Need help with a GPU upgrade

[seb_witcher]

Need help with a GPU upgrade

Hi

I need some help with a potential graphicscard upgrade. At the moment a Nvidia 560 (or 560ti) 1gb Graphicscard is of most interest, however there's one problem. My computer has a Intel Core2Duo 3,0ghz CPU and from what I've heard having a too large gap between how well the CPU and the GPU performs, may cause problems. In my case, the CPU may be bottlenecking the GPU. I'm not sure what graphicscard to choose, anyone know where the limit is in terms of graphicscards before a C2D 3,0ghz bottlenecks?
Currently I have a Ati 4890 1gb graphicscard.

Not sure if the topic belongs in this section, I apologize if it doesn't.

Thanks for the help!

 

[samaelvonhell]

Dont know if nVidia fixed this already, but their drivers were having some problems with 2 cores CPU's on Win7.

Also what PSU You have?

AMD cards draw less power at comparable to nVidia cards performance.

You may always upgrade video card now, CPU and rest later and live with little bottleneck till then.

Taking in consideration all above Radeon HD 6950/6970 should be better buy for You.

But 7xxx series should be released first quarter of 2012 and prices of 6xxx will go down, so You may wait till then as well.

 

[c69]

Hi

I need some help with a potential graphicscard upgrade. At the moment a Nvidia 560 (or 560ti) 1gb Graphicscard is of most interest, however there's one problem. My computer has a Intel Core2Duo 3,0ghz CPU and from what I've heard having a too large gap between how well the CPU and the GPU performs, may cause problems. In my case, the CPU may be bottlenecking the GPU. I'm not sure what graphicscard to choose, anyone know where the limit is in terms of graphicscards before a C2D 3,0ghz bottlenecks?
Currently I have a Ati 4890 1gb graphicscard.

Not sure if the topic belongs in this section, I apologize if it doesn't.

Thanks for the help!

I think your CPU is going to cause some problems for you.

I have a 4 core AMD processor, and I noticed a sizable improvement in framerate when overclocking from 3.1 to 3.8. I can only imagine how hampered a 2 core system running at 3.0 is going to be. I think to run the witcher well would involve an upgrade of your system. You can get a mobo/cpu combo like mine for $200. Perhaps you can reuse your memory, case, peripherals, etc.

 

[GuyNwah]

If you can overclock that CPU, you can get a little more mileage out of it. Core 2 Duos are mad overclockers, and you should be able to hit 3.6 GHz easy and maybe 4 GHz. At that point, it's competitive with anything from AMD and anything short of a Core i5. But at some point, your limiter is going to be the memory bandwidth and not the CPU. If you are on a DDR2 motherboard, it's time to consider a larger upgrade.

 

[seb_witcher]

Thanks for the help.

I have a X48 motherboard I think it supports DDR3, I have however 4gb of DDR2 RAM installed.
I can probably overclock the CPU since I'm also using a non-stock cooler, I have never done it before though.
If I manage to overclock the CPU to 3,6ghz and upgrade the memory to DDR3, do you think a Ati 6950 or Nvidia 560 graphicscard upgrade could be a good choice or would it still be too good for the other computer parts?

I have a Corsair TX 750w PSU and Vista 64-bit.

 

[GuyNwah]

Motherboards always take one or the other (DDR2 or DDR3). They are not interchangeable, except on a few rare motherboards that were built while the industry was transitioning to DDR3. So if you are running DDR2 on that motherboard, you cannot switch to DDR3.

Overclocking is usually done by raising the FSB speed. At the same time, you have to lower the memory speed in order to avoid overclocking the memory too much. You also have to proceed in small steps, and test for stability at each step.

You need a decent stability testing program. For dual cores, ORTHOS Prime is good, though there are better. Intel Burn is excellent for making quick stability checks, but must not be run unattended.

Say you have an E8400 (3.0 GHz, 333 MHz FSB) and DDR2-800 memory, and your motherboard is good about automatic voltage setting (ASUS generally is, for example). You could start by dropping the memory speed one step (which would be to DDR2-667) and then raising the FSB speed. Say, to 367 MHz. Now, your CPU will be at 3.3 GHz, and your memory will be at DDR2-733. Check for stability. If it's stable, try, say, 383 MHz. Now your CPU will be 3.45 GHz, and your memory will be at DDR2-766. If it's stable, keep going. Say, 392 MHz, then 400 MHz, 408 MHz, 417 MHz, and so on.

Memory doesn't overclock so well as CPU, and you may find you start getting memory problems around DDR2-866 (which would be 433 MHz FSB, and 3.9 GHz on your CPU). When you start seeing problems, back off to the last known good setting, and go up half as much as you did. Say you're stable at 425, but not 433, split the difference and try 429. Eventually you're going to find the highest FSB that you're stable at. Then burn it in by running your stability tests for at least 8 hours (or overnight, or an entire day).

 

[seb_witcher]

Then it will probably be best to wait and make a larger upgrade.
Thanks for explaining how overclocking is done.

 

[c69]

Then it will probably be best to wait and make a larger upgrade.
Thanks for explaining how overclocking is done.

As a point of reference, I have used 3 video cards with the Witcher 2.

Radeon 5770, played on medium, ~27-40fps.
Radeon 6850, played on ultra, 30-45
Radeon 6850 crossfire, played on ultra 45-70fps.

(You can map these to nvidia benchmarks)

I wouldn't go any lower than a single 6850, and W2 uses the extra cores, so you will gain alot from a new cpu. Good luck.

 

[seb_witcher]

Thanks.

 

[markshim]

i think you should wait untill the 7000 series cards are out. they could be out on the 6 dec if not then after xmas. worth waiting for tho