abc

Mmm but it isn't (in the slightest) though is it...

GTX 460 retails from £125
HD 6850 retails from £150

I've just looked at every resolution for every game in reviews by Hexus, Guru 3d and MaximumPC and there really is not a clear cut winner. Seemingly 50% of games the 6850 has a slight margin on the 460 786MB and 50% of time vica versa.

I agree the 6850's widening (or lessening, if it's behind) of it's performance gap at high res is promising for AA, whilst it's tessalation performance is good for the future and it's price much more deserving than that of the 5830 it replaces. For 20% more money it certainly isn't reliably anywhere near 20% faster (infact it probably averages at +- circa 3% or something equally negligible since one game the GTX 460 786MB is 10% ahead, the next the 6850 is 10% ahead)


Yeah I'd recommend people spend twice as much as a 5570 costs if they game as much as the people here do, but not everyone has that sort of money. Also I regard "permanent" as one year which in my books would permit waiting for a bigger monitor or bigger upgrade etc. I think we just have different definitions.


Ahhhhhhhh bet that's a MASSIVE different from the 8400GS although two words come to mind: "CPU" and "bottleneck." If you have the time (and of course money to invest in a new CPU) one day there are tests you can run to find out what/how-much CPU/GPU are bottlenecking each other.


This reminds me of the whole "yo dawg I heard u like driving so we put a car in yo car so u can drive while u drive" thing...

/off topic

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GhostHands

It made such a huge difference! Gameplay at 1440x900 instead of 800x600. Imagine! One question though...is it possible to upgrade the CPU in my computer without having to upgrade other hardware? Is it feasible to just buy something a little better but not insane and just swap them or would I have to change out mobo, power supply etc.?

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abc

link us the product page of the computer. There will be many direct replacements which do not require a MOBO or PSU upgrade. Whether it's feasible depends on how much "range" your MOBO/PSU/RAM (and crucially for an OEM PC, BIOS) etc have in them.

My PC for example has turned out rather pleasingly. It can take ANY proccessor made by AMD from 2004 until "socket AM3" is replaced (which isn't scheduled yet) whether it's a £30 single core or a flagship power-hungry 6-core CPU without needing to change ANYTHING (not RAM, not CPU cooler, not MOBO, not PSU etc) The benefit of this is obviously that I just pay for a CPU each time (£150 odd) not a CPU, RAM & MOBO (£400 odd)

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oneinchwunda

@Ghost You are running a E3200 IIRC, which is Socket LGA775. There are A LOT of processors that would fit in your motherboard, but unless you can pick one up cheap second-hand, the performance improvement probably would not be significant enough for the price you're paying.

I just realised that I can do exactly this aswell (although my PSU likely wouldn't handle a 6-core AND a "good enough" GPU). Yay.

Wait, is your mobo the same as mine (the AM2+ version) or the AM3 version? I would presume the same as mine (and just for reference, mine is revision 2.0).

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GhostHands

HP Pavilion a6400f Desktop PC Product Specifications HP Pavilion a6400f Desktop PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

Enlighten me.

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abc

Agree with what Oneinch said regarding upgrades for Ghost - your advantage being that there are an absolute shed load of great LGA775 CPUs, it can't be at all hard to get one cheap now that LGA775 is discontinued.

Having not had to consider this since I formulated my PC some of my fact recalling may be a bit sketchy. Mine is AM2+ meaning it can support AM2 with HT1.0, AM2+ with HT2.0 and AM3 but only with HT2.0 (2GHz as opposed to 3GHz) & DDR2. Although it lacks an 8 pin CPU connector it is 140w rated, which is the highest rating for CPUs. As the AM2+ version it can "only" take DDR2.

Mine is rev 1.1. The additions for rev 2.0 are ACC which allow higher overclocks or, curiously, the unlocking of cores. Rev 2.0 also ups RAM support from 1200MHz to 1333MHz.




Sorry, was busy typing. Quote HP:

In the absence of any BIOS information you'd assume that's what they mean with the above. Info stated about the MOBO in seperate sections is consistent with the above limits.

Newegg still has 25 LGA 775 CPUs but I imagine craigslist would be PACKED with people offloading their 775 stuff for new Core iStuff. For the purpose of craigslist, where do you live? I'll have a look for you. Picks of the bunch, should you look for yourself, are probably:

E5500 - for cheap. these are like $70 new.
the high E7_00 numbers - these are around $125 new.
Q6600 will probs be found in abundance
Q9_5_ if you want to try and prolong the life of your current PC as much as possible.


P.S. How are you running a 9600GT with a 250w PSU? Is it one of those 9600GT that doesn't require a power connector?

P.P.S Definitely run previously mentioned tests before buying a new CPU. For said tests you do need to wait for Black Ops before you ask me what you need.

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oneinchwunda

@Ghost A quick look on Ebay shows that you could get an E8400 (what Dante has) for $100 brand new. If your PSU is up to it, the Q6600 (what Joo has actually) is a very good CPU and can be got for much less, but second hand. New would cost $150+.

FYI, my board has an 8-pin CPU power connector (I presume that is what you mean), so that is another addition for rev 2.0.

Wait, ACC allows higher overclocks ASWELL as unlocking cores?

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abc

Oh. In that case, whilst both our MOBOs are rated for 140w CPUs, yours will evidently be quite a bit more stable with 140w CPUs at high voltages under extreme OCing.

ACC stands for Active Clock Callibration IIRC. When overclocked hardware crashes when it becomes too unstable, but the hardware itself is the judge of what is too unstable. ACC allows higher tolerances thus higher OCs are possible before it gives up and decides it's unstable.

Some MOBO venders have managed to seperate the "better OC'ing" functionality of ACC from the mysterious "unlocking cores" functionality and offer two options, namely "unlock cores" (if something in computing ever had a basic and non-fancy name...) and "ACC" to allow you to further OC dual/triples without making it more unstable by unlocking cores. Also FYI if you didn't know, ACC unlocks more cache too, if available.

__________________
"I don't like new Linkin Park, I don't like old Linkin Park... I JUST LIKE LINKIN PARK"

COD owner - COD expansion pack owner - COD2 owner - COD2: BRO player - COD3 owner - COD4 owner - COD:WaW owner - COD: MW2 owner - COD: BO owner

This is getting repetitive.

GhostHands

Thanks for checking for me. I owe you a sammich.

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