Don't laugh, I'm finally going to upgrade from my x850

[LightningRider]

Supreme Commander runs fine on dual cores as well. And I agree about the 3850.

 

[kmmatney]

No way you'll get much improvement for $100 over an X850. I have one as well - it really isn't a bad card. For some reason (and you can verify this on Tom's VGA charts) it was a great card for Oblivion. It also should play command and conquer fairly well - I've played the demo on my card and it ran well.

It does choke a bit on the latest games, but you need to at least go to an 3850 too see a real jump. As a general rule, you really should only upgrade when you can double your performance. The only jump that makes sense is to a 3850 or the 8800GT 256 MB (when available).

 

[kmmatney]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation

Originally posted by: CP5670
Both of those games are RTSs and rather CPU dependent, although with a video card that old you may be more limited there.

In fact only 1 of those games is CPU dependent.

Supreme Commander CPU scaling
vs.
C&C 3 CPU scaling
X2 4600+ will hardly bottleneck C&C3

C&C 3 GPU scaling
Supreme Commander GPU scaling

Something like 8600GTS or X1900XT will provide a significant boost over X850 series. However, you might want to save for HD3850 series.

For that sized resolution you're gonna need a 512MB card

Very few games (i.e. World in Conflict, Company of Heroes and Crysis) actually benefit from 512+mb of ram at 1600x1200. For the abovementioned games an 8800GTS 320mb will provide playable gameplay at 1920x1080 as neither is memory limited.

In fact, you should recheck your benchmarks because at 1600x1200 8800GTS 320mb easily keeps up with HD2900XT and even outperforms it - Benches

The limiting component today at 1600x1200 is generally GPU performance. By the time most games require 512mb at this rez to play smoothly, no GPU today will be fast enough.

Good post :thumbsup:

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: Rottie
I had X850 for a year to X1950 3 months ago I was hoping for huge performance but I don't see much I don't know if HD 3850 will give you more performance.

I went from a X800 XL to a HD 3850, and it was a HUGE difference. I don't have Supreme Commander, but C&C 3 runs great, and I have a X2 4200+ on S939, which isn't as good as yours. Don't worry about the processor, it is really plenty for those games - at least it is for me. I only run at 1280x1024 though, so you may have a different experience than me. The new video card was definately worth it to me.

 

[CP5670]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation

Originally posted by: CP5670
Both of those games are RTSs and rather CPU dependent, although with a video card that old you may be more limited there.

In fact only 1 of those games is CPU dependent.

Supreme Commander CPU scaling
vs.
C&C 3 CPU scaling
X2 4600+ will hardly bottleneck C&C3

C&C 3 GPU scaling
Supreme Commander GPU scaling

Something like 8600GTS or X1900XT will provide a significant boost over X850 series. However, you might want to save for HD3850 series.

You're right, it looks like C&C3 doesn't stress either subsystem much at all. I knew that it hardly benefits at all from video cards beyond a point (largely due to the very low framecap) but it seems to be the same with CPUs. Although as a general rule, RTSs do tend to be more CPU dependent than FPSs.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: kmmatney

Good post :thumbsup:

Thanks. Kmmatney you looking to upgrade as well? :beer:

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Supreme Commander murders GPU less than CPU, but I'm running it on an old X600 and Pentium D with no real problems, double-digit FPS until things really start blowing up. It's a great game BTW, too bad the system requirements are too steep for most people with last-gen computers.

 

[Arkitech]

thank you guys for all of the suggestions and recommendations, I think I'm going to wait a bit and save a few more dollars. Income tax refund time is just around the corner and now that my wife and I have 2 babies I should see a huge return.

A couple of questions though, if I went with a 3850 how big of a power supply would I need?

My other question is directed towards SupCom players, I read on the forums there that using onboard reduces game peformance. Can anyone here attest to that?

 

[Rottie]

Originally posted by: nemesismk2

Originally posted by: Rottie
x1800xt is not very fast card I know x850xt raped x1800xt

x1800 xt vs x850 xt

x1800 xt = 1330
x850 xt = 972

This makes the x1800 xt 27% faster than the x850 xt!

if you say so then ok

 

[taltamir]

Actually its toms hardware that says so... and they are quite right...

This is a better chart:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/...1&model2=741&chart=318

Also notice that there is a 512MB version of the x1800XT that is even faster still.