New Graphics Card - GTX 660 non Ti or 7850/7870

[Stublerone]

Have a look into the "technical threads" area. You will find a sticky post "recommended settinfs wit 1gb, 2 gb card" or something like that.

This thread also talks about the relations between the components a bit. I know, that somewhere here, a guy talks about the cpu usage turns into bottleneck as soon as 2 cores are not having the same amount of load. When one core tries to work 100%, then the bottleneck is already there. Aim is to have enough ghz to let the cores work on the same level up to perhaps 80%.

[Stublerone]

Your ddr2 could be enough, your cpu has perhaps too low ghz to prevent him bottlenecking.

Ssd is a good choice, even if it is just running on sata300. In normal life, the ssd is not capable of running that much faster. I also wait for updating my cpu and wait for new sata or whatever isnterface will be enlarged to reach more power.

Perhaps it really is enough ti run a ati with 2gb and fast interface to reach your goal. You will see a difference, but you must be aware, that you will brake your new investment with the next component. But this is normal and nearly everyone have such problems, when upgrading step by step.

Anybody ideas about the performances of these 2 cards? If they are nearly the same and ati has the better interface, I would give them a try. The new drivers really made them faster and even battlefield, etc. is no longer nvidia terrain. It is now ati terrain for this generation!

[Sokol1]

Avoid ATI 7970 - are nice card, but not for CloD, with "final Patch" they stuck with the "magic dashed square" graphical bug and flicker a lot (sim faults). Probable same with 7950, since ATI 69xx dont have problem.

http://i48.tinypic.com/1z1wg2q.jpg

I would buy a GTX570, but read the "recommended settings with 1gb, 2 gb card" thread an choose 7970...

Sokol1

[addman]

I was recently in the very same position as you, to upgrade to a 7850 or a GTX 660. Then I changed my mind completely and ordered a TrackIR 5 and a Saitek X-52 instead since I figured those two would make a better improvement for my simming needs than any graphics card BUT since I did a lot of research about the two cards I'll give you my thoughts on the matter.

The answer is easy, GTX 660 if you can afford it. If you can't then the 7850 is a good budget alternative. The 7870 doesn't have as good €/fps ratio as the 660 I'd say so I would rule it out completely. The GTX 660 beats the 7850 in almost everything and gives the 7870 a real good run for it's money. If I had 200€ to put on a new graphics card it would easily be the GTX 660.

[vranac]

I think you will have problems because of slow CPU.You need at least 3.5 GHz CPU and 4 GHz is recomended one.
You may consider buying used q9550 and OC it if your motherboard is capable of doing that.You'll need some aftermarket cooling also.

[Fenice_1965]

Definitely NVDIA better than ATI with IL2. I have GTX 660 with fx8320 amd. It runs CLOD almost maxed out (buildings to medium). Faster than 570 for what I've read. I have some FPS drop within groups of bombers but it is tolerable.
The TI3 gb is probably best choice for CLOD, because it fills 2gb vram in some situations, but costs about 100 euro more and it's quite close in price to 670 4gb, which can be considered almost a no compromise card for CLOD.