Should I upgrade my video card (to a 4850) now?

[Infohawk]

I have an Athlon 64 3000+ w/ 1 gig of ram.

Right now I have a an nvidea 6600 which is not adequate to play some games even on pathetic settings.

My monitor is 20 inches, 1600x1200 native. I don't plan on upgrading this anytime soon.

I'm waiting a while before I build my next system. My question is, will I see all the benefits of an ATI 4850/4870 or would I just better off waiting a while?

Also, I have an nvidia mobo chipset. Will that be an issue if I get an ATI video card?

 

[Concillian]

well a 4850 will help you to max out the rest of your platform. While you will ultimately be limited by your CPU and RAM, it will unlock performance that your 6600 wasn't able to provide, and you will be able to take it with you when you get around to upgrading your platform.

You may consider something more on the order of a 9600gt or HD4670 just to keep that much more in the piggy bank for your eventual mobo / CPU / RAM upgrade. That's a savings of around $75, which is a little less than half of what is needed to get a decent CPU + RAM + mobo upgrade.

I think you'll find that a single core CPU is almost as limiting as your 6600. Most modern games will take decent advantage of dual core CPUs.

 

[edplayer]

You will see some of the potential of the 4850 but you are limited by cpu and ram. I really like/agree with Concillian's suggestion:

Originally posted by: Concillian
You may consider something more on the order of a 9600gt or HD4670 just to keep that much more in the piggy bank for your eventual mobo / CPU / RAM upgrade. That's a savings of around $75, which is a little less than half of what is needed to get a decent CPU + RAM + mobo upgrade.

 

[Infohawk]

Thanks. But if I get a 4850 won't it good for my new system (6-12 months from now)?

Can the 9600gt run mass effect / stalker with high settings on a 1600 x1200 with my system?

 

[edplayer]

Originally posted by: Infohawk
Can the 9600gt run mass effect / stalker with high settings on a 1600 x1200 with my system?

Can your A64 3000+/1GB of ram run those games at high settings with any videocard?

There will be better/cheaper cards than the 4850 in 6~12 months. Futureproofing is a waste of money. The percentage you will lose reselling a 9600GT/4670 will be a lot lower than reselling a 4850 six to twelve months from now.

 

[vj8usa]

Mass Effect is very CPU hungry. When walking around the citadel, my framerates hover in the mid-high 20s at times, entirely because of my CPU (with rig in sig). Your CPU will fare far, far worse. Your low RAM won't help matters a bit, either.

If I were you, I'd entirely overhaul that rig and put in a cheap dual core (E5200 comes to mind; it's very OCable) along with a new vid card. I wouldn't recommend buying a new video card without upgrading your CPU.

 

[yh125d]

I'm assuming your 6600 is pci-e?

I would recommend picking up a $50-60 8600GT, to tide you over until you can afford a whole rig upgrade. Anything more than that would be so bottlenecked by your CPU/ram theres not much of a point

 

[Bman123]

You are so cpu limited man it isn't even funny.
I honestly feel a hd4850 is gonna be a big waste.You will probably get the exact same framerates that you are getting now but you will be able to max AA/AF and ingame settings.

I had a hd4850 once.I went from a 8800gt to the hd4850 on a am2 5000+ 64x2 rig.
I seen no framerate improvement but I could max out the settings on most games.

You need a upgrade.The good thing about the upgrade now is that i7 is out.Alot of people are upgrading to i7 so you should be able to find a good c2d or c2q cpu,mobo,and ram combo for a decent price.

 

[Denithor]

Keep in mind you can upgrade your whole system for about $160:

Intel e5200 $83
Asus P5KPL $55
Kingston 2x1GB DDR2-800 $24

Then add a 4830 ($85AR) and you'll be enjoying games like never before.

And edplayer was exactly right in saying not to buy a video card to carry forward into a future build. In a year these cards will be low end and will cost half what they do today.

 

[Ileader36]

A good example would be my old vs new system.

Old system - Asus p4p800dlx with (single core) pentium M 740@2.72ghz with Powercolor HD3850 AGP

in this setup, my cpu was the limiting factor as the hd3850 was too powerful for it, and consider that the cpu was a lot more powerful than
Your A64 3000+, and the hd3850 not as powerful as a hd4850

New setup as in sig, I have completely maxed out the video card, so am now GPU limited instead of CPU limited.

 

[edplayer]

Originally posted by: Denithor
Then add a 4830 ($85AR) and you'll be enjoying games like never before.

Nice find.

I am happy with my 9600GT but that price is very tempting. I have a mild case of upgrade-itis but its partially under control!



Infohawk, just for reference, the 9600GT supposedly listed for $180 when it came out in Feb 2008. I bought mine in September for $60 AR. That is an extreme example but it should remind you of how much computer parts drop in price.

 

[imported_Graphite]

G'Day Infohawk,

Since my system has/had similar specs to yours, I can let you in on a few hints...

New games, like Mass Effect, Supreme Commander, Crysis etc don't like single-core CPU's much.

From my experience, I upgraded from an X1600 Pro (similar power to your 6600) to an HD2600 XT. With most of my games I was very happy with the speedup, until I got a few newer ones. My best example was NFS ProStreet - it was horrendous in framerate, no matter what settings, so you couldn't even drive straight.

Then a friend lent me an Athlon X2 to try in my rig, and WHOA, suddenly it was playable!

This means that even an 'average' card like the 2600XT or 8600GT is somewhat bottlenecked in many new games today with CPU's like yours or mine; games are finally being multi-threaded, and the older CPU's don't like it much.

Therefore, I don't recommend upgrading to a Radeon HD4850 with your current system. Frankly, don't go higher than a 9600GT or 4670, you'll be wasting your money on performance you won't be able to see, sadly. You'll find some good prices on the latter two though!

This means that when you do the big replacement, you CAN afford the 4850, or whatever is the best power/money card at the time of upgrade. Just be wise about your choices - no point in buying the newest/shiniest product, it may not be worth the premium

Good luck with your PC!

 

[zerocool84]

I don't think his system even meets the minimun requirements for games now-a-days

Edit:
Actually I just read games like Fallout 3 and Unreal Tournament 3 and he does indeed meet the minimun requirements but I'm sure it won't be pretty.

 

[Denithor]

The bigger problem is these days the minimum requirements are only mentioned with the expectation of running at low resolution and low quality settings. Under those conditions, yes the game is technically playable -- but you won't enjoy it and certainly won't be getting your money's worth out of it.

 

[Infohawk]

Thanks for the great responses guys. Seriously, they are all very helpful.

It sounds like it's just time to upgrade everything. It's been four years for this rig, but on the other hand I'm having more general issuesissues with upgrading for PC gaming only when everything else works fine. I'd love to hear your responses to that thread.

It's not so much the money as the market right now. Even if i7 is not that great for gaming as people say, it seems like the core2duo platform is on its way out. If I learned anything from this build, it's that you can't futureproof (e.g., I never got around to upgrading the socket 939 mobo.), but at the same time I wish I had bought something a little better than a 6600 in 2005.

 

[edplayer]

Originally posted by: Infohawk

It's not so much the money as the market right now. Even if i7 is not that great for gaming as people say, it seems like the core2duo platform is on its way out.

Of course its on its way out. Thats what happens to all tech.

Some people think they have to get i7 cause its the latest. I saw it differently. I upgraded to S775. I think that buying a mature platform when a new one comes out is a good buy because you get proven parts at great prices. You can see many benchmarks on the i7 and make up your own mind if its worth it. My previous computer was an Athlon XP. Older than yours. It was also working just fine. It was just starting to show slight signs of slowdown when doing some forms of my light multi-tasking (I reformatted at least once a year).

I didn't even intend to buy a separate videocard because I only game around 10~15 hours a month. But I got this problem with seeing stuff on sale so I picked up a 9600GT for around $60. I ended up spending around $1000 but I went from a 17" Samsung to a 22" Samsung. Antec Sonata III ($50), E7200/ECS motherboard combo ($99 for both), 4GB of DDR2-800 ($40, bought this a little too early), 3 hard drives (160GB boot drive, 6400AAKS and a 1.5TB Seagate), Pioneer DVD burner ($50) and a Sony Bluray ROM ($80). Also got a HP Laserjet P1005 ($50) and a new desk ($40). That's about $920 before taxes and with the monitor, printer and desk.

I don't upgrade that often so I didn't mind spending that amount this time. I can still upgrade my videocard and step up to a Q9550 if I want to. Don't see the need at this time (though when Fry's had the Q9550/ECS combo for $230 I was very tempted). I still will buy new speakers and will probably spend really close to half of what I spent so far on the speakers/amp and sub (or at least $250 if I get monitors and a sub).

 

[Infohawk]

When did you move from Athlon XP to S775?

 

[edplayer]

around September of this year