Thinking about upgrading to a 24" monitor

[Bradtechonline]

I have an

AMD Athlon X2 6400+
4096 MB of memory
Radeon HD 3870 with 512 memory

What do you see being more of a bottleneck for when I upgrade to a resolution of 1920x1080?
Going to be a huge jump for me from 1024x768 lol..

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Both CPU & GPU, but more so the GPU.

 

[Duvie]

Sounds like more for the video forum....

 

[TidusZ]

If you just wanna browse online and see more at that resolution your videocard is good enough. If you wanna play games in more than 256 colours and don't care for slideshows than I'd suggest a video card upgrade. The processor could use an upgrade as well but should get you by for most games.

 

[alkalinetaupehat]

At and above 1680x1050, your proc will be bottlenecking the system in games with any video card setup you use.

I know someone with an AMD Athlon X2 4400+ and dual 8800GT's, and he can't get too far above 55fps in L4D on max settings, vsync disabled.
Ideally you'll upgrade your video and CPU, but if you're on a budget, an 8800GT ($100, several for sale now in FS/FT) or better should be good.
I'm using an 8800GT for now and L4D is fine for me, 1680x1050 max settings and a stable 75fps. Heck FurMark suffered by 5fps compared to my GTX 260.

Edit: 1680x1050 is the resolution of most 22" widescreens. I use one and so I talk from that point of view, the difference between 1680x1050 and 1920x1080 is very little from a pixel-pushing viewpoint, so what works well with one res typically works well with the other.

 

[yh125d]

You should be fine. Granted, you won't be able to play crysis with high settings, but that's enough power to play just about anything at medium to high settings and that res fairly well. As far as what will be the bigger bottleneck, it depends on the game.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

Originally posted by: alkalinetaupehat
At and above 1680x1050, your proc will be bottlenecking the system in games with any video card setup you use.

above 1680x1050, your cpu should be less and less of a bottleneck in games.




ur upgrade depends on what u will be doing on the pc. if games, upgrade the gpu first, if NO games, dont upgrade anything and spend ur money on a nicer monitor

 

[betasub]

The 3870 was once a reasonable mid-high gaming card, so it's had an easy time at 1024x768, pushing 800k pixels. Moving up to over 2M pixels will put a hugely greater stress on the graphics subsystem for gaming, and some games will become a slide show (you'll need to reduce the detail sliders) - however there are plenty of older games that the 3870 will handle just fine at 1920x1080.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: TidusZ
If you just wanna browse online and see more at that resolution your videocard is good enough. If you wanna play games in more than 256 colours and don't care for slideshows than I'd suggest a video card upgrade. The processor could use an upgrade as well but should get you by for most games.

That's a foolish statement. A Radeon 3870 will be able to play many games at 1920x1080, but at reduced settings.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle

Originally posted by: TidusZ
If you just wanna browse online and see more at that resolution your videocard is good enough. If you wanna play games in more than 256 colours and don't care for slideshows than I'd suggest a video card upgrade. The processor could use an upgrade as well but should get you by for most games.

That's a foolish statement. A Radeon 3870 will be able to play many games at 1920x1080, but at reduced settings.

not many modern games on the DX10 pathway

What do you see being more of a bottleneck for when I upgrade to a resolution of 1920x1080?

most 24" monitors are 1920x1200 ,, a bit more demanding than 1080p resolution

The OP's CPU is 'fair' for 19x12 gaming; some games that are CPU dependent will have real issues, however

However, a faster video card is essential for gaming 19x12; 4850 would be a minimum imo; 4870/1GB is better and they are going fairly cheap. A single 4870 is faster than 3870 Crossfire.

of course you can still play demanding games at 10x7 or any resolution in-between with centered timings on your new LCD and give up the bigger screen for performance