Need help on buying a new graphic card!!

[Fumz]

I found another series of benches that might help the OP decide. Here's the 5870 on a few cores... not many, but enough to get a better idea.

At 1280, obviously, the i7's just kick butt with the 5870, but as res increases we can see things even out a bit. Granted, they didn't test a Q6600 (those are hard to find these days), but I think we can safely assume its results to be somewhat similar to a Core 2 Duo at 2.75GHz... not exactly the same, but very close.

May Power Be with You: Find the Best CPU for a Single ATI Radeon HD 5870 and ATI Radeon HD 5870 CrossFireX Configuration (page 6) - X-bit labs

Pages 5-8

 

[ThePizzaMan]

ok and a q6600 and a q6700 are both slower than a phenom II 940, so were talking at least 30 to 50+ fps difference... so there is some bottleneck like i thought

 

[Fumz]

My only objection was to the suggestion that the OP needed to get a new cpu because his Q6600 wasn't strong enough and would bottleneck the card.

What you're calling a bottleneck I refer to as cpu scaling. Of course a stronger cpu is going to push the card better... but that was never in dispute.

Bottlenecking is a difficult charge to make stick when we can see that at 1920x1200, HQ, 16xAF and 8xAA the fps difference between the slowest core and the fastest is negligible: 46fps vs 51fps in World in Conflict; 109 vs 115 in UT3; 81 vs 115 in CoD5; 82 vs 115 in Left 4 Dead... etc etc.

I'm only saying this so the OP knows he doesn't "need" to get a new cpu. Imo, sweet as i7 may be, the gains in performance don't justify the cost... but to each his own.

 

[Dom]

It's not so much that I say so, it's that the results of the benchmarks say so; however, I could be way off base here, so if you've read something different, I'd like to read it too... as I'm sure would everyone else.

... can you throw up a link that demonstrates this bottleneck so I can educate myself?

Hmm, benchmarks?
I've read here that an overclocked i7 (3.75 ghz) still bottlenecks a few games with the 5870.

 

[Fumz]

It's not so much that I say so, it's that the results of the benchmarks say so; however, I could be way off base here, so if you've read something different, I'd like to read it too... as I'm sure would everyone else.

... can you throw up a link that demonstrates this bottleneck so I can educate myself?

Hmm, benchmarks?
I've read here that an overclocked i7 (3.75 ghz) still bottlenecks a few games with the 5870.

lol... yes, running at 2560x1600 you may experience a cpu bottleneck in certain games, but since the OP is currently running an 8600GT, I'm pretty sure we don't have to worry about 2560. Good find though... thanks for the link.

 

[Dom]

It's not so much that I say so, it's that the results of the benchmarks say so; however, I could be way off base here, so if you've read something different, I'd like to read it too... as I'm sure would everyone else.

... can you throw up a link that demonstrates this bottleneck so I can educate myself?

Hmm, benchmarks?
I've read here that an overclocked i7 (3.75 ghz) still bottlenecks a few games with the 5870.

lol... yes, running at 2560x1600 you may experience a cpu bottleneck in certain games, but since the OP is currently running an 8600GT, I'm pretty sure we don't have to worry about 2560. Good find though... thanks for the link.

That is the first place i look for benchmarks, and remembered something about bottlenecking, so i thought it would be useful in this thread.

 

[ThePizzaMan]

true not enough to matter except to me haha

 

[Diabolical]

^^

hmm, ok well i made up my mind, ama get the ATI 4890, buy a new desktop case, and buy a 650 watt power supply,

 

[Dom]

hmm, ok well i made up my mind, ama get the ATI 4890, buy a new desktop case, and buy a 650 watt power supply,

Very glad you made up your mind

 

[ThePizzaMan]

good choice enjoy that card

 

[Diabolical]

Confused

am confused about all of this, am not a computer genius, i want the ATI Radeon 4980 1 GB, can i get it with 650 watts power supply and a quad of 6700?

 

[ickymay]

am confused about all of this, am not a computer genius, i want the ATI Radeon 4980 1 GB, can i get it with 650 watts power supply and a quad of 6700?

yes that should work with a decent quality PSU, be aware if you use or plan on using a lot of USB devices you might be approaching the output limits of the PSU ?

 

[ThePizzaMan]

you should be fine with 650

 

[Diabolical]

Hey!

what about a Nividia Geforce GTX 285, would it still work with 650 watts, quad 6700?

 

[ThePizzaMan]

hmmmmm you might be getting close then..... but as far as the card goes its about the same performance as a 4890

 

[SlackerITGuy]

Nahh...

The GTX 285's superior to the Radeon HD 4890. As it should, since most of them are going for ~5870-money.

 

[ThePizzaMan]

Nahh...

The GTX 285's superior to the Radeon HD 4890. As it should, since most of them are going for ~5870-money.

almost and not quite all at the same time..... if your using AA and AF thats when the 285 will pull ahead otherwise at most there is a 5 to ten fps difference according to the charts at tom's hardware and if the 285 goes for the price of the 5870 you should get the 5870 as it is equal to the 295 and much faster than the 285

 

[SlackerITGuy]

Nahh...

The GTX 285's superior to the Radeon HD 4890. As it should, since most of them are going for ~5870-money.

almost and not quite all at the same time..... if your using AA and AF thats when the 285 will pull ahead otherwise at most there is a 5 to ten fps difference according to the charts at tom's hardware and if the 285 goes for the price of the 5870 you should get the 5870 as it is equal to the 295 and much faster than the 285

Agreed.

I was just commenting on the GTX 285 vs Radeon HD 4890.

You can do much better for the money like you said. 5870, or even a 5850 (which is still faster than a GTX 285 in most cases).

 

[ThePizzaMan]

Nahh...

The GTX 285's superior to the Radeon HD 4890. As it should, since most of them are going for ~5870-money.

almost and not quite all at the same time..... if your using AA and AF thats when the 285 will pull ahead otherwise at most there is a 5 to ten fps difference according to the charts at tom's hardware and if the 285 goes for the price of the 5870 you should get the 5870 as it is equal to the 295 and much faster than the 285

Agreed.

I was just commenting on the GTX 285 vs Radeon HD 4890.

You can do much better for the money like you said. 5870, or even a 5850 (which is still faster than the GTX 285).

true so if your going to spend that much go for the 5850 or the 5870

 

[Dom]

almost and not quite all at the same time..... if your using AA and AF thats when the 285 will pull ahead otherwise at most there is a 5 to ten fps difference according to the charts at tom's hardware and if the 285 goes for the price of the 5870 you should get the 5870 as it is equal to the 295 and much faster than the 285

Agreed.

I was just commenting on the GTX 285 vs Radeon HD 4890.

You can do much better for the money like you said. 5870, or even a 5850 (which is still faster than the GTX 285).

true so if your going to spend that much go for the 5850 or the 5870

Yes, plus you will need the power supply with two six-pin connectors...