Upgrading video cards... do I need a new mobo?Post Date: 2009-01-16 |
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nomec 
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Joined: 26 Aug 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 530 |
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 Topic: Upgrading video cards... do I need a new mobo?Posted: 16 Jan 2009 at 2:22pm |
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I have a 680i A1... I am going to be getting two GTX 280/285's or a GTX 295... my mobo will work with these right? Is there anything I would need to get in order for it to work properly?
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QX6850 @ 3.33ghz
Nvidia 680i A1 4gb pc1066 RAM 2x GTX 275s Vista Home Premium 64-bit |
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MarkNY
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Joined: 13 Dec 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 476 |
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Posted: 16 Jan 2009 at 2:47pm |
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It will work properly. However, your mobo only supports PCI-E 1.0 x16, where as the new cards utilize PCI-E 2.0 x16. Although they are backwards compatible, you may want to check the bandwidth of the cards and compare them to the PCI-E slots in your motherboard in order to make sure you can fully utilize the maximum performance of the cards. I'll look up the info and try to post it here shortly.
Edited by MarkNY - 16 Jan 2009 at 2:52pm |
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nomec
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Joined: 26 Aug 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 530 |
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Posted: 16 Jan 2009 at 2:51pm |
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Man that would suck since I don't know how to install a new mobo and re-do my chip and all that stuff.
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QX6850 @ 3.33ghz
Nvidia 680i A1 4gb pc1066 RAM 2x GTX 275s Vista Home Premium 64-bit |
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MarkNY
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Posted: 16 Jan 2009 at 3:16pm |
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People are discussing the issue at overclock.net:
I doubt it would be a siginificant bottleneck.
For high end SLI and Crossfire, PCI-E 1.x can certainly be a disadvantage, but that's becasue the two cards must constantly share information over the system's PCI-E bus. A dual GPU card has it's own internal connections. PCI-E 1.x 16x should only make a very small difference with any single slot setup, even a GTX 295. Quote:
There is almost zero performance difference with my OCed (7002/1404/1242) GTX 260 in my Blood Iron (PCI-E 1.1) vs. my P5Q-D (2.0) with the same CPU (X3350 quad @ 3.7GHz). And this GTX is faster than a 4850. True, it's quite a bit slower than a GTX295, but a 16x or even 8x PCI-E 1.1 slot has plenty enoug bandwidth to feed data into the card's memory, which is going to be most of the traffic to the card in a single slot setup. Point is, SLI/Crossfire vs. single slot is a night and day difference as far as PCI-E bandwidth is concerned. |
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nomec
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Joined: 26 Aug 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 530 |
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Posted: 16 Jan 2009 at 3:46pm |
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So basically getting two gtx 285's wont work on my vid card? Sorry, a lot of that went over my head! |
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QX6850 @ 3.33ghz
Nvidia 680i A1 4gb pc1066 RAM 2x GTX 275s Vista Home Premium 64-bit |
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MarkNY
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Posted: 16 Jan 2009 at 3:51pm |
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2x 285s will work, but will bottleneck on your current mobo (ie they won't perform to their maximum potential). 1x GTX 295 will run at virtually the same as a pci 2.0, maybe 1 or 2 percent less...
If you are worried about it, you could easily swap in a 780i mobo, which uses 2.0 technology. Its a little daunting at first, but its really not that bad. You just have to go slow and read all the directions. Or you could send your comp to DS for upgrades (I did that before) or take it to a local shop and have them to do. You could also buy the 295 and see how it performs and decide at the time whether it ts worth the extra money to upgrade.
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nomec
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Joined: 26 Aug 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 530 |
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Posted: 16 Jan 2009 at 3:52pm |
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I don't know of any places around here that can do that, nor do I think it will work for me to send my machine all the way out to DS. I think I am screwed.
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QX6850 @ 3.33ghz
Nvidia 680i A1 4gb pc1066 RAM 2x GTX 275s Vista Home Premium 64-bit |
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MarkNY
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Posted: 16 Jan 2009 at 3:56pm |
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my recommendation:
buy the 296 GTX and try it on your current setup. You will notice a HUGE upgrade over your 2x 8800 Ultras (I used to have them in SLI as well). I think you will be able to run all games at max settings and you will find that you don't need to upgrade your motherboard at all.
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nomec
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Joined: 26 Aug 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 530 |
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Posted: 16 Jan 2009 at 4:00pm |
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Okay, so the dual 285gtx's wouldnt be used to the full potential beacuse they are sharing info between two of my pcix1 slots so that is where the bottleneck lies.
However, since the gtx295 is only on one slot, therefore this issue between them won't exist, or at least very minimally?
I just need a card that will last me about 1.5 yrs until I get a whole new rig. I guess since I game at 1920x1200 that dual gtx285's might be overkill, but I like to pump up the AA and I read that the gtx295 suffers because of less vram.
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QX6850 @ 3.33ghz
Nvidia 680i A1 4gb pc1066 RAM 2x GTX 275s Vista Home Premium 64-bit |
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MarkNY
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Joined: 13 Dec 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 476 |
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Posted: 16 Jan 2009 at 4:07pm |
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I use the 4870x2 with 2GB and it runs everything at that resolution perfectly. The 285 is better than the 4870x2. I don't think you would be disappointed. Maybe call DS and see what they think. Im sure they would have an opinion on this matter. |
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nomec
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Posted: 16 Jan 2009 at 4:12pm |
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Do DS techs post on here? I know Alex does, but don't recall if other people from the tech team ever browse. Maybe I can get some input from one of them. |
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QX6850 @ 3.33ghz
Nvidia 680i A1 4gb pc1066 RAM 2x GTX 275s Vista Home Premium 64-bit |
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MarkNY
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Posted: 16 Jan 2009 at 4:57pm |
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I've seen them here from time to time. But I would jsut call if you want a quicker answer.
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DST4ME
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Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758 |
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Posted: 16 Jan 2009 at 5:26pm |
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if you don't have support for pci-e 2.0 you will not be able to use these cards to their full power for gaming.
for your resolution you need a single dual gpu card or a dual sli card. aka 1 x 295 or 2 x 285 |
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nomec
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Joined: 26 Aug 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 530 |
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Posted: 16 Jan 2009 at 6:33pm |
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Okay, well then I will wait a few weeks and see if prices drop on the new cards, and upgrade my mobo/gpu's then. Might get a new CPU cooler while I am at it.
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QX6850 @ 3.33ghz
Nvidia 680i A1 4gb pc1066 RAM 2x GTX 275s Vista Home Premium 64-bit |
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DST4ME
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Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758 |
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Posted: 16 Jan 2009 at 7:56pm |
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sounds like a good plan, just make sure it does not cost much.
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jimbo
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Posted: 16 Jan 2009 at 11:41pm |
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PSU?
What size do you have? This may be the final issue on how much you can upgrade or not....
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Life's too short
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nomec
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Joined: 26 Aug 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 530 |
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Posted: 17 Jan 2009 at 5:44pm |
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Oh, my PSU should be fine, 1000W Thermaltake. Considering these Ultras are beasts I should be able to handle anything.
By the way, I have asked around on a few forums but I keep getting different answers. Some people are telling me that upgrading my cards won't really bottleneck, so I don't know. I guess if I do upgrade my mobo it will increase the longevity of my computer when newer games come out.
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QX6850 @ 3.33ghz
Nvidia 680i A1 4gb pc1066 RAM 2x GTX 275s Vista Home Premium 64-bit |
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jimbo
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Joined: 30 Aug 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 162 |
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Posted: 17 Jan 2009 at 7:54pm |
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I understand the confusion.
It appears there is always a bottleneck in a system. The real problem is trying to get enough info to determine if the upgrade is worth the cost.
 There are many conflicting statements made about where the real bottle neck is when playing games. Most times, except for major advancements, such as occurred in 2008 video cards, the gain of an upgrade is usually low. A couple of frames or 5-10% which may not be even noticed, except for benchmarks.
Just look at some of the charts, even video cards, and then calculate the actual percentage differences.
 Just curious, how much of an increase do you think you will get upgrading?
Frame rates, game settings, etc. It would be great if you or others who have upgraded indicated how much of a real improvement resulted. I don't mean benchmarking, unless it's just bragging rights.
The reason I ask this, is just look at the benchmarks for games and see how individual cards win/lose depending on the game itself.....
P.S. I am planing on getting a new system soon, since mine is a 4 year old HP.
been trying to convince my wife I'm worth about $4k
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Life's too short
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