Can I upgrade my graphics card?


MiltonDorkenhoff

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MNGreg

waiting out winter
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Spitfire

New Member
I agree...

...with Detrich... Gaming on PC's is obsolete these days unless you are mmorpg'ing or strategy gaming... You'd be better off getting a ps3 that has games made directly for it, don't have to worry about upgrades (unless you want)... Plus it's far more cost effective.

If you do need to upgrade though I would go with newegg along with everyone else's advice. I've always built my computer's using newegg and they are wonderful.

*don't go to best buy*
 

Kdubb223

New Member
Also, kdubb, how are you running and crossfire on an intell motherboard? You can only sli. Also, what kind of psu are you using to run quad vid cards? (an 6950 is two declocked 6850's on one board).
Well for starters I have no idea where you got this info from... couldnt be more wrong. I am running 2 single 2gb GPU cards: AMD 6950's in CrossfireX not quad as in 4 cards. Each card is hooked up to a PCIE 16x lane. I have a BFG 1000W psu. And Intel mobo supports sli and crossfirex.

here is my mobo
Newegg.com - ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
 

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yfz6r

New Member
Dang thats sick that intel finally supports crossfire. And a 6950 is to graphics cores on one board. So if you have 2 6950's you have 4 graphics cores total.
 

linkgt

Member
...with Detrich... Gaming on PC's is obsolete these days unless you are mmorpg'ing or strategy gaming... You'd be better off getting a ps3 that has games made directly for it, don't have to worry about upgrades (unless you want)... Plus it's far more cost effective.

If you do need to upgrade though I would go with newegg along with everyone else's advice. I've always built my computer's using newegg and they are wonderful.

*don't go to best buy*
If you're playing a FPS on a console You're doing it wrong.
 

Spitfire

New Member
When you are talking about budget gaming, playing on a PC is obsolete... Spend $250 on a PS3, spend another $300 on 5-6 games and you're set for a year at least. If you need more variety get gamefly. I used to be a die-hard PC gamer, couldn't play FPS on a console. Now that I've been gaming on a console for a few years I couldn't imagine playing on a PC. It's just a matter of getting over the first weirdness of it.

That said, I still believe in gaming on the PC. I still do it. And of course I still have a very nice PC that I upgrade yearly... I just pour more money into it than my PS3...

Back to the OP, I'd basically get an intel board, I5-2500K or I7-2600K along with a GTX 570, 8 GB of ram with a 2 1TB HD's in a raid 0, and of course a decent tower and PSU and MB. Or if you don't mind waiting you can wait and see how AMD does with it's Bulldog coming out eventually...
 

Mr Citrus

New Member
It depends on if you absolutely have to max a game out. I've been playing on my gtx 460 for quite a while, I can run bf3 with a mixture of medium to high settings, thats fine with me. The last time I put money into my pc was to upgrade ram
 

Spitfire

New Member
It depends on if you absolutely have to max a game out. I've been playing on my gtx 460 for quite a while, I can run bf3 with a mixture of medium to high settings, thats fine with me. The last time I put money into my pc was to upgrade ram
That's very true, which is why I didn't quote 2x vid cards... In my opinion that is too much until the next couple of years when games actually use the extra bandwidth. But yea of course you can get by on a $500 system for the rest of the year, but for another $500 you can get by for the next few (3-4) years...
 

dcBear78

New Member
I've been building comps for years and know my sh1t
Also, kdubb, how are you running and crossfire on an intell motherboard? You can only sli. Also, what kind of psu are you using to run quad vid cards? (an 6950 is two declocked 6850's on one board).
Just shot yourself in the foot there didn't you? Actually both feet. As already stated some intel boards can run both SLI and Crossfire from the LGA1366/1156 architecture onwards.

Then you shot your other foot with the 6950 comment. A 6950 is a single core GPU. Above this in performance (on Ati side) is the 6970. What you are thinking of is the 6990 which is a dual core GPU on a single card. Kinda two 6950's on the one card. Bit confusing as they seem to change the naming structure each generation.

Back to the OP...

You will definitely need a new power supply to upgrade that card. Something from a well known brand (Seasonic, Corsair, OCZ do good cheapies). Look for 600w+ depending on budget. A Corsair HX650 is well known to be extremely reliable.

As for the card. From NVidia go a GTX560ti or better. I think for the small price difference a GTX570 is better value, but I don't know your local prices. I got a GTX580 and BF3 runs like a dream.

Or from Ati go a 6950/6970 depending on the budget.

Or is it all worth it? Lot of money for a PC upgrade for this game. If you got an XBox or PS3 that may be cheaper options if you are not so serious. But then again playing battlefield on a console is just wrong. And you will miss out on all the pretties. Consoles run at PC's low/medium settings. Mine runs a combo of high/ultra settings. And it looks so gorgeous.

Some actual screenshots of the campaign I recently played. Stills don't do it justice. This game is amazing with movement.












View this entire album: Battlefield 3 Screens

edit: Ahh man. Thought this new pic host would keep the full resolution.
 

dcBear78

New Member
Going Hunting has got to be one of the most visually satisfying levels in the campaign
Yeah. I was really blown away by the quality of the outdoor scenes in Rock and Hard place too. But this really needs the movement to make it look great. The trees and grass moving and shadows looks amazing.
 


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