Thinking about upgrading

[Spikes]

you may not want to go amd right now if you expect to keep the system for more than a couple of years. i'm running a phenom2 965 black edition 3.4ghz on an asus 890fx chipset mobo, and it's about equal to an intel i5-661 3.33ghz and the amd fx6100 3.3ghz. the sandy bridge and ivy bridge cpus smoke the amd cpus.

if all you're replacing is the mobo, cpu, ram and hdd what's your budget?

intel build

cpu = $220
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

mobo = $135
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293

amd build

cpu = $160
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819106010

mobo = $127.55
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157281

ram = $50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148485

hdd choices
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136929

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136795

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167121 (highly reliable, not as fast)

with what you already have, you won't have to spend $1000 for a new system.

That intel setup looks good...thats about what I'm looking to spend I guess...I may just get 16 GB of ram for the hell of it, and never look back. I was going to sell my whole PC at one point for 600 or 700. I'm not sure how much these components are worth anymore.

[gyrene81]

one thing i am confused about is:  did amd pull out of the pc market?  if so then why buy a dead end line of cpus?


semp

no, not even close. the previous generation of cpu's is being discontinued in favor of the zambezi (bulldozer) and llano (a series) chips. you can still find the high end phenom2 cpu's and the prices are going down. the bulldozer cpu's were designed around windows 8 optimization. they still are falling way short on performance in win7, but once win8 hits the market the performance should be slightly faster than the phenom2 cpus. they are still competitive in budget systems and laptops, especially the llano chips with embedded amd 6xxx series gpus.

[Debrody]

semp,
the FX series were nice if they could cut the insane amount of leaking power (reducing the consumption) and increase the clock to the planned 4.5-4.8 GHz within a normal TDP. Just like with the old Netburst Pentium4s, the first Phenom series, or the hd-2900 GPU: their second release became quite competitive and successful. AMD if far from being dead.

[Spikes]

I like the Sandy Bridge stuff, but I hear it is going to be phased out for Ivy Bridge already...didn't it just come out?

[gyrene81]

I like the Sandy Bridge stuff, but I hear it is going to be phased out for Ivy Bridge already...didn't it just come out?

ivy bridge just replaced sandy bridge on intel's front line cpu lineup. supposedly ivy bridge socket 2011 i7's are forthcoming as well. from what i heard, ivy bridge was on the drawing board before the sandy bridge chips hit the market.

[Spikes]

Huh...might be something for me to think about. What is the best video card I can get for under 200 right now? Fermi 560 seems to be it unless I'm missing something.

[titanic3]

Radeon 6870 is a wee bit faster than the 560. On Newegg right now for $170.

[Spikes]

Ohhh 140 after a MIR as well. Time to upgrade the 5770s first I think. I assume 2 5770s is pretty equal to a 6870 power wise? I've got a 600W.

[gyrene81]

the 600 watt will be plenty for a single 6870. if you can manage $219, grab this 2gb model...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150563

[titanic3]

Yep, or you can skimp out a bit and grab a 6850 and then overclock and get the same performance as a 6870.

6850 is a tiny bit slower than a GtX 560 and the 6870 is a tiny bit faster. I think you should just look around the web for these 3 cards and find the cheapest one. Their performance/power consumption are all similar.

[Spikes]

the 600 watt will be plenty for a single 6870. if you can manage $219, grab this 2gb model...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150563

Thanks for that, I think it'll be worth the extra $50. After some "fraud" issue with my bank, it is in the mail. You guys rock, I don't know anything compared to what I used to know.

[TequilaChaser]

Yep, or you can skimp out a bit and grab a 6850 and then overclock and get the same performance as a 6870.

6850 is a tiny bit slower than a GtX 560 and the 6870 is a tiny bit faster. I think you should just look around the web for these 3 cards and find the cheapest one. Their performance/power consumption are all similar.

not all manufacturer / Brands allow their videocards to be unlocked or boosted to the top shelf model's speeds/abilities

most XFX, ASUS, Visiontek?, Saphire models will not unlock ( however their are a small few of each brand that might ??? ), most of the MSI cards will unlock though.....  be sure to fully research the cards capabilities before going in thinking you can buy a lesser model and boost it...... 

good luck and hope this is helpful

TC

[Debrody]

Yep, or you can skimp out a bit and grab a 6850 and then overclock and get the same performance as a 6870.

6850 is a tiny bit slower than a GtX 560 and the 6870 is a tiny bit faster. I think you should just look around the web for these 3 cards and find the cheapest one. Their performance/power consumption are all similar.

You say you can overclock the 6850 by 15-17% and get close to the 6870... thats a huge amount of OC i can tell you. 8-10% is rather realistic. But... you can buy a 6870 and pull it by another 10% and get half way towards the 6950...  it works this way too  : )

The 6870 is a great card, still, i wouldnt change a pair of 5770s to this one. The first cards you will see some real improvement (at least 20-30% more FPS) is the HD5870, 6950, 7850, and the GTX 570.

[guncrasher]

remember the cards that will unlock are the ones who didnt pass whatever standards are for the higher card.  so if you think you can buy a lower card and unlock to get the same performance as a higher card it may not be that way.  companies wont just let you have a lower priced card to get the same performance as a higher card for nothing.


semp

[Spikes]

You say you can overclock the 6850 by 15-17% and get close to the 6870... thats a huge amount of OC i can tell you. 8-10% is rather realistic. But... you can buy a 6870 and pull it by another 10% and get half way towards the 6950...  it works this way too  : )

The 6870 is a great card, still, i wouldnt change a pair of 5770s to this one. The first cards you will see some real improvement (at least 20-30% more FPS) is the HD5870, 6950, 7850, and the GTX 570.

Back in the day the 5870 was slightly less perf. than the CFX 5770s, I figured this being a 2GB card even though it was renamed, would be pretty much on par with 5770s if not slightly better also with newer technology, running cooler etc.