Need help deciding on which card.

[BlackDreamz]

I'm in the market for a video card. I'm using onboard right now and would like to be ready for RA3, DoW2, and the long awaited Diablo 3 and SC2. I would also like to be able to play COD 4. I have a 24" monitor so I would like to game at 1920x1200.

I know diablo 3 and SC2 are far from being released so I was thinking of getting something not as expensive now and waiting til those games come out to get a nicer card.

I was looking at the 4850 because that is about in my price range, but I am worried about it being able to handle the resolution. Newegg has a 9800gt bundled with cod4 that i keep looking at. I know it is considerably slower than the 4850, but with the games I want to be able to play, I might be able to get away with it.

A64 X2 5000+ 2.6G AM2 Brisbane
GIGABYTE GA-MA78G-DS3H RT
OCZ Platinum Revision (2 x 1GB) SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
COOLER MASTER eXtreme 500W ATX
Lite-on 16x DVD ROM
Western Digital 80 GB 8mb Cache
Audigy 2 ZS



Thanks for any help

 

[Denithor]

9800GT is still a decent card but it's starting to show its age and it really isn't powerful enough for newer games at 19x12. If you want a card that will run that resolution in today's games you are going to need at least a GTX 260 or a 4870 512MB.

A hint: read up on the Microsoft Cashback program in the hot deals forum (or just go to www.live.com/cashback for details). Use that to save 30% on a video card at eBay. You can probably get a 260 or 4870 for $150-175 by taking advantage of this program.

 

[poiZin]

Hello. For the record, a 4850 is a great card for the price. I have been able to play Crysis warhead on max settings @ 1280x1024 and some antialiasing and anisotropic filtering with very decent framerate. The max resolution a 4850 can handle is 2560 x 1600, so you are fine @ 1920x1200.

Now, all RPG type games run with no problems @ 30 frames per second. First person shooters you want to aim for about 60FPS for smooth gameplay and not have to worry about dying due to your card suffering to draw textures.

You mentioned you wanted to be able to play COD4. I run COD4 @ over 85 frames per second on my GeForce 8600GTS which has 32 stream processors. The Radeon 4850 advertises 800 stream processors. Dont get too excited though, because AMD and NVIDIA think differently about how to mention stream processors. In NVIDIAS eyes the 4850 would have about 160 stream processors, which is still a lot more than 32.

You say you want to get a 4870 but you want to wait until some specific games come out. Well my friend, time is money, and if youre going to get a card now, get the card you want now. But still for the types of games you play I think a 4850 will have you more than satisfied for a good while.

If you do decide to go with a 4850, good choice and here is your link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102770

Hope this helps.

 

[Denithor]

COD4 @ 1920x1200
Crysis @ 1680x1050

Note that the 8800GT in those charts is the same as the 9800GT you're considering. If anything games are going to get tougher on video cards. 9800GT is already slow in some games. Unless you want to upgrade within six months you should really get a stronger card (and as I said above, something stronger than the 4850).

 

[poiZin]

Originally posted by: Denithor
COD4 @ 1920x1200
Crysis @ 1680x1050

Note that the 8800GT in those charts is the same as the 9800GT you're considering. If anything games are going to get tougher on video cards. 9800GT is already slow in some games. Unless you want to upgrade within six months you should really get a stronger card (and as I said above, something stronger than the 4850).

Yes, eventually games do get tougher on cards, that is given. However the engines that are used for games do not drastically change that often.

If you do always get the newest First Person Shooter as soon as it comes out, then maybe you should get something better, but if you're like me and actually play the same game for a while so that you can get the full experience and become active in the games multi-player scene (I still play COD4 multi-player more than anything else, and I own Warhead) then I would still recommend a 4850. With that said, if you don't mind paying more I would get something better.

Basically it is your money, spend it wisely, especially with today's market

 

[sgrinavi]

I think you are going to find that the rest of your system will bottleneck anything more than a single 4850....

 

[scruffypup]

The 9800Gt is more comparable to the 4850 than given credit. It is only once you get to 1920x1200 settings with AA that the 4850 tends to pull away overall. The 4850 tends to maintain its speed with higher AA, while the 9800Gt will fall off at this point.

Now you stated you will game at 1920x1200,... there is about a $30 minimum price difference from the 9800GT to the 4850. You also stated the 4850 is in your budget, so I would definitely go with that, it will give you more satisfaction gaming on a large monitor with 1900+ resolution and being able to use AA while maintaining acceptable frame rates. Going with the 9800GT you would have to sacrifice some AA or some frame rates to keep pace.

Those who are with a 19"-20" monitor, gaming at 1280 or 1650 max, and 4x AA is fine,... a 9800GT would be more than enough and little difference would be seen between the cards.

A good comparison of 4850 to 8800GT (very close to what a 9800GT will do, though the newer 9800GTs should be close to shipping all 55nm and can be clocked a bit higher than the 8800GT)
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/...D=on&prod%5B2074%5D=on

 

[BlackDreamz]

Thanks all for your help. I'm going to buy the Sapphire 4850 today.

 

[poiZin]

Glad to help. Let us know how you like it! And if you ordered it through newegg through my link, Try to write a review after you use it for a good period of time, you wi ll help out lots of people there too