Graphics card upgrade?

[andypants198]

Hi fellow forum posters, andypants198 here. Visited the site on numerous occasions for tips, so i thought i'd sign up

anyway,

Im in the process of deciding what graphics card to get for gaming(css, cs1.6 and MW3). To be specific, a ATI radeon 6950. but i am not too sure how much of a bottle neck it will be. Also, power supply suggestions would be appreciated. I dont have any interest in overclocking either.

here are my specs of my build:

CPU: AMD phenon II X4 Black Edition @3.4Ghz
GPU: ATI hd6870
RAM: Gskill Sniper 16Gb (o-o-o-overkill)
Monitor: Dell p1130 21" trinitron [CRT] (for home use) and/AOC 18.5 LCD '' monitor (cant bring big bertha to lans )
Motherboard: GA-870a-UD3
Power Supply: Stock 550w
Cooling: Antec KÜHLER H₂O 620 CPU cooler
HDD: Westerd digital Caviar 800 Gb/60Gb kingston ssd
Case: Antec 200v2

I mainly do my shopping at msy.com.au, and scorptech.com.au (but i am open to suggestions).

 

[azeem40]

I would think the 6950 would not be a bottleneck.

 

[molo9000]

Do I read that correctly that you currently have a HD6870 ?

A 6950 would only be a small improvement (probably around 10-15%) over a 6870 and not worth the upgrade.

 

[amuffin]

what power supply? Amperage?

 

[asnorton44]

Yeah a upgrade to 6950 wouldn't really be worth it:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/290?vs=293

 

[jessterman21]

Do I read that correctly that you currently have a HD6870 ?

A 6950 would only be a small improvement (probably around 10-15%) over a 6870 and not worth the upgrade.

+1

For real.

 

[esrever]

your 6870 should max all the games you listed. now sure why you would want to upgrade to a card only 15% faster but for a lot of money.

 

[hella-d]

Why On Earth Would You Still Wana Use A CRT? That Is So 1990, Welcome To The 21 Century, I Havent Used A CRT On Any Of My Machines Since Sometime In Late 2002

Allthough I Must Praise You For Going WIth AMD Enstead Of The Restrictive And Opressive Natzi-Like Regieme Of Intel

"Intel The Junk Inside"

 

[andypants198]

Why On Earth Would You Still Wana Use A CRT? That Is So 1990, Welcome To The 21 Century, I Havent Used A CRT On Any Of My Machines Since Sometime In Late 2002

Allthough I Must Praise You For Going WIth AMD Enstead Of The Restrictive And Opressive Natzi-Like Regieme Of Intel

"Intel The Junk Inside"

because i can get like 180hz (i match it to my fps_max in game)

Crt’s have the ability to go as high as 150hz in lower resolutions, making them better for gaming. Those of you who don’t believe me can simply enable v-sync (vertical sync) in game. Once enabled, v-sync will render exactly what your monitor is capable of displaying, and depending on the make of your LCD, your frame-rate will be roughly 75, at best (with the exceptions of the newest monitors which can go as high as 120hz, (90 % sure about this).

 

[hella-d]

You Know That Is A Good Point, But I Dont Notice, Likely Because Im The Type Of Person That Think Color Accuracy And Sharpness Are Way More Important, Thus The Beauty Of OLEDs, Witch The Responce Times They Are Capable Of (Like 400ns vs Even The Fastest LCDs - 5ms, And CRTs-1ms) I Do Believe Will Make Them Capable Of Doing The Same Thing Just In A Different Way As That CRT, No Offence To Each There Own Buddy.

Again, I Honor You For Respection My Life-Long Friend AMD, LOL

 

[amuffin]

Why On Earth Would You Still Wana Use A CRT? That Is So 1990, Welcome To The 21 Century, I Havent Used A CRT On Any Of My Machines Since Sometime In Late 2002

Allthough I Must Praise You For Going WIth AMD Enstead Of The Restrictive And Opressive Natzi-Like Regieme Of Intel

"Intel The Junk Inside"

How is intel a piece of junk when their mid ranged i5-2500k outperforms every single amd cpu?

 

[ojas]

I thought CRTs don't have a measurable response time, certainly lower than 1ms.

Plus i use a CRT too

Back on topic...for those games...assuming you play at 1280x1024...do you feel a need to upgrade at all?

I mean, i like getting up to 85fps with vsync, but...i mean for those games, don't you already? Beyond 60 fps can you even tell?

And to answer the bottleneck question, at such resolutions, with such a card, your CPU is the bottleneck, NOT the GPU.

And even then, the maximum you could go is 200 fps, i believe it's locked at that. I get 200 fps with vsync off on Halo CE

So the only point of upgrading to a better GPU at the moment would be playing BF3 on Ultra.

Thus at your resolution, with that particular CPU and the set of games you've mentioned, i would not recommend a GPU upgrade.

 

[truegenius]

if cs is counter strike then
a onboard gpu is more than enough to max out that game at any resolution, 6870 can give you more than 1000fps in this game.
for mw3 a 6870 is also overkill for that , you can max out that too at any resolution with a fps of around 200

your sys is completly balanced, nothing is bottlenecking, and thus no need to upgrade any thing

 

[jessterman21]

To answer your question: "Graphics card upgrade?"

No.

But if you have $300-600 burning a hole in your pocket, you could get a GTX570/580 or an HD 7970 and try forcing some supersampling; it's pretty.