I feel stupid

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Auggie

Golden Member
Jul 18, 2003
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Backstory:

Right now I'm using my computer mainly for World of Warcraft raiding and general-use computing. I do a bit of (extremely) basic photo editing for work. BUT, I'm on my computer for 6-8 hours a day, so high-res and attractive display is something that I really want.

My rig right now is an AMD64 3000+ with a Radeon 9800Pro (128mb, yeah! awesome!). The beauty of this system has been that it's been able to run World of Warcraft at 1600x1200 with acceptable eye candy for the last three years on my CRT monitor.

But this rig is aging rapidly now, and I've decided to put together a E8XXX box (I'm thinking the E0 stepping E8400 for future-OC-ability). But, everything is secondary to the display:

I want to get a 24" LCD (BenQ G2400WD 24", it's gotten good reviews in the LCD thread here at AT) and right now, I think I'm planning to pair this with a Radeon 3870, which will be more than powerful enough for World of Warcraft (right?!), but probably one of the cheaper cards around that can handle 1920x1200, with eye-candy, if I'm correct in my estimation.

Priorities:

1.) I want to enjoy World of Warcraft @ 1920x1200 with max eye candy.

2.) Budget isn't really that big of an issue - I could go with a $250-300 newly-released Radeon 4870, but I don't really want to waste money, if this setup will get the World of Warcraft and 1920x1200 usage taken care of. If I DO need to spend this money, please tell me, but I think that I do not need to lay out the cash to accomplish priority #1.

Lastly, I'm not a ATi fanboy... if there's an even cheaper GeForce card, I'm all ears, but at the ~$100 mark, it doesn't seem like there's going to be much difference in price/performance.

Sorry, I realize this is rambling a tiny bit, but any advice and input you guys would have regarding anything would be great. You guys are pretty awesome. :D

EDIT: I'll also add that I'll be playing a tiny bit of Rainbow Six: Vegas, some Civ4 (or even Civ 2, hehe).

 
Majic 7

Majic 7

Senior member
Mar 27, 2008
668
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I would get a 4850 before the 3870. I have two and they were good cards last year but the 4850 is a lot more powerful and is about 150 to 180,maybe less with a good rebate. It's about 15 to 20% below the 4870 in regards to power. And a 4870 is about equal to two 3870's. The NVidia 260 is also an option.
 
myocardia

myocardia

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2003
9,291
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Originally posted by: Majic 7
I would get a 4850 before the 3870. I have two and they were good cards last year but the 4850 is a lot more powerful and is about 180>190$. It's about 15 to 20% below the 4870 in regards to power. And a 4870 is about equal to two 3870's.
Click to expand...

Very good advice. You can get the Sapphire 4850 for only ~$170, though (on sale @ the egg), making it an even better choice over a ~$125 3870. Also, I don't see a 3870 giving acceptable framerates @ 1920x1200, with max eyecandy. Hell, a 4850 is going to struggle a bit, but should be able to do it.
 
Majic 7

Majic 7

Senior member
Mar 27, 2008
668
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Caught me while I was double checking prices and trying to sound objective.
 
Avalon

Avalon

Diamond Member
Jul 16, 2001
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If he's able to play WoW at 1600x1200 smoothly with his settings and a 9800pro, I don't see why a 3870 wouldn't be able to run at 1920x1200. He's going to be getting a huge CPU boost as well, which is going to help in that game.

That being said...the 4850 is a beast, and it's not too expensive, so that's an option as well.
 
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Auggie

Golden Member
Jul 18, 2003
1,379
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Thanks for the input. I'll think on this. Hell, just for the "what if" the 4850 might be the best option - what if a new game comes out that actually manages to pull me away from WoW? Probably won't happen, but an extra 30-40 bucks is maybe a worthwhile hedge investment, especially with a monitor running such a large native resolution.

I kinda have this bias against Sapphire, since I bought my Radeon 9800Pro from Sapphire - from the very beginning it had a relatively annoying issue (I think it's called 'tearing') where I see a lot of white spots and white flashes along boarders of some textures. Sapphire didn't want to replace my card, so I've been stuck with that the last 4 years. I'm hoping this isn't an issue with GPU chipsets these days.




 
bryanW1995

bryanW1995

Lifer
May 22, 2007
11,144
32
91
sapphire sucks if you can find a 4850 for a similar price elsewhere. as an example, right now an asus 4850 is $152 AR shipped vs that $149 AR sapphire. I would pick just any partners over sapphire, with visiontek, asus, and gigabyte being the top 3. btw, my sapphire 4850 (it was $15 cheaper damnit!!!) has the reference cooler and has no noise problems whatsoever.
 
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toronado97

Senior member
Dec 30, 2006
264
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Honestly as hard as it is to do (believe me I know), if you can spend an extra 30 or 40 dollars now on a video card, it might keep you from spending another 150 to 200 dollars a year sooner than you would have otherwise. Now is an amazing time to upgrade as many prices are rock bottom.
 
bryanW1995

bryanW1995

Lifer
May 22, 2007
11,144
32
91
yeah, 4850 is enough of an upgrade, especially with AA and with it's newer architecture, that it's almost a no-brainer at this point.`
 
taltamir

taltamir

Lifer
Mar 21, 2004
13,576
6
76
the 8800GT for mere 100$ is faster then the 3870, and a little cheaper.
The 4850 is a better upgrade, as it is much faster then the 8800GT, and not much more then it or the 3870.
 
I

IlllI

Diamond Member
Feb 12, 2002
4,927
11
81
wow is a 4+ year old game. you dont ~really~ need a beast of a video card to run it well. however, wow is a ram hog. the more the better. when i first played wow i started with only 512mb, then eventually upgraded to 1gb and i could immediately tell a difference. sometime later i bumped that up to 2gb and it was even better.
 
taltamir

taltamir

Lifer
Mar 21, 2004
13,576
6
76
well, WOW is constantly updated, especially newer areas, require a bit more.

But yea, wow is a ram hog, ram first. go for 4GB.
 
M

mmnno

Senior member
Jan 24, 2008
381
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0
Originally posted by: Auggie


Lastly, I'm not a ATi fanboy... if there's an even cheaper GeForce card, I'm all ears, but at the ~$100 mark, it doesn't seem like there's going to be much difference in price/performance.
Click to expand...

An 8800GT can be had for $110, is faster than a 3870, and does WoW at 1920x1200 easily with AA on an E8XX. It also does civ4 fine (RAM is more important there), but I know nothing about Vegas.
 
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