New videocard decision?! SLI?

[=RC=NZ Randomhole]

Okeydokey. Been playing PR for a few years, yeah its awesome.
I Built a new computer last year
C2Q q9550 4.01ghz
xfx 790i ultra
kingston ddr3 1600 8gb
old seagate barracuda 160gb sata
Sapphire HD6770 850mhz 1200mhz
dell p2210 22in 1680x1050
600w Coolermaster

And i play PR quite nicely....... sometimes.
I get around 60-100fps but in cities it can drop to around 20. So i decided to sell my card to my friend since I wont be needing a DX11 card because BF3 bores me.
Basically I want a DX10 setup that will give me constant 60+ fps and have been looking at something like a GTX295 but can not find any info on them running PR. What makes a good card for PR?
Suggestions would be awesome
(getting a new PSU too so dont flame me for having a **** one)

Oh also planning on getting ARMA II because it looks badass

Thanks
Jake

[MaSSive]

Whats your budget for upgrade? Don't look at DX support. All newer cards have DX11 support but that is not important for you since you dont plan to run any DX11 games, but its better to stick with it for future reasons.

[=RC=NZ Randomhole]

About $300-400 NZD
Which can get me a HD5870 or a gtx295 (not sure on SLI support but im guessing raw power over tessellation tech is best for the bf2 engine)
But i really dont know what would be best.

[Sniper77shot]

Look into 2 GTX 460's if you can get that or 2 560's.

[=RC=NZ Randomhole]

So SLI is the way to go for PR preformance? i dont care about other games as I dont play them.

[=RC=NZ Randomhole]

no havent given it to him yet. I did change that setting a little while ago and i got a major preformance increase but i still get low preformance on large maps and while in big cities. 1gb is correct. Would a 2gb card be the way to go?

[LITOralis.nMd]

I don't think you need a new card.
I run a q9550 at stock on a no name OEM mobo with ddr2 RAM and a HD 5770 on 1920x1080..
Similar enough system, I had same problem as you.

Instead of upgrading I simply OC the card until it reaches 67C temp. Helps quite a bit for the "urban" sections of PR. Savings will go towards next PC upgrade theoretically, though I already spent the savings on booze.

ONly small downside is that at long viewing distances static and non-static objects touching the ground have a small white outline at the point of contact with the ground.

IMHO, it's cheaper to simply OC the video card until it (possibly) burns out. Will take a year or more to burn out.
You should be able to get to 950/1325 easy, will give you an increase of 4 to 8 FPS in the cities.

PLEASE read up on how to OC your card before using AMD Overdrive and Sapphire Trixx and MSI Afterburner.

Sapphire has it's own OC utilty software called Trixx, https://www.sapphireselectclub.com/ssc/TriXX/TriXX.aspx

MSI also has a utility called Afterburner you might be able to use. http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm .. and how to unlock Afterburner for use on any card and extreme OC options, BE VERY VERY CAREFUL!... http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=338906

Found a review about OC'ing your card:
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews ... lex/13.htm
In BF:BC2 the overclocking increased FPS by 9fps. You'll see equal or better results in BF2 R.

Again, please read up and use google search to understand the risks and limitations.

That being said, with about 30 minutes of reading invested you'll save a few hundred dollars.

[=RC=NZ Randomhole]

Thanks for all your help guys. Since i have already sold my card I will probably get a 5850 or something easily overclockable. Also. I am wondering If an upgrade to an i7 nethalem would be good. It would not be overclocked that well since I can not afford the 790i of the new(ish) platform. I mean the best overclocker board like a x58 or something. Would a stock i7 930 2.8ghz beat my q9550 at 4.0ghz? on another note. wouldnt SLI be totally pointless of bf2 unless you have 2gb per card? since it can only (as i have heard) use the vram of one card?.

See you on the battlefield (well not for a while because i accidentally wrote zeros to my main HDD )



Jake

[BloodyDeed]

A 5850 should be by far enough for PR, theres no need for SLI or Crossfire in my opinion.

I'm running BF2 R perfectly with a Q9550 (not overclocked) and a NV GTX275 on 1920x1080.
You possibly just had a driver/hardware issue with your old system.

Anyway, would never go for a dualGPU system unless you want monster performance with 2 enthusiast graphic cards.
To answer your question about the graphic ram per card. As both cards need to load all textures etc. into their RAM you shouldnt add them up.
But if you want to look into Arma2 R you might wanna look into a better one than the 5850 (6000er series) though.

[=RC=NZ Randomhole]

Would a OC'ed 5870 not suffice for PR:armaII

[=RC=NZ Randomhole]

Ok. I Sold my Q9550 for an amazing $250 NZD! and got a i7 920 for $250 nzd
Just trying to sell my xfx nforce 790i ultra sli for around 250 so I can get a asus p6t or something.

[Steeps]

I'll just randomly toss in my hardware setup to give you an idea of the 460's.

Intel Core i5 2500k at 4.55GHz
Two GTX 460's in SLI
8 GB DDR3 from Patriot
ASUS P8Z68-V Motherboard, fairly high quality.
Acer 23" 1920x1080 Monitor


With this setup, PR at maximum settings never drops below 100 FPS, on any map I play on. Cities change nothing for me for some reason. I can also run ArmA II on all high settings at a constant ~70 FPS, I would run very high, but ArmA tends to crash at the highest settings. You really won't be disappointed by the price to performance ratio. The 460's scale very well in SLI, really close to the 90% mark.

[rushn]

Ok. I Sold my Q9550 for an amazing $250 NZD! and got a i7 920 for $250 nzd
Just trying to sell my xfx nforce 790i ultra sli for around 250 so I can get a asus p6t or something.

Cant believe you sold a Q9550 for that much

good on you though

[=RC=NZ Randomhole]

Okeydokey! after a long wait for a good motherboard and some cheap vid cards (bought 2 broken 9800gx2s on trademe) and a psu explosion my system is near completion. will probably get 2x gtx460s or a 5870 maybe 2

[Psyrus]

Could someone with SLI/Crossfire report on the phenomenon of microstutter, mentioned [here]. I had a play with my friend's 5970 back in the day and it was very noticeable, despite him having >60fps virtually all the time. Games looked far smoother on my single 5870, and he ended up selling the 5970 and getting a gtx580 I believe.

[rushn]

Okeydokey! after a long wait for a good motherboard and some cheap vid cards (bought 2 broken 9800gx2s on trademe) and a psu explosion my system is near completion. will probably get 2x gtx460s or a 5870 maybe 2

I would recommend just one videocard since you mentioned you only wanted to play PR but if you want to future proof yourself insteaf of getting SLI or crossfire get a newer generation card (for example the 7 series or the Nvidia equivalent)

[SnipingCoward]

with my 2 GTX 460s in SLI I do see these stutters in the X3 rolling demo. However I do not see these issues when actually playing ArmA2 or BF2 (+PR). Maybe I have gotten used to it or its not that grave.

However what keeps me off getting SLI next time is the extreme heat those 2 cards produce + they are packed too tight in my case... make sure you will have enough room between them (cards) and the case - otherwise cooling will be a pain in the butt like it is for me... had to get high power fans and a fan control just to get rid off overheating. (https://www.realitymod.com/forum/f329-h ... alone.html)