SkipCameron
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2012
- Messages
- 14 (0.00/day)
- Location
- Boise, Idaho, USA
I finally built my first gaming PC since 1996 so that I could push my favorite games past their console limitations (I have a PS3). At first everything worked out great as I was able to run Fallout 3 and New Vegas at near maximum settings at 50-60 FPS. However, as I added more and more mods they really started to take a hit, dropping into the low 20s and worse in intensive areas. Because I love my mods I decided to upgrade my system so that it could handle all the high-res texture packs and the like I threw at it. I upgraded my CPU, Motherboard, and went from 4GB of RAM to 8GB about a month before I decided to do one 6870 rather than getting another 5770 to Crossfire.
Much to my disappointment, as I've been benchmarking my new XFX 6870 on Fallout New Vegas I've determined that there is almost no improvement over my Sapphire 5770. To be specific, running around the New Vegas Strip at night (a place I used to get a lot of lag) doing three 30 sec FRAPS benchmarks found that the 5770 averaged 53 FPS and the new 6870 averaged 54 FPS. The 5770 did better than usual in this area probably due to the CPU/Motherboard/RAM upgrades that I made since my last playthrough, but the 6870 didn't make any noticeable improvement over it (and it's A LOT noisier!).
My 5770 is able to run all of my non-Bethesda games just fine, but I'm hoping to get and mod the heck out of Skyrim after all the DLC is out and I can get the complete edition, but if my new 6870 isn't going to improve over my 5770, I might as well send it back. (BTW, my Fallout benchmarks were using only NMCs texture pack and the URWL lighting mod. I have been waiting to add all the others until my new GPU arrived.)
On another note, I ran some Furmark 1.10.1 and MSI Kombustor 2.3 tests, and the 6870 does show a significant improvement over the 5770 (Furmark 1440 x 900 w/ 0 AA: 5770 ran 22 FPS vs. 6870 at 36 FPS; at 8x AA the FPS were 4 and 7 respectively). However, I don't really care if it can test better if it doesn't improve my gaming experience in any meaningful way. It also didn't seem to improve The Witcher 2 much either, though I haven't benchmarked it yet to be sure.
I'm hoping someone can explain what I'm missing here. I mean, I almost bought a 6950 and wonder now if I would be in the same situation, or even if I did the 5770 Crossfire.
Old System Specs:
CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E7500 Wolfdale 2.93GHz
MoBo: Asus P5G41-M LE/CSM LGA 775 Intel G41 Micro ATX
GPU: Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon HD 5770 1GB
RAM: Corsair DDR2 2x 2GB
PSU: Rosewill RD500-2SB 500W
HD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 7200RPM
Monitor: 1440 x 900 Native
New System Specs:
CPU: Intel Core i3-2100 3.1GHz
MoBo: Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 ATX Intel
GPU: XFX Radeon HD 6870 1GB
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaw Series 8GB (2x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600
PSU: Apevia ATX-CB700W
HD: Same
Monitor: Same
I've heard stuff about "CPU bottlenecks" and "RAM bottlenecks" and the like and wonder if something like that might be going on, but nothing I found was very conclusive. I'm kind of a noob at modern hardware (like I said, I've been out of the game since about 1996) and am at a loss. Thanks!
Much to my disappointment, as I've been benchmarking my new XFX 6870 on Fallout New Vegas I've determined that there is almost no improvement over my Sapphire 5770. To be specific, running around the New Vegas Strip at night (a place I used to get a lot of lag) doing three 30 sec FRAPS benchmarks found that the 5770 averaged 53 FPS and the new 6870 averaged 54 FPS. The 5770 did better than usual in this area probably due to the CPU/Motherboard/RAM upgrades that I made since my last playthrough, but the 6870 didn't make any noticeable improvement over it (and it's A LOT noisier!).
My 5770 is able to run all of my non-Bethesda games just fine, but I'm hoping to get and mod the heck out of Skyrim after all the DLC is out and I can get the complete edition, but if my new 6870 isn't going to improve over my 5770, I might as well send it back. (BTW, my Fallout benchmarks were using only NMCs texture pack and the URWL lighting mod. I have been waiting to add all the others until my new GPU arrived.)
On another note, I ran some Furmark 1.10.1 and MSI Kombustor 2.3 tests, and the 6870 does show a significant improvement over the 5770 (Furmark 1440 x 900 w/ 0 AA: 5770 ran 22 FPS vs. 6870 at 36 FPS; at 8x AA the FPS were 4 and 7 respectively). However, I don't really care if it can test better if it doesn't improve my gaming experience in any meaningful way. It also didn't seem to improve The Witcher 2 much either, though I haven't benchmarked it yet to be sure.
I'm hoping someone can explain what I'm missing here. I mean, I almost bought a 6950 and wonder now if I would be in the same situation, or even if I did the 5770 Crossfire.
Old System Specs:
CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E7500 Wolfdale 2.93GHz
MoBo: Asus P5G41-M LE/CSM LGA 775 Intel G41 Micro ATX
GPU: Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon HD 5770 1GB
RAM: Corsair DDR2 2x 2GB
PSU: Rosewill RD500-2SB 500W
HD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 7200RPM
Monitor: 1440 x 900 Native
New System Specs:
CPU: Intel Core i3-2100 3.1GHz
MoBo: Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 ATX Intel
GPU: XFX Radeon HD 6870 1GB
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaw Series 8GB (2x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600
PSU: Apevia ATX-CB700W
HD: Same
Monitor: Same
I've heard stuff about "CPU bottlenecks" and "RAM bottlenecks" and the like and wonder if something like that might be going on, but nothing I found was very conclusive. I'm kind of a noob at modern hardware (like I said, I've been out of the game since about 1996) and am at a loss. Thanks!