2450 running at 1980 x 1020

to Inzone; you dont sound overly impressed with my small budget, well the 550ti seems like a prety good card and i can pick one up for like £90 or the HD6850 for £100. surely they will run bf3 on high detail??

Also i read that 4Gb of high performance DDR2 would be enough - please confirm!?

Depends on your price range. No a 6850 will not play it on "high settings" at least not very well. A 6950 will however probably play it on high/max settings.

If you want a full tilt bf3 experience I would suggest no less than a 570 or 6950. ( with preference to the 2gb 6950 card. If you're pinching pennies counting your budget I would choose a 6850 or a 460 ( with preference to the 6850 as well.

 

[inzone]

sorry for the lack in details guys, was late at night i upgraded my PSU a little while ago to a 700W so i think im safe there

i have a 24" Samsung P2450 running at 1980 x 1020

to Inzone; you dont sound overly impressed with my small budget, well the 550ti seems like a prety good card and i can pick one up for like £90 or the HD6850 for £100. surely they will run bf3 on high detail??

Also i read that 4Gb of high performance DDR2 would be enough - please confirm!?

I did not mean to insult you or your budget in any way ,I guess it was the way you worded it ( big card) the made me not realize that an upgrade to you is different from an upgrade to me. If I were doing an upgrade I would be looking at a GTX 580 or GTX 570 but that is just me. Also I hate bugets because I feel it restricts too much from what you should be able to get and be happy with , but I guess sometimes when you don't have the resources you have to budget.

4 gb ram would be enough and if you have a 32 bit OS that is all you can use any way. But if you have Win 64 bit and the way ram is so cheap right now more would always be better.

 

[jonnyrb]

I did not mean to insult you or your budget in any way ,I guess it was the way you worded it ( big card) the made me not realize that an upgrade to you is different from an upgrade to me. If I were doing an upgrade I would be looking at a GTX 580 or GTX 570 but that is just me. Also I hate bugets because I feel it restricts too much from what you should be able to get and be happy with , but I guess sometimes when you don't have the resources you have to budget.

4 gb ram would be enough and if you have a 32 bit OS that is all you can use any way. But if you have Win 64 bit and the way ram is so cheap right now more would always be better.

Please note he has ddr2 memory. It will be fine. Stick with 4gb until you upgrade your system to a newer socket with ddr3 memory. I run 4gb ddr2 and I run everything fine. I have 16gb ddr3 sitting on my desk waiting for amd bulldozer to come out

I suggest the 6850 if you can stretch the 10 bucks

edit: The quantity of ram a 64 bit os uses vs a 32 bit os is negligible

 

[ch0rus123]

The 6850 would be a substantial upgrade from ur current GPU...u should definately spend the xtra 10 bucks 4 the 6850...

 

[benski]

If it was a 1gb card I would go with SLI but 512mb is going to hold you back, go with a HD 6850 or GTX 460 at a minimum.