Maximum PC

I hope I picked the right place to discuss this, this is the first time posting and participating in the MPC forum.

I would like to get some advice about my choice about graphics cards. On my current system (first build) my old mobo a ECS 780GMA suddenly went out on me and swapped it out with a smaller MSI board. I took out my graphics card and stored it away in the closet for the time being until the next build that would be dedicated to gaming until the semester ends. My question is should I grandfather the 4870 onto the next build (I will list the specs below) or should I sell the 4870 to some poor chap and buy myself a 58XX or beyond card?
Also if you have any questions about my next build, please feel free to criticize or whatever you guys do, Thanks.

- AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz
- MSI 890FXA-GD70 Motherboard
- Corsair Vengeance 4GB DDR3 RAM PC12800, 1600MHz
- Corsair Hydro H50 CPU cooler
- Hitachi Hard Drive - 500GB 7200 RPM (or should I go for a SSD as a primary drive)
- (secondary) Hitachi 2TB 7200RPM (currently has my game and multimedia files)
- (PSU currenly keeping the 4870 company in the closet) Ultra 650W
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64BIT

It depends on your monitor resolution really. If you're running a 1920x1080+ monitor, I would get either a second 4870 if you're okay with just DX10, or a better card. 4870s go for $100 nowadays, and that would deliver 5870-level performance for very cheap. Under that res, however, a single 4870 will probably be just fine.

ok, I have been playing crysis 1 and assassins creed 1 at max settings with ease with the 4870 at ease at those res, (16x9) with the setup I had up until now

- AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400
- ECS A780GM-A
- 4 OCZ Reaper 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz

Oh yeah, before I forget, here's my main concern, if I build my second system dedicated to gaming, will the 4870 create a bottleneck in performance, I looked up the system requirements for crysis 2, I figured that I can play the game no problem, I'll have to compromise graphics though I figured. So what can I do?

1. OC the single 4870?
2. go along and find another 4870CF and forced to buy a bigger PSU?
3. go settle for the latest hardware and try selling the 650W PSU 4870 and two ram sticks to somebody to make up for spending?
4. combination of any of those three?

Personally I would sell the PSU anyways and get one from a more reputable brand, as Ultra really isn't a very good PSU brand. What resolution are you running exactly? I couldn't catch it from your other posts.

I am been using 1920X1080, sry for leaving that out.

Yeah, I would say your best bang for buck would be to sell that Ultra PSU, buy a 750W, and buy a second 4870. However, obviously, you sacrifice DX11 and power consumption if you go that route. Alternatively, you could sell the 4870 and get a 6850. The 6850 would be about 15% slower but get you DX11 and lower power usage for about the same cash outlay. The 6870 would be a little more expensive than either route, but only by a few bucks and get you DX11 and only about 5% worse performance than the 4870s. Additionally, with the single-card solution you get to avoid the occasional driver issues that CrossFire sometimes has in which some games simply don't scale well with multiple GPUs, and you leave a slot open for CrossFire in the future.

Alright, I can try to sell the two extra sticks of the old ram for 25$, sell the PSU for $50 to ease the spending.
what brand should I look at for PSU?
will the 4870 cause a bottle neck in performance? if so, could OC help?
how do the 5800's stand? (am not ready for CF)

Stay away from the 5830s! One of my 4890s died and I rmaed it with Asus explaining I run two in crossfire. The sent me an e-mail stating they had no 4890s to replace it with and would I accept a 5830 in its place, or I would have to wait for a 4890 to come in and be repaired and sent to me. I accepted the 5830 and reiterated I have had two 4890s in crossfire; would the 5830 work? They said no and told me to send the other 4890 in and they would send me another 5830. They run craptacular! The 4890s were faster than the 5830s in crossfire.

I would go with a 6950 and later crossfire it with another 6950 to double the frame rate...with these two cards it actually does double.

I would go with a Corsair, Thermaltake or Antec psu @ 750 watts. That way you can Crossfire in the future.

You found out the hard way to stay away from ECS products...just remember that lesson in the future.

Nasty

For the Antec PSU's stay away from their Basiq line. They are cheap, but the Truepower and Earthwatts are good.





TEd