Graphics card advice

Nerfherder

Nerfherder

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I currently have a ATI Radeon 3780, on a 32' wide screen. Its not coping with Starcraft 2 and I get jerky gameplay a lot of the time. Pretty much all the other games I play are fine (HON,Witcher, Portal2 etc )

I'm looking for a cheap upgrade that will be at least be able to handle SC on my native resolution (1920x1080)
Right now its still bad even if I drop the settings, so its more to do with the card compatibility then the power of the card.

Oh and I have a quad core on an intel board (Q6600 ? I think ?)

Basically if I got a card like this : http://www.prophecy.co.za/sapphire-radeon-hd6570-ddr3-128bit-pcie-p-91455.html would I even see much difference?
 
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Cool...

How does the name work (6850) ? Is it like a 6th Generation 850 ie better than a (6)570 ?

Because my 3870 was quite good in its day
 
The Radeon 6xxx naming can't really be converted from the previous generations like you've done.
The HD6570 is rather weak card, compared to the HD6850.

Perhaps you should just overclock your CPU to like 3.2-3.6GHz first, in which case you'll need an aftermarket CPU cooler.

If that didn't make much of a difference, then look at HD6850 (~R1500). HD6870 (~R2000), HD6950 (~R2500) and HD6970 (~R3000).
The HD6850 should already be able to handle 1080p stuff quite nicely.
 
It's not the CPU, a Q6600 is more than enough to run new games, it's the graphics card definitely. hereticangel is correct, the 6850 is a far, far superior card. The 6570 looks more like an entry-level, HTPC type of card, or for very light gaming. The 6850 is a high-end card of the previous generation, and altough it's twice the price, it will be several times faster than the 6570, especially with the 128-bit memory bus holding it back. Just make sure your power supply can handle it though, it needs 127W available.
 
Nerfherder said:
I currently have a ATI Radeon 3780, on a 32' wide screen. Its not coping with Starcraft 2 and I get jerky gameplay a lot of the time. Pretty much all the other games I play are fine (HON,Witcher, Portal2 etc )

I'm looking for a cheap upgrade that will be at least be able to handle SC on my native resolution (1920x1080)
Right now its still bad even if I drop the settings, so its more to do with the card compatibility then the power of the card.

Oh and I have a quad core on an intel board (Q6600 ? I think ?)

Basically if I got a card like this : http://www.prophecy.co.za/sapphire-radeon-hd6570-ddr3-128bit-pcie-p-91455.html would I even see much difference?
Click to expand...

The minimum you should look at is the 6670. With the 6790 or 6850 being preferable.
 
Nerfherder said:
Cool...

How does the name work (6850) ? Is it like a 6th Generation 850 ie better than a (6)570 ?

Because my 3870 was quite good in its day
Click to expand...

The numbers are not much use, study the specification(s) closely. Just to confuse things a little more, the 6770 is a very mildy upgraded 5770 ;-)
 
oldhat said:
The numbers are not much use, study the specification(s) closely. Just to confuse things a little more, the 6770 is a very mildy upgraded 5770 ;-)
Click to expand...
+1
It SHOULD be the case that the numbers would give you a straightforward idea of power scaling. But AMD royally screwed it up going from 5xxx to 6xxx - the 5850 beats a 6850 and the 5870 beats a 6870 for example. The only way to know what to get is to read reviews, although in general pricing does reflect power. What is your budget going to be?
 
Well the 5870 may be the 6870 but the 6970 chows far more power. It's actually cheaper to buy 2 6870's and they consume nearly the same amount of power as 5870 if i am not mistaken.
 
killadoob said:
Well the 5870 may be the 6870 but the 6970 chows far more power. It's actually cheaper to buy 2 6870's and they consume nearly the same amount of power as 5870 if i am not mistaken.
Click to expand...

1x5870 on load = around 350w. 1x6870 on load = 310w.
Plus 5870 is EOL so you can't really get one new.
Power.png

That pic gives the power story.
 
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My budget is under R 1500. I'm not really due for a proper upgrade but its driving me insane that I can not play Sc2 properly and if Diablo comes out and I can't play that i'm going to cry like a little girl.


If I have to then I will pay 2k, its just really annoying as my current 3780 is still doing great, just not on the one game I want to play.

My CPU is not maxing out during games, I could overclock it as it already has an aftermarket cooler... I just thing its more of a compatibility issue then a power issue.
 
Nerfherder said:
My budget is under R 1500. I'm not really due for a proper upgrade but its driving me insane that I can not play Sc2 properly and if Diablo comes out and I can't play that i'm going to cry like a little girl.


If I have to then I will pay 2k, its just really annoying as my current 3780 is still doing great, just not on the one game I want to play.

My CPU is not maxing out during games, I could overclock it as it already has an aftermarket cooler... I just thing its more of a compatibility issue then a power issue.
Click to expand...

http://www.prophecy.co.za/sapphire-....html?osCsid=a9e0d521b7a50e304a3c8f359e25be8c
 
Wow that is odd cerebus, i am running basically 3 6970's on a 750w power supply and they are on full load 24/7. I wonder how my PSU manages that. According to that chart let's say the 6970 pulls as much as the 6870 i should need 900 minimum.
 
killadoob said:
Wow that is odd cerebus, i am running basically 3 6970's on a 750w power supply and they are on full load 24/7. I wonder how my PSU manages that. According to that chart let's say the 6970 pulls as much as the 6870 i should need 900 minimum.
Click to expand...

That's the SYSTEM power consumption not card. The individual cards probably run 150w on load each.

But yea I'd be careful running 3 6970s on a single 750w psu. Bitcoining much?
 
cerebus said:
That's the SYSTEM power consumption not card. The individual cards probably run 150w on load each.

But yea I'd be careful running 3 6970s on a single 750w psu. Bitcoining much?
Click to expand...

Ya 24/7 :D.

Seems to be fine i mean my uptime has been about 20 hours on average for the last 2 and half weeks.
 
oldhat said:
The numbers are not much use, study the specification(s) closely.
Click to expand...
This is such bullsht. It should be bloody rule 1 of customer service: Don't confuse your customer.

Its not like meaningful product numbers cost them more to produce. :mad:
 
Those HD6970's can pull up to 300W if you're running Furmark on them, but usually they'll stay under 250W each.

If you have a Corsair AX750, then it should be able to handle the just OK, because IIRC it can handle up to like 900W before its efficiency takes a dive below 80%.
 
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