I dont want to bottleneck myself - help!

eddieg50 · October 2011

I currently have a e8500 dual core , with an ATI 4870 512g video card and 4 gig of ram on a window xp. I want to upgrade my card to play Skyrum and other games but do not want to bottleneck myself, I like ati so I want to stick with that card, what card do you reccomend which would run well with my e8500? thanks

godzilr1 · October 2011

CPU is kind of irrelevant. you/we need to know your MB spec and capability to see what video card you can upgrade to.

Catamount · October 2011

The CPU is most certainly not irrelevant, but an E8500 should allow for a fairly decent performance. The motherboard doesn't much matter, because pretty much every motherboard since long before the Core 2 Duo was a common CPU has had a PCIE 16x slot.

The CPU can be overclocked if needed. E8400s could hit 3.6ghz, pretty much guaranteed, without any voltage increase. You literally just turned the FSB from 333mhz to 400mhz and called it a day. Your CPU is a higher bin of the chip, OP, so you can always squeeze more performance out if necessary.

For GPU, there's really nothing wrong with a 4870; it's still a decently powerful GPU. That said, if you wanted to upgrade, I would think you'd be able to use a single 6950/6970 without trouble, which should easily double your GPU performance, perhaps a bit more. I wouldn't consider anything less to be much more worthwhile.

The only hitch is power supply; it would help to know exactly what you have (not just a wattage, but a specific model). If you're running a 4870 as is, a 6950 has fairly similar power draw so you shouldn't by too bad off, and even a 6970 shouldn't be more than maybe 50-70W worse.

eddieg50 · October 2011

I have a Turbo key which I presume boosts up the power of the cpu, I have 800 watts of power, not sure of the make, the MB is a Asus p5g41c-m which has the Turbo key built into it- I run it at the middle position. I wanted to go from 512 to 1 gig and it looks like it should not be a problem , thanks , although I could stilll prob play Skyrim at low to med , I would rather play at med to high with less lag

Catamount · October 2011

Don't short the 4870. I have no doubt that it would play Skyrim at higher settings at a middle resolution (like 1680x1050).

That said, if you want a more powerful graphics card, they're certainly out.

Eladi · October 2011

Im about to updrage my cpu for this reason, but I have a duo celeron and till now its kinda working fine whit most games. my gpu is a bit stronger 5770.

Your CPU is as the others say "fine" things is, you can now do one last upgrade of your videocard and then youre pc will be end of life for games. keep this in mind when you buy a new videocard

you can either buy a current high end videocard and switch that to a new machine later on or you can buy the current line of budged/mid range cards to extend the use of your gaming pc while you save for all new componets (mainboard,cpu,mem,gpu) and buy that between one and two years from now.

Whit my current machine I play bf3 (duo celleron 2.8,3gbmem win7 ,5770) but I can almost feel the machine choking under the pressure. im not wealty (rather .."poor") but saved 350 for a nice i5 quad 2.8 and some new memory. should last me a good while again and in time I will do a gpu upgrade again.

If I were you I would still wait a while. get the game,install it, if not happy whit the preformance..upgrade the card they will be cheaper by then and who knows ..holidays comming ,beware of scams but could find a nice sale,then the afther holiday sales (jan/feb/march) were everyting will be cheaper due to retailers trying to keep sales up (slow months) and currently alot of electronics are hard to get to high prized due to natural causes in asia.

eddieg50 · October 2011

Originally posted by Eladi
Im about to updrage my cpu for this reason, but I have a duo celeron and till now its kinda working fine whit most games. my gpu is a bit stronger 5770.

Your CPU is as the others say "fine" things is, you can now do one last upgrade of your videocard and then youre pc will be end of life for games. keep this in mind when you buy a new videocard

you can either buy a current high end videocard and switch that to a new machine later on or you can buy the current line of budged/mid range cards to extend the use of your gaming pc while you save for all new componets (mainboard,cpu,mem,gpu) and buy that between one and two years from now.

Whit my current machine I play bf3 (duo celleron 2.8,3gbmem win7 ,5770) but I can almost feel the machine choking under the pressure. im not wealty (rather .."poor") but saved 350 for a nice i5 quad 2.8 and some new memory. should last me a good while again and in time I will do a gpu upgrade again.

If I were you I would still wait a while. get the game,install it, if not happy whit the preformance..upgrade the card they will be cheaper by then and who knows ..holidays comming ,beware of scams but could find a nice sale,then the afther holiday sales (jan/feb/march) were everyting will be cheaper due to retailers trying to keep sales up (slow months) and currently alot of electronics are hard to get to high prized due to natural causes in asia.

thanks everyone for the info

Robgmur · October 2011

Grab the 6950 and call it a day, You will be fine for another year or two! or if that's too much grab a 6850/70. If you're like me and don't want to wait 3-5 months like everyone is suggesting lol I would get one of those and be happy.

Catamount · October 2011

A 6850/70 would not be a worthwhile upgrade over a 4870, which is nearly identical to the 6770 in performance to begin with. It's not worth getting a new card to get a marginal increase in performance.

If all you want to do is play Skyrim, I actually would wait. See if the 4870 does well enough to satisfy you; if it doesn't, the new cards aren't going anywhere.

Lurv · October 2011

Originally posted by Catamount
The CPU is most certainly not irrelevant, but an E8500 should allow for a fairly decent performance. The motherboard doesn't much matter, because pretty much every motherboard since long before the Core 2 Duo was a common CPU has had a PCIE 16x slot.

The CPU can be overclocked if needed. E8400s could hit 3.6ghz, pretty much guaranteed, without any voltage increase. You literally just turned the FSB from 333mhz to 400mhz and called it a day. Your CPU is a higher bin of the chip, OP, so you can always squeeze more performance out if necessary.

For GPU, there's really nothing wrong with a 4870; it's still a decently powerful GPU. That said, if you wanted to upgrade, I would think you'd be able to use a single 6950/6970 without trouble, which should easily double your GPU performance, perhaps a bit more. I wouldn't consider anything less to be much more worthwhile.

The only hitch is power supply; it would help to know exactly what you have (not just a wattage, but a specific model). If you're running a 4870 as is, a 6950 has fairly similar power draw so you shouldn't by too bad off, and even a 6970 shouldn't be more than maybe 50-70W worse.

Requires at least a 650w PSU. Takes two 6 pins.

Lurv · October 2011

If you do ever wanna upgrade and are fine with dual core then the i3 is pretty cheap and a Z68 MOBO can be as low as $60 for one PCIe x16 2.0 slot. The 6950 is a nice card. Especially with 2GB. Your RAM is fine but even a decent GKill 1600 4GB stick of RAM will cost you like $70. $40 if you want to go with a 1333 4GB stick.

Robgmur · October 2011

Originally posted by Catamount
A 6850/70 would not be a worthwhile upgrade over a 4870, which is nearly identical to the 6770 in performance to begin with. It's not worth getting a new card to get a marginal increase in performance.

If all you want to do is play Skyrim, I actually would wait. See if the 4870 does well enough to satisfy you; if it doesn't, the new cards aren't going anywhere.

So you're telling me.. for the small price, upgrading to the 6850 or 6870( 30-50% more performance) isn't a worth while upgrade? I beg to differ on that one..

Lurv · October 2011

Originally posted by Robgmur

Originally posted by Catamount

A 6850/70 would not be a worthwhile upgrade over a 4870, which is nearly identical to the 6770 in performance to begin with. It's not worth getting a new card to get a marginal increase in performance.

If all you want to do is play Skyrim, I actually would wait. See if the 4870 does well enough to satisfy you; if it doesn't, the new cards aren't going anywhere.

So you're telling me.. for the small price, upgrading to the 6850 or 6870( 30-50% more performance) isn't a worth while upgrade? I beg to differ on that one..

For Skyrim it should allow you to play at reasonable settings. But the 6850 is a nice step up. However they can be about $170-185 for a 1GB. Might as well spend the extra $100 and just get the 6950 2GB and call it a day. No upgrade worries for a few years. However I was playing Oblivion on an 4870 and it ran great. I'm just not sure how much graphically intense coding wise Skyrim is going to be. But I don't see it being an issue. I'm actually waiting on parts for my new build. Wanted to keep it under $1000, but that didn't happen. Not to mention buying this 27" LED monitor. But like dude said. Just wait. Its not that far away. Turn your settings up and see if your card runs it.

Ridelynn · October 2011

Originally posted by r3zs1ckn3ss

Originally posted by Catamount
The CPU is most certainly not irrelevant, but an E8500 should allow for a fairly decent performance. The motherboard doesn't much matter, because pretty much every motherboard since long before the Core 2 Duo was a common CPU has had a PCIE 16x slot.

The CPU can be overclocked if needed. E8400s could hit 3.6ghz, pretty much guaranteed, without any voltage increase. You literally just turned the FSB from 333mhz to 400mhz and called it a day. Your CPU is a higher bin of the chip, OP, so you can always squeeze more performance out if necessary.
For GPU, there's really nothing wrong with a 4870; it's still a decently powerful GPU. That said, if you wanted to upgrade, I would think you'd be able to use a single 6950/6970 without trouble, which should easily double your GPU performance, perhaps a bit more. I wouldn't consider anything less to be much more worthwhile.

The only hitch is power supply; it would help to know exactly what you have (not just a wattage, but a specific model). If you're running a 4870 as is, a 6950 has fairly similar power draw so you shouldn't by too bad off, and even a 6970 shouldn't be more than maybe 50-70W worse.

Requires at least a 650w PSU. Takes two 6 pins.

It does require dual 6-pin power cables, but AMD only recommends a 500W power supply. The 6950, at stock speeds, has a TDP of 200W, but it has PowerTune, so it will never exceed that number (unless you overclock the TDP setting): not even if you run something like Furmark. The 6950 has been measured to have a real-world average power draw of around 155W.

So, most CPU's are around 90-130W, plus everything else in the system (about 100W), plus the video card, your sitting around 430W, comfortably within a quality 500W power supply. Quality is the key word though.

That being said, a 650W can run pretty much any single CPU with any single GPU, it is the size I recommend to pretty well everyone not intending on going SLI/CF (or getting one of the dual-GPU cards). It's a nice compromise between going too large (and paying the price + efficiency loss) and going to small (and possibly limiting your upgrade options in the future).

I just wanted to correct you on the work "requires" - a 6950 doesn't require a 650W power supply, but I agree that it is a good idea to get a quality 650W power supply.

Kotatsu · October 2011

Originally posted by Ridelynn

Originally posted by r3zs1ckn3ss

Originally posted by Catamount

The CPU is most certainly not irrelevant, but an E8500 should allow for a fairly decent performance. The motherboard doesn't much matter, because pretty much every motherboard since long before the Core 2 Duo was a common CPU has had a PCIE 16x slot.

The CPU can be overclocked if needed. E8400s could hit 3.6ghz, pretty much guaranteed, without any voltage increase. You literally just turned the FSB from 333mhz to 400mhz and called it a day. Your CPU is a higher bin of the chip, OP, so you can always squeeze more performance out if necessary.

For GPU, there's really nothing wrong with a 4870; it's still a decently powerful GPU. That said, if you wanted to upgrade, I would think you'd be able to use a single 6950/6970 without trouble, which should easily double your GPU performance, perhaps a bit more. I wouldn't consider anything less to be much more worthwhile.

The only hitch is power supply; it would help to know exactly what you have (not just a wattage, but a specific model). If you're running a 4870 as is, a 6950 has fairly similar power draw so you shouldn't by too bad off, and even a 6970 shouldn't be more than maybe 50-70W worse.

Requires at least a 650w PSU. Takes two 6 pins.

It does require dual 6-pin power cables, but AMD only recommends a 500W power supply. The 6950, at stock speeds, has a TDP of 200W, but it has PowerTune, so it will never exceed that number (unless you overclock the TDP setting): not even if you run something like Furmark. The 6950 has been measured to have a real-world average power draw of around 155W.

So, most CPU's are around 90-130W, plus everything else in the system (about 100W), plus the video card, your sitting around 430W, comfortably within a quality 500W power supply. Quality is the key word though.

That being said, a 650W can run pretty much any single CPU with any single GPU, it is the size I recommend to pretty well everyone not intending on going SLI/CF (or getting one of the dual-GPU cards). It's a nice compromise between going too large (and paying the price + efficiency loss) and going to small (and possibly limiting your upgrade options in the future).

I just wanted to correct you on the work "requires" - a 6950 doesn't require a 650W power supply, but I agree that it is a good idea to get a quality 650W power supply.

True. I have ran a 4850 off a 400w PSU. But its always good to bump it up. And I don't mean like 1000w like people feel the need to buy. I personally have a 750w for future expansions such as adding another 2GB 6950 this December. Yes. I'm in my early 30's and I still get presents.

kjempff · October 2011

Tough choice. Your pc is pretty good, so upgrading will mean high cost for not much in perfomance increase.

Generally I dont think it is worth upgrading old pc's with new components, usually better to let it run for another year and get a brand new build then.

If anything I would smack in another 4g of ram in if skyrim is hungry (I assume it is). Live with the slightly lower settings and save up for a complete upgrade (new pc).

I really dont think it is worth the money to upgrade your current machine, so if you cant live with lower settings go build yourself a new machine with new tech.

VirusDancer · October 2011

Originally posted by r3zs1ckn3ss
If you do ever wanna upgrade and are fine with dual core then the i3 is pretty cheap and a Z68 MOBO can be as low as $60 for one PCIe x16 2.0 slot. The 6950 is a nice card. Especially with 2GB. Your RAM is fine but even a decent GKill 1600 4GB stick of RAM will cost you like $70. $40 if you want to go with a 1333 4GB stick.

Um, your prices are off...

G.Skill 4GB 1600 is only $27. The 1333 is $25.

It is so painful how cheap DDR3 RAM is compared to DDR2 for those of us still dabbling in the dark ages, lol.

In regard to the bottleneck aspect - my personal bottleneck is the hard drive in my rig.

drazzah · October 2011

You can easily find 6850s for $130 btw....

Catamount · October 2011

Originally posted by Robgmur

Originally posted by Catamount

A 6850/70 would not be a worthwhile upgrade over a 4870, which is nearly identical to the 6770 in performance to begin with. It's not worth getting a new card to get a marginal increase in performance.

If all you want to do is play Skyrim, I actually would wait. See if the 4870 does well enough to satisfy you; if it doesn't, the new cards aren't going anywhere.

So you're telling me.. for the small price, upgrading to the 6850 or 6870( 30-50% more performance) isn't a worth while upgrade? I beg to differ on that one..

Why buy an entirely new GPU for such a marginal increase in performance? Yes, 30-%50% would be a nice jump, but for well over ~$100? Or almost $200? Would you also tell someone who has a 5770 to throw away their card and buy one? What about a 6770? If someone owned a 6770 (which is pretty darn close to a 4870), I don't think I'd be saying "hey, you shoudl toss that card and upgrade to a marginally faster card, for $130-$180!".

I can't think of a bigger waste than buying a whole new GPU for that kind of increase. If he's going to do it, then why not spend the extra money and get an ACTUAL upgrade? Why not get something that will at least double his performance to make it worth his time, rather than spending money every time a modest upgrade comes along? If I spent $130-180 every time a GPU with 30-50% more power came along, I'd be spending a lot of money awefully frequently.

On the other hand, if he bought a 6950, he'd be paying only 60% more than your 6850 for TRIPLE the upgrade in performance (~100% instead of ~30%), or he'd be paying 20% more for double the upgrade. That's much more worth his time.

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