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Ollie

(Yet another) PC upgrade info needed thread.

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I'm looking to upgrade my machine, I'm pretty happy I have chosen a decent CPU and some tasty RAM, but I need some advice with the graphics card.

 

I currently have a single 7600GT on an SLi capable motherboard. My question is, do I buy 2 better cards and run them in SLi, or do I spend the same amount on a really good single card.

 

Been looking at some benchmarks on Toms Hardware and 2 x 9800 GT's seem pretty good, and really shine in the high end tests.

 

On a side note, it really confused me they were talking about 9800's lol. I still have my trusty 9800 pro in the machine I'm posting this from!

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Buy a 4850 or a 4870 depending on your budget, for three reasons.

 

1. The performance benefits of a dual card setup are only really at high resolutions (1920x1200+)

2. Some games don't scale well over multiple cards and you'll get basically a 0 performance benefit.

3. The 48xx series is the best value for money right now. You could buy a 9800 GX2 or a 4870 X2 for a ridiculous price but in reality you'd probably never notice the difference. Although this also depends on your monitor, what resolution do you use?

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For the record I have an HD4870, and I would thoroughly recommend them to anyone considering taking the plunge.

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Correct me if I'm wrong, as it has been a long time since I last looked at this, but when you buy your mobo, don't you have to predecide what CPU and GPU vendor you have to get also?

 

I'm not changing the mobo which takes AMD and Nvidia, its an Asus M2N32 SLi board. SO that limits me to another Nvidia no?

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Correct me if I'm wrong, as it has been a long time since I last looked at this, but when you buy your mobo, don't you have to predecide what CPU and GPU vendor you have to get also?

 

I'm not changing the mobo which takes AMD and Nvidia, its an Asus M2N32 SLi board. SO that limits me to another Nvidia no?

 

Not at all. As long as you have the PCI-E x16 slots you can go for whatever GPU you want (PSU pending).

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Get the Radeon HD 4850, it's such a great value. Probably ATI's best card since that good old 9800Pro :wink:

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Nice, and that card is better than any SLi or Crossfire combo for similar price?

 

Sounds like a winner!

 

EDIT - Whats the best ATI vendor these days?

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It doesn't beat a 9800GT SLI combo, but it's way cheaper.

 

For the price of a 9800GT combo you're way better off buying a 4870 anyway. It kind of depends on how much money you want to spend.

 

A 4850 will play you all games on maxed out settings on reasonable resolutions anyway. It should be able to tackle future stuff like Far Cry 2 easily as well.

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Yeah if you're going in expecting to spend a lot (which you seem to be) You might as well go for the 4870 which will give you good performance for not too much.

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Ok well I think the 4870 is what I'm going to get once I check my PSU is happy about that. I currently use a 19" monitor but am looking for a 24" widescreen, any suggestions? My current monitor is a Dell and it has to be said, probably one of the best monitors I have ever used, nothing wrong with it, just want something bigger.

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Yeah that's what I thought, I'll stick with Dell then. I'm surprised ebuyer can sell Dell monitors cheaper than Dell can.

 

So, that's just about everything I wanted to know, except if anyone can recommend good ATi vendors. I think my 9800 pro back in the day was a Sapphire.

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Ebuyer, basically.

 

I'm tossing between a £140 4850 1GB and a £170 4870 512mb...

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Yeah that's what I thought, I'll stick with Dell then. I'm surprised ebuyer can sell Dell monitors cheaper than Dell can.

 

So, that's just about everything I wanted to know, except if anyone can recommend good ATi vendors. I think my 9800 pro back in the day was a Sapphire.

 

Sapphire, HIS, Asus are my brands of choice.

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Ebuyer, basically.

 

I'm tossing between a £140 4850 1GB and a £170 4870 512mb...

 

Go for the 4850. It will do the job and save you £30.

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Go for the 4850. It will do the job and save you £30.

 

I suppose at the resolutions i'll be using (1440X900) the 4850 would be the best idea.

 

And my final choice!

£110 for the 512mb version: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148468

or £150 for the 1GB version: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146870

 

Seeing as i can't find a single fucking benchmark to compare the 512mb and 1gb version, advice plz.

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If the difference is only 30 pounds, the 4870 is probably just worth it.

 

1 GB of memory is pretty useless, unless you have a 30" 2560x1600 monitor.

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I tried the Crysis demo with my 4850. Ran at 1280x1024 all settings high quite well. That was only the intro video and about 5 minutes of the start of the game.

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The actual game is more efficient than the demo though later on in the game the performance drops quite a bit.

 

I want to get a 4850 but I just feel it might be bottle necked by my processor (Core2 Duo 4500 (2.2Ghz)). I really should just buy one now though while I have the money.

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Don't bother, the Core 2's are so easily over clockable... Buy a good fan (I have a Scythe MINE), over clock the shit out of it.

 

I got my E6600 to 3.4ghz (1ghz higher than stock), not a single issue.

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So this is what I ordered:

 

CPU

RAM

GPU

 

Luckily I have a good motherboard, PSU and HDD setup from my last upgrade meaning that I could spend more money on the components that really make a difference this time around.

 

Its nice to know my rig is going to be good now after having to skimp on these components last time :yay:

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Nice stuff Ollie. I'll be building a new PC in a month or so, can't wait for a hot beast of a machine!

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Don't bother, the Core 2's are so easily over clockable... Buy a good fan (I have a Scythe MINE), over clock the shit out of it.

 

I got my E6600 to 3.4ghz (1ghz higher than stock), not a single issue.

How much is that cpu fan, is it noisy? I have a E6400 and I overclocked it a little bit, once, then put it back. I have a big fan on my cpu but not sure how good it is. I would like to overclock, and it would be worth it to have a bigger fan in time for when I change mobos and cpu in a month or two (well, that's the plan anyway)

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