Old Gtx 285's SLI still rock socks battlefield 3 maxed! For people on a budget

[Slav2012]

So I was doing some testing with my ancient system and wow after some neat overclocking i managed to get a very nice stable average fps in battlefield 3. So first and foremost all settings were maxed out in 1080p (1920x1080) with max AA,AF,HBAO with offcoarse dx10 because the gtx 285 cards dont support dx11. So the following are my old system specs and the overclocks.

Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.66Ghz - Overclocked to 3.5Ghz

XFX 780i 3way-SLI motherboard - minor bridge overclocking.

Mushkin Blackline 2x2GB DDR2 800mhz - Overclocked to 1066mhz

OCZ Nvidia SLI ready DDR2 800Mhz - Overclocked to 1066mhz

Evga Gtx 285 superclocked edition -

Core clock - 675 MHz to 752MHz

Shader Clock -1548MHz to linked core clock

Effective Memory Clock - 2538MHz to 2672MHz

Inno3D Gtx 285 - Overclocked to same clocks as the evga

So with that in mind I managed to get these scores in multiplayer online mode.

Minimum - Average - Maximum

31.2 Fps 57.8Fps 94.0 Fps

I was really surprised with what I was able to do with this old 2007-2008 system. Ok ye it doesnt match the high end gpus of today my 6970's crush it but I think for someone looking for a budget system could still try and buy some good old second hand gtx 285s. Honestly I really did not even notice the absence of dx11 as the graphics were amazing!.

I know you may be wondering what is the point of this topic, but its just for people who may be on a budget or were looking at any of these items to let them know how it runs. You can put this system together today for maybe $400-600 total, minus operating system> where as in 2008 each of the gtx 285's cost me $600.00+ lol.

 

[Master&Puppet]

That is some good FPS! My only issue is the reliability of buying something secondhand that could be 4 years old. It's a good point though that if you look after your kit and make the right decisions at the start you can keep your kit for a very long time.

 

[yassarikhan786]

Very nice average FPS

So basically you can match a 580's performance in BF3 albeit with dx10. Impressive nonetheless.

 

[seumasbeathan]

On a budget? Really?, That a very expensive system

 

[Master&Puppet]

On a budget? Really?, That a very expensive system

It was a very expensive system. Looking at ebay just now I reckon I could build an AMD 4100 platform with 8gb of ram and 2 GTX 285s for ~£350. Plonk it into an old case, spare psu and boom.

 

[seumasbeathan]

Well not very expensive but similar to a 2500k system with crossfired 6870's, i know what system i would choose

 

[Master&Puppet]

Well accepting that a 2500k build is almost twice the price of a 4100 build there are lots of gpus you can get for £50-100 second hand that will do a good job running modern games. The point of this thread is that you really can just keep using your kit for several years and they still chew through the modern stuff.

 

[seumasbeathan]

I mean a 2500k build apposed to a q9400 build, plus the cheapest I could find a 285 was on ebay from Hong Kong for £120

 

[Master&Puppet]

Really?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ASUS-NVID...raphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW&hash=item3f169d7ccd

£31 with under 2 days to go!

 

[seumasbeathan]

Yeah but im talking buy it now not bidding plus 6 bids already, that will go right up, the cheapest buy it now was a used one for 120 considering you can get a 6850 brand new for 75 which outperforms the 285 i just dont see the point on ever getting one of these

 

[Master&Puppet]

This has got silly tbh, if you are going to use Aria's special deal price for your argument yet ignore the auction price for mine (and use the buy it now which are always more expensive) then we are just going to sit at loggerheads lol.

The point of the thread is that you can still use older kit to run modern games well - it doesn't actually matter what kit is used. The 6850 would certainly be one option of many

 

[seumasbeathan]

Yeah your right, I honestly wasn't ignoring your price mate its just that theres no way to tell how much it will go for, but as you say "The point of the thread is that you can still use older kit to run modern games well" My 5770 is actually capable of playing any games depending on the settings

 

[Master&Puppet]

That's true, though I admit I would have to have a chat with myself if I was considering spending more than about £55 on a 285, if people want to bid more than that then that's up to them! I am intrigued to see how much it goes for now though.

 

[Slav2012]

Odd, I guess prices are a little different on the other side of the world?, Im actually from Australia this system can be put together for about $600.00, and that including all components minus a operating system so Case, fans, psu, cpu, hdd, mobo, ram, gpu, optical, cpu cooler, ect if i missed anything.

I was looking at putting a 3rd Gtx 285 in my old system for three way scaling and there going roughly $70-100.00 Au dollars.

Sorry if prices are different in the UK but still fairly cheap and offers some great results

Thanks for the comments and stuff glad to see people enjoying the topic.

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

I cant find a 285 under $350

 

[Big WigglyStyle]

^ I searched GTX 285 on Newegg to see the price and found the ASUS MARS GTX 285x2 for 629.99USD at first not realizing it was the mars version and was like budget?

 

[demonking]

^ I searched GTX 285 on Newegg to see the price and found the ASUS MARS GTX 285x2 for 629.99USD at first not realizing it was the mars version and was like budget?

just saw this went on new egg and outta stock dam what a bargain if they had one

 

[Big WigglyStyle]

just saw this went on new egg and outta stock dam what a bargain if they had one

that's a bargain? I don't know the performance of the 285 but it better be damn good.

 

[marsey99]

480s are the budget bargains atm.

pick them up for under £150 and they oc very well.

get 2 for less than a 7970 or 680 and get better fps.

 

[Rastalovich]

Some stores flogged them off very cheaply at the end of last year.

These bargain cards are a tremendous pickup.