So my computer is going to be fixed and I won't need to buy an actual new one, it has a 700w psu, currently a 9800gtx + and a dual core 2.7ghz processor.

What I'm wondering is if my computer will be fine with a new radeon 6870 and will the CPU bottleneck me and prevent me from maxing out recent games?

Well the way I see it, with that 700W powersupply, you can upgrade all of your parts any way you'd like. And are you saying you want to replace the 9800 gtx with the 6870, or have both at the same time.

The processor shouldn't give you any trouble. How old is it?

I'm going to be replacing the 9800 gtx+ with the 6870, the processor, as far as I know, is about a year and a half old, still working fine.

you might have lower frames than people with triple cores and quad cores but it shouldnt be too much lower. a 6870 would be a good upgrade for that computer.

if you do decide to upgrade your cpu though go with a quad core (intel lga 775 or am3 depending on if you have intel or amd. this conclusion is based on the age you specify)

lga 775 quad cores are still expensive however and you're limitations will likely also be that you have ddr2 ram.

am3 leaves more upgrade room currently than lga 775 and basically my opinion would be to upgrade to a core i5 build if you have intel.

upgrading the gpu first though is a good idea as this will give you the best performance with your current parts.

Yeah, I plan on getting an upgrade from my current 4gb ram to 6gb/8gb ddr3 because I'm pretty sure I have ddr2. I'll also be upgrading my processor, but I wanted the GPU first.


Also, new information.

My computers old 9800gtx+ is completely gone and so is the 600w psu (yes 600w, they made a mistake). I'm going to be buying a new 700w psu and picking up a 6870 from my local shop for sure.

The costs for that will be about 340$ and it will all be in on wednesday. Everything else on my computer is fine and the price for them to put it in themselves (so i don't mess it up) will only cost 30$. So overall the price = 400$.

the CPU will bottleneck you, but you'll still notice a massive improvement.
just make sure your case has enough space to take it

when looking for a cpu, just keep your motherboard in mind.
and 32bit windows only registers 3.2gb ram.

Yeah, I know. I'm getting it done at a -professional- place that is really close to me, I also have 64bit windows and I plan on getting something around a 3.4 ghz quad.

HD 5850 Xtreme (Sapphire) is about the same as HD 6870 , maybe faster at some games. And it's around $150 (lol). Imo, it's more worth the cash than HD 6870 which is >$180.

I don't think you'll need 700W PSU to juice up that spec. 550W is just fine. Though, it may be necessary for future upgrades.

Oh and, HD 5850 won't bottleneck you^^

I got the 6870, great working card so far. Also picked up a new 700w psu.