Would I benefit from this card?

[Oyeve]

Hi all, I have an older s775 system that I updated to a Q9500 from an e8600 and I also have an AMD 5770 in it.

I also have 8 gigs of ram. Knowing this system is old and not wanting to pay 500+ for new everything to play GTAV when it comes out I can get a PowerColor AXR9 290X 4GBD5-MDH/OC Radeon R9 290X 4GB 512-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 video card for free.

My question is this, would this Radeon R9 290X card make a huge difference on my current system if I replace the 5770 with it?

 

[Rhezuss]

I think your CPU will bottleneck the 290X too much...i'd probably look at the R9 280/280X if you plan to keep the rest of your hardware.

The most important thing you forgot to mention: what resolutino are you playing on?

 

[Termie]

The R9 290X is not a good match for that system, and it's the wrong upgrade given what you're coming from (a 5770). The most powerful card I'd recommend for a q9550-based system would be the R9 280 for around $200. It's about 2.5-3x faster than what you have, and offers 3x the VRAM.

 

[pauldun170]

Hi all, I have an older s775 system that I updated to a Q9500 from an e8600 and I also have an AMD 5770 in it.

I also have 8 gigs of ram. Knowing this system is old and not wanting to pay 500+ for new everything to play GTAV when it comes out I can get a PowerColor AXR9 290X 4GBD5-MDH/OC Radeon R9 290X 4GB 512-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 video card for free.

My question is this, would this Radeon R9 290X card make a huge difference on my current system if I replace the 5770 with it?

as an owner of a Q9550
yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
Why are you even asking?

While my Q9550 has been demoted as a gaming pc (I have an I7 2700 based rig for that now) I have run using various cards. Right now there is a gtx570 in it but I did pop a 780 card in there to mess around prior to put it in my gaming rig.


Do it. You will see a VERY nice improvement.

Free high end card trumps any talk of "CPU bottlenecks"

 

[Oyeve]

I see what you guys are saying, but I can get the 290X for free. I just want to know if there will be a difference on my s775 q9500 system switching out the 5770 for the 290X. If not worth it I may just sell of the 290X.

 

[pauldun170]

I see what you guys are saying, but I can get the 290X for free. I just want to know if there will be a difference on my s775 q9500 system switching out the 5770 for the 290X. If not worth it I may just sell of the 290X.

How overclock capable is your mobo?
If you sell the 290x, then you are screwed when GTA5 comes out.

 

[Rhezuss]

Well if it's free then grab that beast and enjoy the view

 

[exar333]

You should still 70-80% performance of the 290x with that CPU. It will work fine. I would gladly take 50% of 290x performance over a 5770.

 

[Termie]

Sorry, didn't realize this was a free upgrade. Obviously, take the card, but note that you'll need a solid power supply to run it and a fairly large case as well.

You should list out all your system specs so we can confirm this will actually work.

 

[Oyeve]

Sorry, didn't realize this was a free upgrade. Obviously, take the card, but note that you'll need a solid power supply to run it and a fairly large case as well.

You should list out all your system specs so we can confirm this will actually work.

My mobo is an Gigabyte P35 variant, 8gb ram, 4tb HD space, Win7 Pro 64bit, the Q9500 and a 5770. The PSU is PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad - Copper 750W Continuous @ 40°C (825W Peak) EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply.

Should be more than enough. Might swap boot drive to an SSD at some point. I have a few 500gb SSDs laying about.

 

[Kenmitch]

Try it and see how it works out. It's possible it'll be a no go from first boot up tho. Many more modern platforms required a bios update to make the 290's functional.

 

[happy medium]

Yes it will be a huge difference. 2x faster at least.

Take a look at my signature......I had a 5770 before my 2 6870's.
It was a night and day difference.

My overclocked q9550 will still push a r9 290,try overclocking your cpu.
Even at stock voltage you can probably get 3.2 ghz . A free r9 290? Just crank up the settings and enjoy.

When prices come down I will be going with a single card upgrade for my system because my cpu still plays games at a decent level.

 

[pauldun170]

Yes it will be a huge difference. 2x faster at least.

Take a look at my signature......I had a 5770 before my 2 6870's.
It was a night and day difference.

My overclocked q9550 will still push a r9 290,try overclocking your cpu.
Even at stock voltage you can probably get 3.2 ghz . A free r9 290? Just crank up the settings and enjoy.

When prices come down I will be going with a single card upgrade for my system because my cpu still plays games at a decent level.

Q9550 stock is at 2.8 but 3.4 seems to be it's natural base clock.
Up the fsb to 400mhz and that's it. (At least in my experience)
So low effort its hard for me to consider it an overclock

 

[Oyeve]

Q9550 stock is at 2.8 but 3.4 seems to be it's natural base clock.
Up the fsb to 400mhz and that's it. (At least in my experience)
So low effort its hard for me to consider it an overclock

Yeah, even tho my older e8600 ran natively at 3.33 it was only dual-core and GTAV needs 4 for whatever reason.

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[WittyRemark]

Considering it's free, take it.
heck I would've suggested you the same thing even if you had a Pentium.
Free is good, free is great!

 

[raghu78]

heck the R9 290X is 2x the perf of HD 7870 which is in itself 2x the perf of HD 7770.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/GTX_960_G1_Gaming/28.html

the HD 7770 is roughly 25% faster than HD 5770.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7770/26.html

> 4x perf improvement across the board. This is the mother of all GPU upgrades you are talking about you will be CPU bottlenecked so try and get the Q8500 upto 4 Ghz :thumbsup:

 

[positivedoppler]

Mantle and DirectX 12 on the horizon probably get away with not having a newest gen cpu

 

[MongGrel]

Considering it's free, take it.
heck I would've suggested you the same thing even if you had a Pentium.
Free is good, free is great!

This.

The wife is still even happy with one of my old Q9650's with a slight overclock, but I guess she isn't a real gamer.

Your PSU should be more than enough for it.

Not sure, you might need a BIOS update, but throwing a SSD in there too always a good idea these days.

Still just use a ASUS DCUII TOP R9 280X OC'd a bit on my main rig with a OC'd X5680, that card there will run just great I'm sure if it works in the system.

I'd think if you have a few 500gb SSD's laying around you probably know most of this all ready.

 

[SimianR]

I installed a R9 290 in an old E8400 system I had and in BF4 with mantle I actually had playable framerates at 1080P which I thought was pretty impressive. If it's a free upgrade go for it. With a CPU overclock you might actually get some decent performance out of that old system

 

[garagisti]

I see what you guys are saying, but I can get the 290X for free. I just want to know if there will be a difference on my s775 q9500 system switching out the 5770 for the 290X. If not worth it I may just sell of the 290X.

You asked the question for the second time when you are getting a free GPU upgrade for free? I'm sorry, but you must be under influence.

Of course get it, and especially so if you won't need to mess around with changing PSU's or such. Even if you have to buy a new PSU, why not?

By the way, i will generously offer $50 (yes, a whole fifty) to you, if you don't want a free card

 

[garagisti]

Considering it's free, take it.
heck I would've suggested you the same thing even if you had a Pentium.
Free is good, free is great!

Man man! Or, woman, as the case may be

 

[VirtualLarry]

Free? Heck yeah, install it. Your minimum frame rates are going to suck, because of your older 775 CPU, but you should be able to really crank up the eye candy if you want to.

Could always drop into the Distributed Computing sub-forum, and find out what useful things you could do with it, besides just playing games occasionally.

 

[Oyeve]

So, the card came in last week while I was on vaca. All I have is the card. I see that it has a 6 pin and an 8 pin power connector. I am pretty sure my PSU only has 2x6 pin power connectors for the GPU. Does this card need both 6 and 8 pin connectors at the same time or just one 6 pin?

 

[96Firebird]

You need both connectors hooked up. Your PSU should have 2x8-pin and 2x6-pin, as shown here.

 

[Oyeve]

You need both connectors hooked up. Your PSU should have 2x8-pin and 2x6-pin, as shown here.

No, only 2 6 pin. I quoted the Quad ealier but its this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817703006

Guess i'll have to buy a 6 to 8 pin converter.