morning chaps, im looking to upgrade my computer (details should be below on my signature i think). im a huge total war fan, and have always based my systems around new releases. ive had napoleon now for awhile and my computer can happily play away on ultra settings on a reduced resolution of 1600 x 1200. how ever it doesnt work very well with any of the extra eye candy on. basicaly i want it all on (i need more power captain!!!). ive run various tests on these benchmark programs and compared it to a i5 rig (and i7). and found them to be obviously faster than mine. in order to achieve the full setitngs with play able frame rates. would it just be a simple graphics card swop over (say perhaps to a GTX460?) i guess because its graphics settings itll be the graphics card holding it back? or do you think a new mobo, cpu (i5 maybe?) and memory (ddr2 to ddr3)be a better option? or both? options to get ready for the new shogun 2 aswell. thanks in advance
A gtx460 would be a large leap from your HD4870x2. I would say your CPU and RAM is more than acceptable!
New GPU, but to be honest, I don't think you'd see a huge leap in performance going from a 4870X2 to a 460. To make it worthwhile I'd consider spending a bit more.
I would agree with parge tbh, top range ATI or GTX480 would be the only way to go. I would have said 2x460 if you had a sli capable mobo.
the 4870x2 is still a pretty good card. A 460 won't be an improvement. Check the charts at toms: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/...uality/Sum-of-FPS-Benchmarks-Totals,2256.html ati 5890 or better to beat out a 4870x2. 5830's in crossfire would do it but for only a small performance gain. 5850 in crossfire would also beat out a 4870x2 but again, for the amount of money you would have to spend. I don't think its worth it.
Considering a 4870X2 is on par with a 5850, a GTX 460 could possibly be a downgrade in some respects, like Bumrush said, I wouldn't consider anything below a 5870 or GTX 470 or possibly an SLI/CFX combo of two lesser cards.
a single 460 isnt gonna cut it and will be a downgrade in most cases 5870 or above for better performance crossfired 5850s or 460s and above works also your cpu is holding the game back more than the gpu. id rebuild to the i5 750 and you should see some increase. As most of the effects are not gpu controlled on that game works alot like sins of the solar empire if you play with mods the game crawls on anything but a decent cpu and gpu. people who have say the cpu you listed and the 5870 still struggle as the game has too many units in it ( 2k + times by the number of textures per unit 600 - 1000 give or take the mod )
thanks for the replies. im no genious with hardware. i love the stuff but really should know more. how ever that aside, if like a couple of you have said a gtx 460 is classed as a down grade, then why on benchmarking websites does (looking at passmark specificaly here) a 4870 x2 gets 1537 and a gtx 460 gets 2234 points, dont get me wrong im no mathematician, but looking at those points, it doesnt look like a gtx 460 is on par with a 4870x2. am i not comparing them properly?
There are lies, damn lies, statistics, and then there's benchmarks. Really, the only benchmarks you need to be looking at are ones that tell you how many frames per second a newer card gives you over an older card in game X. The GTX460 is a more sophisticated architecture than the R700 in the 4870x2, and is better optimised for showing off, essentially. Whereas the 4870x2 is, quite frankly, a beast. It's like a chainsaw to the GTX460's scalpel.
4870x2 is a faster card toms hardware has a list for comparison the 4870x2 is above all of the single cards pre 5870 470 480
i see what you mean in that list, all the cards above the 4870x2 are alot of cash, and i suppose logicaly, it would seem silly to spend so much cash for the sake of a small few graphical improvements. i might reconsider it when shogun 2 gets released next year. thanks for your help guys.
Which should be start of next year for ATI or is that just the 28nm 5 series refreshes? I can't remember if a new series has been confirmed or if it's just a big process boost leading to new top end cards like a 5890?