Widescreen Gaming Forum

hey all

i was wondering if any more experianced ppl on this forum could give me some advice on upgrading my system. as it is Xmas i have been given a bit of money to spend which i have chosen to upgrade my system.

my current system is:

Intel Q6600 2.4ghz overclocked to 4ghz
4 gig of ram
AMD HD5870 overclocked mildly in eyefinity mode with 3 19inch monitors screen res 4320/900
sata hard disks

i currently use my system mainly for gaming and alot of FSX
the question is, do i get a new mobo and another gfx card and go SLI?

or do i upgrade the cpu/mem/mobo?

im currently thinking the cpu needs upgrading as ive had my q6600 so long now. i am running it right at its limit at 4ghz! would be pretty cool to buy a i7 and overclock the crap out of that! are the i5's just as fast overclocked as the i7's? or is it worth going i7?

i was looking at this on overclockers and looked pretty swish...


http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-056-OE&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=


a friend also wants to buy my old components off me that i upgrade including my 3 19 inch monitors. i was thinking of getting some led backlit ones to replace my current ones. should i go larger? 22/24 inch? would my system upgrade handle it? :)

anyway thankyou very much for reading and i look fwd to reading your advice and replys.

sn0w

It seems that at the high resolutions of 3 monitor gaming, the gpu becomes the bottleneck mainly. Upgrading to a i7 probably won't get you much unless it's a game that specifically demands a lot of CPU power.

I'd wait for the 6900's to come out and see how good they are. I have a crossfire setup and my roommate has a GTX 480 SLI setup. If I were to dive into triple monitor gaming right now, I'd buy a single card. There's a lot less hassle. Some games flat out don't work with SLI and those games by default won't work with surround. Some games don't work at all or don't work well (negative scaling) with crossfire, so I end up using 1 card anyway.

Have you thought about upgrading monitors? 19" does seem a little small.

It seems that at the high resolutions of 3 monitor gaming, the gpu becomes the bottleneck mainly. Upgrading to a i7 probably won't get you much unless it's a game that specifically demands a lot of CPU power.

I'd wait for the 6900's to come out and see how good they are. I have a crossfire setup and my roommate has a GTX 480 SLI setup. If I were to dive into triple monitor gaming right now, I'd buy a single card. There's a lot less hassle. Some games flat out don't work with SLI and those games by default won't work with surround. Some games don't work at all or don't work well (negative scaling) with crossfire, so I end up using 1 card anyway.

Have you thought about upgrading monitors? 19" does seem a little small.

intresting!

it seems so odd that my cpu that i have had since the original crysis came out still is running strong...

when do the 6900's come out?

i was looking at this on overclockers and is the same price as the bundle i quoted in my original post.

it gets good scores on toms hardware.

would this make a big differance?


http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=56&subid=1577



i deffo will upgrade the screens. i went with the 19's because i was aware my system prolly couldnt handle ultra high rezz's!


EDIT:

found it cheaper here!
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-msi-hd5970-pci-e-21-(x16)-4000mhz-gddr5-gpu-725mhz-3200-cores-dual-link-dvi-i-displayport

A 5970 is a crossfire card. It's not a worthwhile upgrade to a single 5870. If you're forced to use a single card for whatever reason, you'll actually end up getting less performance since a 5970 is two underclocked 5870's.

The 6900's are supposed to come out soon. I don't think there's a hard date.

hey there again..

im a little confused. the 5970 isnt a standalone card?

it is basicaly 2 cards stuck together? but with one port?

i dont play many games on my system. i play BFBC2, MW2 Black ops, a bit of starcraft2 here and there. and alot of FSX do those games support CF?

if i went down the multi GPU route and got another 5870 i would have to get a new mobo as my current one only has one PCI'E port.

say if i couldnt wait. (i have 1.5 months off work now before i have to go to the states to work again for a couple months!)

what would u recomend?

a 5970 or a new mobo and another 5870 for a bit more money?

The 5970 is on a single PCB but it has 2 gpu's so it's a crossfire card which would be affected by everything that crossfired cards would.

There's a few things you need to ask yourself before doing this upgrade:

1) What is your budget? You linked a i7 950 which is insanely expensive. I don't know about the prices in the UK, but that seems like it's not worth it at all. Typically you'd aim for the cheapest i7 and then just OC it. (i.e. the 930 right now is the best bang for buck). Not just that, but an i7 upgrade would involve a motherboard upgrade as well as RAM (if you have DDR2) etc. and a 1366 i7 would pretty much require 6 gb of DDR3.

2) What part of your computer do you think is holding you back? You talked about the processor, then you mentioned the monitors, then you mentioned the graphics cards. Zero in specifically on one thing.

3) Sort of tied to number 2, but what part of your gaming experience are you not satisfied with? Are your monitors too small? Do you experience too much lag?

Your games: BC2, Blackops, SC2, and FSX. Out of those, I have played 3 of them extensively. I have never played FSX so I can't give you advice on that. Here's what I know:
- SC2 doesn't even work with eyefinity so it's not really a point of interest. However, I do know that crossfire either gives very little gains or doesn't work (the game is almost always CPU limited if your GPU is strong enough, which a single 5870 is plenty strong). That said, a 4ghz Q6600 + 5870 @ 1600x900 warrants no upgrades for this game.
- BC2: BC2 likes quad cores, but not specifically i7's. You're fine there. I've played BC2 with a single 5870 @ 5760x1080. It's 100% playable. If you bump settings to medium with no AA, the game still looks fantastic and you get perfectly smooth FPS in MP. I played like that for a long time (100 or so hours of MP with a single 5870). When I got my 2nd 5870, frames went up, so xfire + eyefinity works fine for BC2.
- Black Ops: I just got this game the other day. I benched single vs. xfire personally and xfire works for this game. But a single card at 4xAA 5760x1080 everything maxed still got me 55 fps average in MP. Xfire got me 75 fps. While xfire does improve the fps, is it worth it? A single card is still 100% smooth in MP.

If you can hold out, I would definitely do so. I just don't think upgrading to crossfire or a 5970 would be a justified use of money at this point. All the games you listed are perfectly fine on a single 5870 even at 5760x1080.

Again, I would evaluate your system overall and make a call based on how much money you have to spend. If you MUST dump money right now, I would NOT upgrade the video card. Buying a 2nd card should be the last thing you do out of upgrading your entire system's CPU + mobo + RAM or your monitors considering the 6900's are right around the corner.

So as a summary:
- If you upgraded any one component of your system RIGHT NOW, adding a 2nd card or buying a 5970 would improve frames. However, as an investment I see it as a poor one considering 6900's are due very soon.
- With a more long term view in mind, the i7 upgrade or monitor upgrade would be more worthwhile for now. If you have money leftover you can save a little bit and maybe even snag a 6900 when they come out.

But of course, I don't know your specific budget.

sweet thankyou very much for the advice. im going to wait and see what the new ATI GPU's are gonna look like.

cheers mate :)