Skyrim Graphics Upgrade Needed!

[ChiefWizard]

Ok, so I am in need of a graphics update in the near future. I have recently become a huge fan of Skyrim, and my 5770 is just not cutting it, I can play on ultra with everything maxed out, but my fps drop too much for my liking in a lot of areas of the game.

I have the opportunity to buy a GTX 480 for $200 (though it would force me too switch the psu out of my other machine to support this monster - its a 700W).

Or, should I just buy the hd6870?

Any other suggestions are welcome of course, but I can't afford to buy a GTX 580.

Thanks in advance

 

[Gordo74]

I play Skyrim on Ultra with a 6870 at 1080P at around 30FPS. Good enough for me.

 

[ChiefWizard]

Its there any compatible card at around the $200-250 range that outperforms the 6870?

 

[Monkeybags]

Gtx 480 is the third best graphics card out there right now according to geekbench. Im using it right now and getting crazy fps in games

 

[LeHaM]

I use a asus gtx 550 ti CU overclocked to 1030mhz i can run skyrim on ultra with a HD texture mod fine and this is on a core2duo! with 4gb of very cheap ($25) ddr3 ram using a fairly slow hdd.

 

[Gordo74]

Its there any compatible card at around the $200-250 range that outperforms the 6870?

The 5870 is the only card that outperforms the 6870 that is compatible with OSX out of the box. The problem is, they are discontinued, but you can find them used for about $175.

 

[ChiefWizard]

Thanks for the reply's everyone, just a quick question here, I've found a gtx 560 ti 448 cores for cheap and it will run on my psi, so before I decide between it and a 5/6870 anyone have any objections to this card? Looks like it works with the NVIDIA hal100 ktext and graphics enabler=yes....

 

[Gordo74]

Are you sure the higher core version is compatible? The performance on OSX wont be as good as a 5/6870, but the Windows performance will be slightly better with the 560Ti enhanced core version over the 6870. About on par with the 5870.

 

[ChiefWizard]

Are you sure the higher core version is compatible? The performance on OSX wont be as good as a 5/6870, but the Windows performance will be slightly better with the 560Ti enhanced core version over the 6870. About on par with the 5870.

I don't really care much about its performance in OSX, just that I have some acceleration and can drive 2 monitors, I only do web, music, and game development on OSX, so I only need a lot of graphics power in windows for games. But ill look into the compatibility

Random thought, is there a way to leave my hd5770 in the 2nd pcie slot and have OSX only initialize that card? I know I can have both connected in windows and use the 5770 purly as a slave, to accelerate some applications, while having the 560 as the main graphics card.

 

[ChiefWizard]

Just to update everyone, I went ahead and picked up an Asus 560 ti 448 core DCII http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121480
(though I bought mine at a local sale).

Everything seems to be working fine with user DSDT, GraphicsEnabler=Yes and the Nvidia ktexts from Multibeast (note i did not do a clean install, just re-ran multibeast). Though I don't know how much acceleration I'm getting.... I have the feeling it's a lot less then what I'm getting in windows, but everything runs cool and works so I'm happy

On a side note, I could not get things to work with my old hd 5770 in the 2nd pcie slot, so I can't use HYDRA in windows and had to settle for just using VIRTU.

Forgot to mention this is on a dual monitor setup using both DVI outputs.