Is my Radeon 4870X2 bottlenecking my rig?

[ceejayii]

Here is my build


Mobo: Asrock z68 extreme3 gen3
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz
Ram: 8gb G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
Graphics Card: Visiontek Diamond Radeaon HD 4870X2
PSU: 750w Coolermaster
Case: Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Some games run pretty well but others, like trine 2, chug a bit. I figured a game like trine 2 would be easy for my rig to handle at max but I need to drop to 1400x900 res and very high settings to get a stable frame rate. Should this be expected or is my graphics card the culprit? Is it time to replace the old card? I don't have issues with noise and overheating really, so that isn't a factor. Any input would be appreciated.

 

[ceejayii]

Also my hard drive is a sata 320gb Seagate @ 7200rpm. Not sure if that info is necessary though.

 

[sosofm]

Some games don't scalling to good on SLI or Crossfire setup.My opinion : is time for an GPU upgrade. The newest games are more hardware ( gpu )demanding.

 

[ceejayii]

Hmm, any suggestions on a new card? I see you have an MSI 6950, is that about today's equivalent of a 4870x2? I don't need resolution any higher than 1920x1200. I'm kinda hesitant to go with ATI again because of their poor driver support of the x2, have they gotten better in this regard?

 

[dish_moose]

from the hierarchy chart:
Discrete: GTX 590 Discrete: HD 6990

Discrete: HD 7970
Discrete: GTX 580 Discrete: HD 5970
Discrete: GTX 295, GTX 480, GTX 570
Discrete: HD 4870 X2, 6970

Discrete: GTX 470, GTX 560 Ti, GTX 560 Ti 448 Core Discrete: HD 4850 X2, 5870, 6950

So you see your system is up there. Make sure your drivers are up to date - may be a slight cpu overclock is in order.
-Bruce

 

[ceejayii]

4870x2 is still that high? I had hoped a $500 card would have some staying power. I may try a slight overclock since I still have a stock cooler on my i5. Maybe I will try 4.0ghz

Thanks for the info

 

[jacknhut]

4870x2 is still that high? I had hoped a $500 card would have some staying power. I may try a slight overclock since I still have a stock cooler on my i5. Maybe I will try 4.0ghz

Thanks for the info

You would be much better spending the money on a SSD, that 7200 RPM HDD is severely bottlenecking your system as well. On the contrary to most other upgrade, you will actually notice a huge difference in everything that you do (other than the actual fps in games) when you upgrade your regular HDD to SSD.