5870 at 200 is a steal, it's better than GTX 460/470 and HD 6850/6870.
Is overclocking ABSOLUTELY necessary to get the best performance out of these cards? I'm kinda worried that OCing might kill my CPU or mobo.
I havent upgraded in a long time.
I am going from a Conroe socket 775 at 2.0 and a GeForce 7600.
I really do not need a full PC. I just want to play Starcraft 2 at higher settings with no lag.
Please tell me this is all I need? What resolution could i comfortably play at?
I am married and only get to play on game LOL.
I recently purchased a New power supply so I am pretty sure I have the juice to run it.
If the 5870 sale runs out.
Get one of these
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121418
One of the best 6870s on the market.
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...graphics-card-review-power-temp-noise-oc.html
Overclocks well too.
You need to upgrade your processor and video card. But your video card is definitely the weakest link. Also SC2 only uses dual cores, so if your motherboard supports 45nm Core 2 Duos then you could probably upgrade the processor on the cheap.
You probably have what, a Pentium E2180 or Core 2 E4400? You could also try overclocking, but these processors still lack the amount of cache that a real Core 2 Duo has.
with that cpu, you will never even get 50% of what a 5870 can do in many games. btw what res are you playing at?Its a Core 2 duo E6400 2.13ghz. with 3 gigs of ram in a prebuilt HP pavilion.
I dont think i can mess with the Bois to overclock on this one. I wouldnt know how anyway, last thing i over-clocked were pin modded Athlon XP 1700 chips so its been a while. Still think this warrants an CPU upgrade? I got the 5870 deal and I am hoping it will actually fit in the tower. Overall I a satisfied with the speed of general computing just looking to run SC2 better.
Its a Core 2 duo E6400 2.13ghz. with 3 gigs of ram in a prebuilt HP pavilion.
I dont think i can mess with the Bois to overclock on this one. I wouldnt know how anyway, last thing i over-clocked were pin modded Athlon XP 1700 chips so its been a while. Still think this warrants an CPU upgrade? I got the 5870 deal and I am hoping it will actually fit in the tower. Overall I a satisfied with the speed of general computing just looking to run SC2 better.
with that cpu, you will never even get 50% of what a 5870 can do in many games. btw what res are you playing at?
I agree - your SC2 performance is likely being held back by the CPU. I also highly doubt that a 5870 will fit in your HP. The 5870 is almost 11 inches long, and is a tough fit in many custom mid-tower cases. Finally, I'd be concerned about your PSU. You probably have a 300w power supply in an HP of that vintage. You can't run the 5870 on a 300w power supply.
Wow, if not enough people have emphasized the answer, it is...
HD5870!!!!! For $200 it is better than everything else suggested in this thread.... for $200!!!!
Where is this $200 5870?
Its a Core 2 duo E6400 2.13ghz. with 3 gigs of ram in a prebuilt HP pavilion.
I dont think i can mess with the Bois to overclock on this one. I wouldnt know how anyway, last thing i over-clocked were pin modded Athlon XP 1700 chips so its been a while. Still think this warrants an CPU upgrade? I got the 5870 deal and I am hoping it will actually fit in the tower. Overall I a satisfied with the speed of general computing just looking to run SC2 better.