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Thread: Couple of questions about hardware thats out now/upgrading.

  1. #1
    Ultimate Member RockNRoll's Avatar
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    Couple of questions about hardware thats out now/upgrading.

    Hi all. Been kind of out of the loop for a while. Hope all is well.

    Kinda confused about a couple of things.

    I don't know if my questions can be answered since I don't think there is a lot of information out about the new NVidia processors due Q1.

    I've been thinking about upgrading my computer, but I'm on an AM2 platform so upgrading for me would mean buying a new mobo/cpu/ram/video card. Mainly this is for the purpose of Battlefield Bad Company 2.

    I was looking into an AM3 system probably a quad core (the 620 propus) as it seems to be a good bang for buck AMD processor. I see NVidia is releasing new video cards soon which appear to be quite menacing. I was wondering what your guy's opinions were. Specifically I am wondering if a 620 Propus on an NForce mobo with 4gb of RAM paired with one of those new NVidia Fermi cards would be a bottleneck. I haven't seen anything from AMD newer than AM3 yet, and I don't want to spend 550+ on hardware if it's going to bog itself down.

    The Fermi cards are supposed to have DX 11 which is supposedly supported by Bad Company 2, but ATI already has DX 11 cards out. I am unfamiliar with ATI as I have never owned a good card by them, but it is said that the Fermi's are going to be much better than what ATI has out now...?

    Another thing is, for DX 11, I'd need windows 7, which I do not have yet. But I really don't know what the benefit of DX 11 is. I'm on XP so I haven't even seen games run with DX 10.

    Unless otherwise recommended, I would like to stick with AMD + NVidia, because I am familiar with them. I just don't know if it's better to get a GTX 2xx series or wait for the Fermi's, or if the fermi would bottleneck the system, or if there's something better from Intel + ATI or AMD + ATI or something.
    7 7 7 Trinity <><

    ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 Mobo
    AMD Phenom II 955 Black Edition
    XFX ATi Radeon 5850 XXX Edition
    2x2gb A-DATA PC3 12800
    500GB WD5000AAKS SATA2 HD
    80GB WD SATA HD

  2. #2
    Ultimate Member AllGamer's Avatar
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    video card wise i got both the nVidia 285 GTS OC, as well as the ATI 5870 top of the line single GPU

    Speed wise between the 285 and 5870 on the same machine on numbers ATI was faster, but on real person feel and play you wouldn't even notice it.

    for the system you are planning i'll suggest the 5850 best bang for the buck average street price is $150 ~ $160 but it performs just as well as the top of the line, and it is DX11

    the 5750 is comparable to the nvidia 250 series (even in price)

    so you can do that now, or wait until the DX11 nvidia comes out waaaaaay later this year, say... November/December 2010?

    Graphic wise the ATI looks more natural, i'm using Dragon Age for reference, i've played Dragon Age with both the 285 and 5870, and even at max details settings on the 285 it doesn't give the natural look you get from ATI

    ... or i could just be biased.

    My home theatre is also using ATI, my 2nd gaming machine is on 285 same everything except the CPU is on i7 920 instead of the extreme


    CPU and Mobo wise, i'll suggest getting the i7 920 setup rather than the AMD 3 + Quad CPU, i have that for my home cine, but for gaming you'll want more.

    oh also if you plan to use VISTA, don't even think about it if you have less than 4 GB RAM,

    my 2 GB RAM machine for my kids, keeps complaining about not enough memory until i added more RAM, in the end i just formatted it and went back to XP instead.
    i7-3970X, Corsair H80, 32GB G.SKILL, ASUS RAMPAGE4 Formula, VG278H(3x27")+3D Vision2, EVGA GTX 690(x2), OCZ ZX1250W, 256GB Vertex4(x2), Seagate 3TB(x5), Antec LanBoyAir, Logitech G510, G600, Z560THX, T.Flight Hotas, PZ35, Sennheiser PC163D, TrackIR5

  3. #3
    Ultimate Member RockNRoll's Avatar
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    AllGamer sorry for the lateness, but thanks for taking the time to give me all that info. I haven't looked into ATI that much but it sounds like I should take a look.

    Haven't done anything as far as upgrades yet, still lookin though.
    7 7 7 Trinity <><

    ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 Mobo
    AMD Phenom II 955 Black Edition
    XFX ATi Radeon 5850 XXX Edition
    2x2gb A-DATA PC3 12800
    500GB WD5000AAKS SATA2 HD
    80GB WD SATA HD

  4. #4
    Ultimate Member RockNRoll's Avatar
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    Sorry for double post but I am too late to edit.

    I'm starting to wonder if I am just seeing a CPU bottleneck. I OC'ed my CPU from 2.8ghz to 3.1ghz and it gave me a decent increase in 3DMark 06. I might go with a mobo-CPU first.

    Intel CPU's are a bit pricey for me. Was looking at benchmarks and the 620 Propus AMD quad core compared to an i5 that benched slightly higher, was a difference of a hundred dollars.
    7 7 7 Trinity <><

    ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 Mobo
    AMD Phenom II 955 Black Edition
    XFX ATi Radeon 5850 XXX Edition
    2x2gb A-DATA PC3 12800
    500GB WD5000AAKS SATA2 HD
    80GB WD SATA HD

  5. #5
    Ultimate Member AllGamer's Avatar
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    that's a better idea, stay with your current video and wait for a better video card, just swap your CPU, Mobo and RAM

    most new Mono are DDR3
    you can find old DDR2 mobos compatible with the AMD 620

    i was just looking for one of those myself, as i have 4 GB of DDR2 RAM that didn't want to go to waste
    i7-3970X, Corsair H80, 32GB G.SKILL, ASUS RAMPAGE4 Formula, VG278H(3x27")+3D Vision2, EVGA GTX 690(x2), OCZ ZX1250W, 256GB Vertex4(x2), Seagate 3TB(x5), Antec LanBoyAir, Logitech G510, G600, Z560THX, T.Flight Hotas, PZ35, Sennheiser PC163D, TrackIR5

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