ASUS 670 GTX - Can and Should I buy this!????

[Ransome]

This is my current system:
Win 7 64 bit. DX11.
Intel Core2Extreme CPU X9650 @ 3.00 GHz (4 CPUs).
4 GB of DDR2 RAM (Gskill)
Motherboard: Nvidia Nforce 780i SLI (pcie 2.00 slots)
Current GPU: ATI Radeon HD5880

Want to buy: Asus GTX670-DC2T-2GD5 (its the OC version of the 670GTX - and it's pcie 3.00 card)

Can I upgrade my card to 670 GTX- or will I be severly bottlenecked? How much of a performance boost will I gain?
Will the pcie 3.00 670GTX even work on the pcie 2.00 slots of my motherboard? will there be a bottleneck and performance drop on the pcie 2.00? I have heard some controversies about this..

I was hoping to upgrade my graphic card in order to enjoy high and smooth FPS and better visuals on new games, without the need to upgrade my entire system yet.

Please help! I'm eating myself over this.
Should I buy this card?????

[Arne Saknussemm]

Can you buy it?......check the piggy bank!

Should you buy it? ......The card will work as/at PCIe 2.0 ( not 3.0 of course) on your board. At the moment with one card there is virtually no difference between running 2.0 and 3.0. Look at it this way if the card is better than your system it will not be a limiting factor and will let your system run at max. If you are going to upgrade only the card and want to wait a couple of years before you upgrade the rest of the system then maybe it is not such a good idea. If you will be upgrading the rest in 6 months, then why not, the card will go into the new machine and still be current.

I think a Q9650 will not "severely bottleneck" the card but probably will limit it somewhat...

[Ransome]

My CPU is X9650, if it changes anything.
Anyway, I don't know about upgrading..
I was simply hoping to get steady 60 FPS + in all games, with maximum settings. Because currently I get 43 +/- FPS on the outdoors of Batman Arkham City and less on some tight fights.. although it can go higher.

Should I go for it?
And should I take that ASUS card (the "top" version)? or go with EVGA, just asking?

Also, my current monitor displays at1920 X 1200.

[Arne Saknussemm]

My CPU is X9650, if it changes anything.

Changes it some.....have you tried overclocking it to 4.0 GHz that will give you a bump in FPS and mean less of a bottleneck

Batman is also an NVIDIA game so I imagine the change of camp would give a lot of benefit like double the frame-rate when not CPU limited at your resolution.

*whispers* personally evga

[Ransome]

Thanks.
Well, no I haven't tried OC the CPU.
Mine is @ 3.00 GHz at default.
How do I overclock it safely?
Can you give me a proper guide, so I won't end up frying it?

[Arne Saknussemm]

This is a good intro if you read through the whole thing you will see what you have to look out for RE temperatures (VRM and CPU etc) Cooling these two will be the main concern.

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct...8PmwBtPH1UUoUA

But I'm sure there is no absolute need to overclock....just an idea. don't do it if you're not sure about it.

[Ransome]

Hey man, thanks for the help.
It cool, this article you've shown me is about the exact CPU I use.
I haven't had the time to walk through all of it. But on the 3rd page, it says you can reach a very stable 3.6 at 1.16 V or even 4.0 at low 1.28.
Now I dont know what this means, but it sounds like it safe to go...say..: 3.8 or 3.9 even.
Should I give it a try?

Btw, I don't have watercooling, I bought a large "Vendetta" CPU fan to replace the factory fan (attached some thermal greeze back then) and I guess its ok.

On idle DESKTOP my CPU temp' is at 43 C, or 110 F (according to "gamebooster").

Can you perhaps give me a quick tour of the basic steps to do the OC with CPU-z?
Thx.

[Zka17]

So, you have 43C on idle at 3GHz? At decent ambient/room temps that's not good... not at all!

What exactly do you mean by "I bought a large "Vendetta" CPU fan to replace the factory fan (attached some thermal greeze back then)"? What is your exact CPU cooler model?

Do you have a good airflow in your case? Without that, even the best CPU coolers (the air coolers) are just a dead weight in your system...

[Silver Wolf]

Depending on how old the system is and how long since you last cleaned it out then getting the dust out of it can make a huge difference especially in older systems. The best way to do this if you are confident in doing it yourself is going out and buying a can of compressed air from your local computer store and taking the parts off the board and blowing them out. Otherwise if your not confident take it to your local computer store and get them to do it for you they may even overclock it for you as well if you want.

[Ransome]

Well, my fan is Thermaltech i7 fan + heatsink. Yup thats the name.

It is also set in manually in bios to 100%.
I have just cleaned my cpu using compressed air (was kinda lousy but it help some) and some hand-helf wind blower and towel
It's fairly clean now.
Temp dropped a fair bit. Now I OC my CPU from 3.00 to 3.5.
idle temps are: 34, 34, 47, 47 C. Of course some excess can rise it.
On a tight Batman AC fight, my temp rise to 63/63/68/70 more or less.

Also I wanted to ask you, my DDR2 ram is kinda slow says its 400 Mhz, and and runs maxium on 533.
Should I buy the fastest DDR2 RAM my mobo can have? and how much ?