Upgrage Present System (Graphics)

S

spizone

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2007
Messages
262
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Location
Cape Town. RSA
Present System
Intel DP45SG L775 MB
Intel Q9550 (2.8) - CoolerMaster V6 GT
9600 GT (1g)
4x 1G DDR3 1333
Odin 585w PSU (Gigabyte)

Right what i want to do is update my graphics. PSU and memory.
Option 1) - Get two 6870 and run them in crossfire
Option 2) Get one Nvidia card, pref a GTX580.
Will also upgrade my memory to 8G

Obviously will update PSU to accomodate new cards. Any thoughts from more expeirence people would be appreciated and will my motherboard, processor handle the new cards. Also will my MB handle the 7series ati cards as ive read they are PCI 3, have my eye on the XFX HD 7950, 3GB GDDR5 which is going for R4966 from Rampage Gaming.
Conclusion - Would like to update this old system to its max potential.

PS. I apologise for this is kind of a repost for info but i now have much better budget.
 
I have crossfire. Had it a couple of weeks now, and I regret that decision dearly, so I would strongly advise against it.
Let me qualify that - the cards run a lot hotter, even when just idling which means the noise is higher. And it is a real pain to get a game to run smoothly and even when framerates are showinf 50+, they look closer to 35+.

PCIe 3 is backwards compatible, so you can plug it into a PCIe 2 motherboard.
 
Thx for reply, was also a bit worried about the heat in crossfire as here in the cape in summer temps get to avg 30c as expreinced last summer.
What you think about that 7950 card instead or do u think i should stick to Nvidia and go for a GTX580 ?
 
Do you even realize what a big jump in framerate you'll get from going from a 9600GT to a single HD6870?!

Secondly, you'll have to upgrade your PSU if you go for a high end card such as the GTX580. Your current PSU should be fine for the HD7950 though - see http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7950/25.html
I'd say rather go for the HD7950 than the GTX580. You can get a Sapphire HD7950 from Wootware for under R5000, and they're in Cape Town (Somerset West to be exact).

Lastly, I would recommend overclocking your CPU to like 3.6GHz or something, or getting a new CPU. I'm overclocking my i7 940 from 2.9GHz to 3.8GHz and seeing a massive framerate increase in BF3.

I can testify from running SLI that the cards can run very hot. Luckily I bought motherboards with 1 - 2 PCI-E slots' spacing between the cards, which makes them run 10-20'C cooler than when there is no gap between them!
 
What you think about Asus Radeon HD 7950 DirectCU II TOP, its slightly better OC card and about R700 more, also has 2xfans as im a little worried about heat. My Psu is almost 3years old now and want to get a better gaming one, maby you could recomend me one for this card. As for Overclocking, i want to but am not to clued up in that dept, but will get someone to help me out who knows what they doing. And lastly i def want to upgrage my memory, do u think i can still get 2g sticks that will run on this board, or would i have to get them second hand somewhere ?
 
spizone said:
What you think about Asus Radeon HD 7950 DirectCU II TOP, its slightly better OC card and about R700 more, also has 2xfans as im a little worried about heat. My Psu is almost 3years old now and want to get a better gaming one, maby you could recomend me one for this card. As for Overclocking, i want to but am not to clued up in that dept, but will get someone to help me out who knows what they doing. And lastly i def want to upgrage my memory, do u think i can still get 2g sticks that will run on this board, or would i have to get them second hand somewhere ?
Click to expand...

Take that back ive just read there seems to be over heating problems with this card http://www.behardware.com/news/12153/asus-hd-7950-directcu-ii-defaut-attention.html#commentaires
Dam :(
 
spizone said:
Present System
Intel DP45SG L775 MB
Intel Q9550 (2.8) - CoolerMaster V6 GT
9600 GT (1g)
4x 1G DDR3 1333
Odin 585w PSU (Gigabyte)

Right what i want to do is update my graphics. PSU and memory.
Option 1) - Get two 6870 and run them in crossfire
Option 2) Get one Nvidia card, pref a GTX580.
Will also upgrade my memory to 8G

Obviously will update PSU to accomodate new cards. Any thoughts from more expeirence people would be appreciated and will my motherboard, processor handle the new cards. Also will my MB handle the 7series ati cards as ive read they are PCI 3, have my eye on the XFX HD 7950, 3GB GDDR5 which is going for R4966 from Rampage Gaming.
Conclusion - Would like to update this old system to its max potential.

PS. I apologise for this is kind of a repost for info but i now have much better budget.
Click to expand...

Why not run two 2GB GTX 560Ti's in SLI, it will beat both the 6870 in Crossfire and the single 7950 and performance will be similar to that of a GTX 680. @R2395 each
 
spizone said:
Present System
Intel DP45SG L775 MB
Intel Q9550 (2.8) - CoolerMaster V6 GT
9600 GT (1g)
4x 1G DDR3 1333
Odin 585w PSU (Gigabyte)

Right what i want to do is update my graphics. PSU and memory.
Option 1) - Get two 6870 and run them in crossfire
Option 2) Get one Nvidia card, pref a GTX580.
Will also upgrade my memory to 8G

Obviously will update PSU to accomodate new cards.
Click to expand...

If it was me I would upgrade the PSU to a Antec High Current Gamer and get a GeForce GTX 680 or two. 4GB of RAM is fine and I would OC the CPU.
 
spizone said:
My MB only supports xfire
Click to expand...

Sorry, didn't realize that. Your best option with your current system would be to go with the 7950 thus you would have peace of mind for the future and as games get more demanding you could add in another 7950. If you are willing to push your budget you could get a 7970. But I would say a better option would be to sell your motherboard, get a socket 775 motherboard that supports SLI and then get two 2GB GTX 560Ti's
 
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Duff-Man said:
Sorry, didn't realize that. Your best option with your current system would be to go with the 7950 thus you would have peace of mind for the future and as games get more demanding you could add in another 7950. If you are willing to push your budget you could get a 7970. But I would say a better option would be to sell your motherboard, get a socket 775 motherboard that supports SLI and then get two 2GB GTX 560Ti's
Click to expand...

No problem, Im now looking at the Club 3D Radeon HD 7970 3GB - 384-bit, 925MHz Clock, 3072MB 384-bit GDDR5 Memory 5500MHz, which looks very nice and some positive reviews im busy reading, what PSU would u recomend i get for this card ?

PS. If i can stay away form xfire or sly, to much to go wrong as in more hardware and heat
 
Since you're in Cape Town, why not buy from Wootware.co.za?

Ever since I bought an Asus HD6970 DirectCU II, I became very skeptical about their DirectCU II cooling system. The card ran insanely hot with their default fan profiles and it was too noisy when you altered the profiles. Also, the cooler is way too heavy, which bends the PCB.
All in all I'd say the DirectCU II is a big failure.

The Corsair TX650v2 would be a fine PSU choice for any single high end graphics card.

Unless you have a special motherboard with a decent gap between the graphics cards, I can't recommend SLI/CrossFire either.
There is also almost no point in having a HD6870 CrossFire/GTX560Ti SLI setup if you're just playing games at 1920x1080 or lower resolutions.
 
So you would rather recommend the hi-end Nvidia over ati, i mean im just entering the hi end market for gfx cards recently, and i heard the 7970s are cool cards, but unfortunly i dont know better ?
PS. I really appreciate u helping me out here (Y)

Been doing some research on this card GTX680, this is avery good card and specially for the price, i hope they have or will get stock :)
 
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I prefer the HD7xxx series cards over the Nvidia counterparts, except for the HD7970 where the GTX680 is my first choice.
 
Those Gigabyte and MSI cards are identical in every way. I don't see a reason to go for Gigabyte over the MSI one at all.

I have 2x MSI GTX460's and I haven't had a single issue with them.
 
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