Upgrade time!

[Ono'rach]

Hey guys.

I have the following:

i5-760 overclocked to 4.0ghz;
Mushkin Silverline 1333 DDR3 Ram 4gb;
1 TB Hard drive;
MSI P55A-G55 motherboard;
Club 3d Radeon 6870;
(Crappy) Coolermaster Extreme Power Plus 550w PSU;

I will have a little spare cash this month and was thinking that I should blo... spend it on some nice upgrades.

My thoughts were that I could get another Club 3D 6870 and go Crossfire, but I would need a better PSU... So then I would need something like a Corsair GS700, which seems reasonably priced.

That would come to just over R3000 for the lot from Prophecy. Your thoughts? A worthwhile upgrade? Should I rather wait for something better to come along, or get a 6950 and try flog my 6870, with a view to one day having a crossfire 6950/6970 setup?

Thank you in advance!

 

[Archer]

If it were me, flog the 6870 and get a 6950. But thats only cause I prefer single GPU setups. The 6870CF setup would actually pwn with the correct CF profiles.
So 100fps but possible hassle with CF profiles for R2750, or 65fps with no hassle for R2500 minus the sold GPU

Cant you just wait until the end of the year when the new architectures come out again (ie HD7xxx and GTX6xx)?

 

[nakedpeanut]

I'd buy an SSD you really don't need a 6950. but you neeeed an ssd

 

[Dan C]

I'd buy an SSD you really don't need a 6950. but you neeeed an ssd

I agree

 

[Ono'rach]

If it were me, flog the 6870 and get a 6950. But thats only cause I prefer single GPU setups. The 6870CF setup would actually pwn with the correct CF profiles.
So 100fps but possible hassle with CF profiles for R2750, or 65fps with no hassle for R2500 minus the sold GPU

Cant you just wait until the end of the year when the new architectures come out again (ie HD7xxx and GTX6xx)?

Thanks for the advice. I CAN wait till the end of the year, but I get my bonus this month which will be very hard to hold onto until then

I've never had a crossfire or SLI set-up before, so what kind of hassles could there potentially be? And then games that don't support multi-GPU setups will run worse on a 6870CF setup than a single 6950, correct? Is there any solid information on what to expect with the new architecture? When I google for 7000 Radeon's, I find information about ancient cards from circa 2002

Thanks Archer

I'd buy an SSD you really don't need a 6950. but you neeeed an ssd

Haha I've never really considered an SSD hey, I'm not sure that I really NEEEED one They are also very expensive still, so maybe when the prices start to come down

 

[Archer]

Thats because you should be searching for the code name Southern Islands Its actually going to be more of a die shrink than anything else since they are going from 40nm (HD5xxx + 6xxx) to 28nm. That basically translates into higher frequencies while catering for more of the other components such as stream processors. And with such a big shrink things should improve quite a bit. But hey, October/November is a long way off, you'll likely be dead from CUD long before then Unless AMD really surprises us and launches the GPUs along with Bulldozer in June, but thats highly unlikely imo.

 

[Ono'rach]

Thats because you should be searching for the code name Southern Islands Its actually going to be more of a die shrink than anything else since they are going from 40nm (HD5xxx + 6xxx) to 28nm. That basically translates into higher frequencies while catering for more of the other components such as stream processors. And with such a big shrink things should improve quite a bit. But hey, October/November is a long way off, you'll likely be dead from CUD long before then Unless AMD really surprises us and launches the GPUs along with Bulldozer in June, but thats highly unlikely imo.

Oh duh, Southern Islands, of course! Thanks man, I will check it out. May I ask what CUD is? Google tells me that it is "Food that has been partly digested and brought up from the first stomach to the mouth again for further chewing by ruminants, such as cattle and sheep." ROFL

Edit: Compulsive Upgrade Disorder?

 

[Pada]

If you don't have a very big case, then you will struggle with cooling with a SLI/CrossFireX setup.

I am running a SLI setup with my Coolermaster 690 II Advanced case, but I would've loved to have a bigger case though, because it's struggling to keep the temperatures below 70'C, even after I've modified the fan setup.

A OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SSD @ ~R3200 would be an awesome upgrade.

 

[Ono'rach]

If you don't have a very big case, then you will struggle with cooling with a SLI/CrossFireX setup.

I am running a SLI setup with my Coolermaster 690 II Advanced case, but I would've loved to have a bigger case though, because it's struggling to keep the temperatures below 70'C, even after I've modified the fan setup.

A OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SSD @ ~R3200 would be an awesome upgrade.

Hi Pada.

I have a Coolermaster 690 II Plus, but with two front 120mm fans, one bottom 140mm fan, one rear exhaust 120mm fan and one top 140mm exhaust (the one closest to the back). Do you think that two 6870 would run very hot?

What GPU's do you have btw?

 

[bubbatentoe]

a buddy of mine left his job and went online.

PM me with your hardware requirements...
I get "mates rates" so I might be able to do a good deal.


www.cutmans.co.za

 

[Libertas Computers]

Cant you just wait until the end of the year when the new architectures come out again (ie HD7xxx and GTX6xx)?

I'm with Archer on this one. Also more of a single card man myself and your current setup isn't in need of an upgrade right now. I'd say get a nice account that has a bit of interest and save it there and have 1 beer less a week and try and work out how much you'll have saved by the end of the year, add all that together and you have yourself a nice card...

P.S. Did that in saving up for my second GTX280 and then along came DX11..

 

[Pada]

Ono'rach: I have 2x MSI GTX 460 Cyclone 1GB OC cards.

You should be able to run 2x 6870's in CrossFire without issues, but the cards will get hotter than when in a single card setup.
The only issue with the 690 II case & our motherboards that we have is that there is just 1 PCI gap between the bottom graphics card and the PSU, which is why the bottom graphics card will run quite hot.

 

[Ono'rach]

I'm with Archer on this one. Also more of a single card man myself and your current setup isn't in need of an upgrade right now. I'd say get a nice account that has a bit of interest and save it there and have 1 beer less a week and try and work out how much you'll have saved by the end of the year, add all that together and you have yourself a nice card...

P.S. Did that in saving up for my second GTX280 and then along came DX11..

Lol, thanks for the advice I will attempt one less beer a week
Sigh... I was almost expecting roars of approval for the crossfire route, but I think that maybe you guys are right and I should rather wait for the next generation of cards...

Ono'rach: I have 2x MSI GTX 460 Cyclone 1GB OC cards.

You should be able to run 2x 6870's in CrossFire without issues, but the cards will get hotter than when in a single card setup.
The only issue with the 690 II case & our motherboards that we have is that there is just 1 PCI gap between the bottom graphics card and the PSU, which is why the bottom graphics card will run quite hot.

Yes that is true, the bottom most card does sit right there by the PSU...

Do you also think that I should wait till the end of the year Pada?

 

[Pada]

With your current CPU & graphics card you should be able to play pretty much all the games on high detail level on 1920x1080, but perhaps not with AA/AF fully enabled.

I have to say that having a SLI setup is pretty awesome, but completely overkill for the current games, unless you want to play everything on the maximum detail level possible, and then even the 2x GTX 460's isn't enough.

 

[Ono'rach]

With your current CPU & graphics card you should be able to play pretty much all the games on high detail level on 1920x1080, but perhaps not with AA/AF fully enabled.

I have to say that having a SLI setup is pretty awesome, but completely overkill for the current games, unless you want to play everything on the maximum detail level possible, and then even the 2x GTX 460's isn't enough.

Yes, you are probably right...

Curse all of you sensible people and your level-headed, reasonable advise!