Is my computer powerful enough for an Ati 6850?

[KKSlider1337]

Hey there,

My PC currently has a 4850, but I would like to upgrade. It's not the most amazing PC all round, and I would quite like to upgrade the CPU at some point because it's just a dual core AMD 5600+, but to do that I'm pretty sure I'll need to upgrade the motherboard. My main concern was that the PSU wasn't powerful enough, it's 650W but I've heard that it's a bit of a rubbish one. I don't understand how it works so you'll have to bear with me Here are the specs:

ATRIX Extreme Power Switching Power Supply 650W ATX12V P4

AC INPUT 95-250VAC 5A 47-63HZ

+3.3V 30A | +5V 30A | +12V DC1 14A | +12V DC2 15A | -5V 0.5A | -12V 0.8A | +5VSB 2.5A |

Do you think this'll take the 6850? I remember hearing that it was relatively low power; the Ati site said a 450W PSU is recommended for my current card, and only a bit higher at 500W is recommended for the 6850. Obviously my PSU is 650W, but someone told me that the rails on it aren't very good or something...

Thanks for your help

 

[NdMk2o1o]

Your +12v rails that provide power to your CPU/GPU etc are weak and can only deliver a max combined wattage of 348, thats why you never buy cheap PSU's cause they don't deliver the power where need which is on the 12v rail for the most part, so the other 300w its claiming is on the 3.3v and 5v lines.

It may be ok, though even a good branded 500w would be miles better.

 

[KKSlider1337]

Thanks for your reply. The PSU came with my PC prebuilt; it originally had a 8800GTS 320mb, and then I upgraded to an Ati 4850. To be honest, the whole damn thing needs upgrading: as I said, a bit of a naff processor, my ram is 4GB but only DDR2 800MHZ, PSU as you say is pretty rubbish, and to improve all of this the motherboard would undoubtedly need replacing too. I really can't afford it all at the mo, though. If you think it's best, I may need to hold off on upgrading until I can afford to do more at once, or buy a whole new PC from scratch lol.

 

[NdMk2o1o]

Well the 6850 doesn't use much/any more power than an g80 8800gts or a 4850 so in that respect you might be fine, though you wont get the full potential out of the card with your cpu, what res do you game at?

 

[KKSlider1337]

At the moment 1680x1050 I believe, but I may even be getting a new monitor that supports 1920x1080. I see your point. May it be wise to be patient for now?

 

[NdMk2o1o]

At the moment 1680x1050 I believe, but I may even be getting a new monitor that supports 1920x1080. I see your point. May it be wise to be patient for now?

It's up to you really, I mean it may be better at 1920x1080 as at that res you are less CPU limited, and then you can upgrade the other bits as you go, so yea. Just depends whether you want to do it a bit at a time or you can hold off to do it all in one go...

 

[micropage7]

i guess the only matter is check it by yourself, branded could be sollution but they usually priced pretty high, not every 'generic' psu performs low, if you gonna use high end vga card just make sure that vga pins has enough power coz they're hungry of power.
But thats true if powerful psu would be better, coz it wont sweat so much on heavy task

 

[Mussels]

definitely need a better PSU, then a better CPU.

 

[Fourstaff]

Graphics card is still good for a midrange pc, follow mussels advice: upgrade PSU, then CPU+mobo(+ram), then graphics card.

 

[Over_Lord]

Hey there,

My PC currently has a 4850, but I would like to upgrade. It's not the most amazing PC all round, and I would quite like to upgrade the CPU at some point because it's just a dual core AMD 5600+, but to do that I'm pretty sure I'll need to upgrade the motherboard. My main concern was that the PSU wasn't powerful enough, it's 650W but I've heard that it's a bit of a rubbish one. I don't understand how it works so you'll have to bear with me Here are the specs:

ATRIX Extreme Power Switching Power Supply 650W ATX12V P4

AC INPUT 95-250VAC 5A 47-63HZ

+3.3V 30A | +5V 30A | +12V DC1 14A | +12V DC2 15A | -5V 0.5A | -12V 0.8A | +5VSB 2.5A |

Do you think this'll take the 6850? I remember hearing that it was relatively low power; the Ati site said a 450W PSU is recommended for my current card, and only a bit higher at 500W is recommended for the 6850. Obviously my PSU is 650W, but someone told me that the rails on it aren't very good or something...

Thanks for your help

It's the Athlon which will bottleneck

 

[ivicagmc]

I had upgraded from X2 5000+ and ati 2600XT, all that on ancient Asus am2+ M3A(Bios update) to PII X3 720 and ati 5770, all that on Chieftec 350W PSU(bit of a overkill but it work t until I had the money to replace it). DDR 2 is not much slower than DDR3, especially if you are using 4 dims in double dual channel. So 500W branded PSU, new CPU and graphics, keep the RAM and try bios upgrade or you can find some cheap am2+ motheboard....

 

[Mussels]

since your questions about the rails got somewhat ignored:


Your 650W has a 14A and 15A rail. thats extremely weak.

My previous PSU, an OCZ 600W had four 18A rails on the 12V line, two of which were dedicated just for video cards.

When you buy a replacement, ignore the total wattage of the unit and instead check the amperage on the 12V lines - get as much amperage as possible, on as few rails as possible.

so 4x18 would be better than what you have, but 2x30 would be better. the reasoning there is that you dont benefit from the extra rails if you dont use them (EG, if you didnt use the extra PCI-E power connectors on the 4th rail, it might as well not be there, taking ~150W of the PSU's capabilities away)

 

[ivicagmc]

four[/B] 18A rails on the 12V line, two of which were dedicated just for video cards.





My Chieftec CFT-14-CS also have 4 18A rails and it's modular. Looks like same OEM: CWT

 

[micropage7]

since your questions about the rails got somewhat ignored:


Your 650W has a 14A and 15A rail. thats extremely weak.

My previous PSU, an OCZ 600W had four 18A rails on the 12V line, two of which were dedicated just for video cards.

When you buy a replacement, ignore the total wattage of the unit and instead check the amperage on the 12V lines - get as much amperage as possible, on as few rails as possible.

so 4x18 would be better than what you have, but 2x30 would be better. the reasoning there is that you dont benefit from the extra rails if you dont use them (EG, if you didnt use the extra PCI-E power connectors on the 4th rail, it might as well not be there, taking ~150W of the PSU's capabilities away)

yeah i forgot bout the rail, if your vga need more power it supplied from 12v rail, so its better if your psu supports that by allocating separated rail on that

 

[n-ster]

the 6850 will still work on your comp... but a smarter thing to do is save your money until you can build a whole new system from scratch

 

[GSquadron]

I mean it may be better at 1920x1080 as at that res you are less CPU limited

Not true

 

[Mussels]

It's up to you really, I mean it may be better at 1920x1080 as at that res you are less CPU limited, and then you can upgrade the other bits as you go, so yea. Just depends whether you want to do it a bit at a time or you can hold off to do it all in one go...

Not true

whoa, how did i miss that.


what the hell logic is that? CPU limitations dont suddenly disappear at higher resolutions

 

[n-ster]

didn't someone even make a thread about how CPU limitations don't just disappear? perhaps a link to that can be helpful

 

[Fourstaff]

what the hell logic is that? CPU limitations dont suddenly disappear at higher resolutions

Nope, it doesnt, but the system will become GPU limited, magically making the cpu limitations disappear.

 

[GSquadron]

didn't someone even make a thread about how CPU limitations don't just disappear? perhaps a link to that can be helpful

Low res gaming needs a faster CPU? nuh-uh.
and what is more here is that it is written by mussels himself

 

[n-ster]

Nope, it doesnt, but the system will become GPU limited, magically making the cpu limitations disappear.

sarcasm right?




I had a hunch it was Mussel's thread but wasn't sure

 

[NdMk2o1o]

Low res gaming needs a faster CPU? nuh-uh.
and what is more here is that it is written by mussels himself

No dipshit, high res gaming needs a faster GPU

 

[Mussels]

No dipshit, high res gaming needs a faster GPU

This is what you said

I mean it may be better at 1920x1080 as at that res you are less CPU limited

You stated that a higher resolution is less CPU limited.

This is false. high res gaming does need a faster GPU, but that doesn't reduce the CPU power required one bit.

 

[NdMk2o1o]

didn't someone even make a thread about how CPU limitations don't just disappear? perhaps a link to that can be helpful

Nope, it doesnt, but the system will become GPU limited, magically making the cpu limitations disappear.

Low res gaming needs a faster CPU? nuh-uh.
and what is more here is that it is written by mussels himself

This is what you said



You stated that a higher resolution is less CPU limited.

This is false. high res gaming does need a faster GPU, but that doesn't reduce the CPU power required one bit.

So ok, the way it's worded is wrong though I never said his CPU is holding him back at his current res, I simply meant that to game at 1080p which he implied he would probably do in the not so distant then he would have to get a better GPU as most dual cores will run games fine yes even his lowly athlon and when you get to a certain res then the CPU wont be the limiting factor it will be the GPU which will stop you playing at that res.

 

[Mussels]

So ok, the way it's worded is wrong though I never said his CPU is holding him back at his current res, I simply meant that to game at 1080p which he implied he would probably do in the not so distant then he would have to get a better GPU as most dual cores will run games fine yes even his lowly athlon and when you get to a certain res then the CPU wont be the limiting factor it will be the GPU which will stop you playing at that res.

if his CPU can handle the games now, raising the resolution wont change much. higher res doesnt use much more CPU power (it can/does however, increase system memory usage a bit)


If his CPU can play the games at 1680x1050: it will play them at 1920x1080

His GPU, is another story.


and a lowly athlon can play many games out there, but not all. if he tried playing supreme commander 1/forged alliance, sins of a solar empire, bad company 2 or any other CPU intensive game then he'll find himself very lacking in CPU power, regardless of resolution or video card he has.