Where do I stand in 2009

[Novercalis]

It's been awhile since I touched my desktop computer and im ready to get back into some serious gaming. However I have a few question to figure out where my rig stands in 2009.

1: whats the most graphic intense game out there today (max setting)? Crysis? Fear2?

2: What is the minimum vid card required to play it? (assuming all 3 scenerio has the proper mobo/cpu/ram)
2b: Which vid card will give me just enough or a bit more (100-120%) resources used - of the requirement to play it max setting?
2c: Which vid card has so much power, that there isn't a game yet that can really stress it out yet or where the vid card only uses 50-80% of it's power?

3: Where does my video card stand today?
4: Where does my video card stand today in (the answer of question #1) - capable, low setting, cant run it....?

5: overall my current rig is considered what in today's standard.

im trying to see if I should even bother upgrading at all.
I will be getting into FPS games - multiplayer (usually I sacrifice eye candy for Frames Per Seconds)
So what can I expect - the things I CANT DO with my current rig...thank you in advance

CPU: AMD AMD Athlon 64 4400+ X2 2200MHz
Motherboard: Epox EP 9NPA+Ultra
Memory: 2048 MB of OCZ pc3200 DDR 400
Video Card: eVGA 7800 GTX Nvidia GeForce
Monitor: Dell 2405fpw
OS: Win Xp SP2

 

[alcoholbob]

Your lowest common denominator is the 7800GTX. A $100 ATI 4850 can more or less handle any game out there at 1920x1200 save Crysis DX10 Very High and Stalker Clear Sky DX10 Full Lightning. Those two games are anomalies. If you pick up a GTX 260 for $160 you are pretty much set with anything I can think of at least until the next console generation (probably 2 years).

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: Novercalis
It's been awhile since I touched my desktop computer and im ready to get back into some serious gaming. However I have a few question to figure out where my rig stands in 2009.

1: whats the most graphic intense game out there today (max setting)? Crysis? Fear2?
Crysis; Stalker Clear Sky, Cryostasis

2: What is the minimum vid card required to play it? (assuming all 3 scenerio has the proper mobo/cpu/ram)
Depends on your settings. A GTS250 512/4850 512 could play them at 12x10 medium settings, but you sacrifice some candy.

2b: Which vid card will give me just enough or a bit more (100-120%) resources used - of the requirement to play it max setting?
Crysis cannot be played at max settings unless you Crossfire or SLI two or more cards, with a very fast CPU. And even then, the frames won't be as high as you think they should be.

2c: Which vid card has so much power, that there isn't a game yet that can really stress it out yet or where the vid card only uses 50-80% of it's power?
Highest power single card you can get today is a GTX295. Some high end two card Crossfire/SLI solutions (two card) compete or exceed a GTX295.

3: Where does my video card stand today?
By today's standards, it is extremely weak.

4: Where does my video card stand today in (the answer of question #1) - capable, low setting, cant run it....?

5: overall my current rig is considered what in today's standard.
By today's standards, your rig is sort of ancient and will not be sufficient to push a high end (or even a current mid range) graphics card.

im trying to see if I should even bother upgrading at all.
I will be getting into FPS games - multiplayer (usually I sacrifice eye candy for Frames Per Seconds)
So what can I expect - the things I CANT DO with my current rig...thank you in advance
If you say your getting into some serious gaming with the latest titles, and if you plan to play them at 16x10 or greater res with as much candy as you can turn on, then you do need to upgrade your platform in a big way. Your CPU will bottleneck most mid-high end graphics cards. Would be a waste of money to throw a high end card in there. NOTE: you will notice an increase in performance if you just upgraded your vid card, but would not realize it's full potential with that aging platform.

CPU: AMD AMD Athlon 64 4400+ X2 2200MHz
Motherboard: Epox EP 9NPA+Ultra
Memory: 2048 MB of OCZ pc3200 DDR 400
Video Card: eVGA 7800 GTX Nvidia GeForce
Monitor: Dell 2405fpw
OS: Win Xp SP2

The only thing I would keep out of your list here, is the Dell 2405fpw. If I am correct, the native res for that monitor is 19x12. You'll need no less than a GTX260 896MB or a 4870 1GB to run satisfactorily at that res. At that res, no 512MB graphics card should even be considered. Even when Crossfired or SLI'd.

The rest of your rig needs to go IMHO.

Budget? Spending limit you had in mind for the whole upgrade?

Keys

 

[Fattysharp]

Keys is right on the money.

If you want to breath some new life into your machine at a low cost, a gts250/4850 is the way to go. The difference will be huge. A friend of mine recently did this with a very similar rig to yours and is still amazed at the difference.

If you are getting back into some heavy gaming, then an entire new rig is needed. Keys asked for a price range, but i would suggest looking at the front page first since a new price guide was posted. This would give you an idea of what is available and at what prices. After checking the guide, you could ask what everyone thinks of your choices.

 

[Barfo]

Originally posted by: Keysplayr
Depends on your settings. A GTS250 512/4850 512 could play them at 12x10 medium settings, but you sacrifice some candy.

The 4850 can play Crysis at high/very high settings at that res. Just saying.

 

[TemjinGold]

1) Keep the monitor.

2) Dump everything else.

3) ??????

4) Profit!

 

[Fox5]

Your video card today is on the lower end of add-in cards. Expect integrated graphics to catch up within a year to a year and a half.
No video card is capable of playing everything maxed out, but Crysis is probably the most graphics intensive. Still, your current setup could play it. Your current setup could not play Grand Theft Auto 4, that game eats cpus for breakfast, you need a quad core.

 

[Novercalis]

--------2c: Which vid card has so much power, that there isn't a game yet that can really stress it out yet or where the vid card only uses 50-80% of it's power?
Highest power single card you can get today is a GTX295. Some high end two card Crossfire/SLI solutions (two card) compete or exceed a GTX295.------------

---------------

Is it even worth having 2 cards? I recall SLI starting up 3yrs ago but I made the assumption of being more of a gimmick and not something gaming industry or video industry would take advantage of and make SLI/crossfire the standard in all computers.
I assume or believe single card is the way to go - am I right on this?


--------
If I was to reupgrade my rig - previously (another thread) I stated 300-500 price range... assuming no change to card; but the card alone I am willing to splurge - around black friday 09.
I recall spending $500 for my 7800 GTX OC - XFX or whatever it was from...

I'll be making a new post later on once I catch up on video cards and figure where all the cards stands today in rankings.
Cause if im going to upgrade everything - I would like to futureproof it to an extent or not having to upgrade until 4-5yrs instead of 3.

But seeing as I CAN play crysis with my current rig apparently (no eyecandy) and I KNOW I can play COD 4 at mid/high settings and FEAR2 mid/high setting, Quake 4 @ high, COD2 max setting - I know my comp aint a PoS yet.

thanks for the info mates!

 

[Fattysharp]

If you want something to last you 5 or so years, than i would not buy a dx10 card, but wait for dx 11 cards to be released later this year. If that might be pushing it since they will be first gen dx11 cards.

 

[s44]

Originally posted by: Fattysharp
If that might be pushing it since they will be first gen dx11 cards.

Considering that the very first DX10 card can still play anything out there, who knows?

 

[joutlaw]

As someone who just upgraded to a 4890 from 7800GTX... it's time for an upgrade.

I'm running a e4300 @ 3.0Ghz and I'm definately CPU bottlenecked, but I'm ok with that.

I'm running a 23" Acer LCD that's 1920x1080 so I needed a new card. The 7800GTX was fine for 1440x900 on a lot of games I played, but after getting that monitor it started showing its age.

I can play just about anything I want to maxed out. Eventually I'll go quad and will really let the 4890 shine.

 

[Dribble]

Rig is not that bad - sure you'll be able to play games like L4D or COD MW with it just not at highest settings and at the monitors native res.
That high res monitor makes it a bit tough - you'll want a 4870 1gb/GTX 260 or better to play at the native res. Another 2gb of memory and a significantly faster cpu would help a lot too. Having done all that you'll probably need to upgrade your psu as well. Hence simplest thing would be to build a new rig from scratch.

 

[Red Irish]

Originally posted by: Barfo

Originally posted by: Keysplayr
Depends on your settings. A GTS250 512/4850 512 could play them at 12x10 medium settings, but you sacrifice some candy.

The 4850 can play Crysis at high/very high settings at that res. Just saying.

Confirmed.

 

[CTA4LC4PON3]

just my opinion im runnin almost the same setup and i do have issues.

my setup
dualcore 4450e
3gb ddr2 memory
antec earthwatts 430
640GB WD Blue HDD
HIS 4850
Acer h233h 1920x1080

now onto the games: (No vsync or AA turned on)

Crysis warhead: I have tryed everything to play "Gamer" but i just cant. i set it to mainstream and it runs very smooth
GTA IV: i lag with everything on Low

Far Cry 2: Max
Ghostbusters: Max
Trine - Max
Bionic Commandp: Max
Call of juarez - Max
Call of duty world at war: Max no vsync but AA is x4

I have alot more games and yes i can max everygame but as you can see I cannot Max gta IV or even crysis. My CPU is a bottleneck and im just not getting what i need from it to use all of my video card.

 

[Denithor]

I recommend starting half-way to a new system.

Buy a 4890 or GTX 275 and a new PSU (Corsair 650HX or similar). Swap those with your current parts. Try out some games.

If you are satisfied with the performance - you're done. Congratulations, you saved some cash.

If however the rig does not meet expectations you will then need to go ahead and replace the motherboard/CPU/RAM and probably HDD (today's drives are much faster than those from four to five years ago).

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Denithor
I recommend starting half-way to a new system.

Buy a 4890 or GTX 275 and a new PSU (Corsair 650HX or similar). Swap those with your current parts. Try out some games.

If you are satisfied with the performance - you're done. Congratulations, you saved some cash.

If however the rig does not meet expectations you will then need to go ahead and replace the motherboard/CPU/RAM and probably HDD (today's drives are much faster than those from four to five years ago).

Unless you are running out of space there is generally no need to upgrade a 4 or 5 year old HD. I just replaced two 4 yr old 150GB HDs with two 500GB WD Caviar Black HDs, and I really can't say I notice a difference in terms of performance. The old drives are 7200RPM/8MB cache and the new ones are 7200RPM/32MB cache, both sets of drives were configured in a SATA RAID 0 array.

 

[Lonyo]

X2 4400+ will horribly bottleneck a new graphics card in newer games.
My X2 4200+ bottlenecked my HD4850 in Fallout 3, then I upgraded to an E5200 @ 3.4GHz and it was all silky smooth.
In slightly older games (e.g. Bioshock) the X2 was alright with the HD4850, but going forwards it's only going to get worse.

 

[Qbah]

Originally posted by: Red Irish

Originally posted by: Barfo

Originally posted by: Keysplayr
Depends on your settings. A GTS250 512/4850 512 could play them at 12x10 medium settings, but you sacrifice some candy.

The 4850 can play Crysis at high/very high settings at that res. Just saying.

Confirmed.

I have no idea what monstrous HD4850s you guys have, but my HD4870 was slaughtered at 1920x1200 Very High no AA. And it's something like 20%-30% faster than the HD4850. So no, Crysis is most definitely not enjoyable at those settings on a HD4850. I'd say 1680x1050 High tops.

Since the OP has a 24" Dell, he's running at 1920x1200. I'd say keys is spot-on with his post :thumbsup: The 7800GTX is as fast as a HD4670. If he has the 512MB version. If not, it's even slower. That CPU is gonna kill performance in new games too. However, with the new Core i5/i7 emerging shortly and DX11 hardware just around the corner, I'd say suck it up for the nearest future and upgrade only once those things come out.

EDIT: Whoops, at 12x10 it will play the game fine with those settings

 

[netxzero64]

you have a similar rig to mine, and I think you should already upgrade your rig if you want to move onto serious gaming because games now and in the future, you would need a rig powerful enough to keep you goin...

1. upgrade or buy a new rig, a quad core processor and ati 4800 series or nvidia GTX 200 series graphics card..

2. keep you monitor

3. prepare for the electric bill =D