X1950 Pro to a HD 3850?

[judasmachine]

I don't want to ask the girl for a huge Xmas present, so I decided I'd ask for a HD 3850. I read a lot of reviews and it looks good, but I would feel a lot more comfortable with you guys giving me a thumps up. I'm no fanboi, but I have had a GeForce since my old 300 Ti. So I would like to stick to AMD/ATI, but I'll switch if the sub $200 crown belongs to nVidia.

Specs:
e6300 OCed to ~2.2 GHz
4x512MB DDR2 6400
Gigabyte P965-DS-S
RADEON X1950 Pro PCI-E

EDIT: I use an LG Widescreen 19" which has a max resolution of 1440x900, so I don't need a HUGE resolution, just playable at about that resolution.

 

[taltamir]

Right now there is huge price gouging, so it might behoof you to wait a bit... then again if you see a good deal nabbing it might be better. The 8800GT 256MB is MSRP 180-200$ and it currently gets priced gouged at newegg to 209$ +6$ shipping. It is less then 1% slower then the 8800GT 512MB EXCEPT for very high resultions with AA on newer games (ie, bioshock at 1920x1200 res with ultra settings).
In fact with a few rare exceptions of very high AA and res combinations on newer games then the 8800GT 256MB beats the 3870 (you read it right, not the 3850, the 3870 with the 512MB)...

If you can get it for MSRP then it is the best bang for the buck right now... unless you managed to get on the dell preorder deal for 207$ 512MB GT while it lasted...

http://en.expreview.com/?p=64

One word of caution. This is the only review out yet of this product, and it doesn't show crysis or WIC performance.. it does show bioshock though where the card falls compared to the 512MB cards... And while it beats the 3850 soundly in every test, it does loose to it by a lot in 1920x1200 ultra settings bioshock. (it wins by a lot at any lower resolution and at any resolution in every other test though).

That being said. AMD is gonna slash prices on their cards to match. So again, it really all depends on how much it costs and what kind of resolution you have.

 

[madh83]

Looks like things just got more interesting, I hope this is the catalyst for lower prices all around. Those old 7900GS cards have been or even moved up price ranges since over a year ago, seems almost ancient.

 

[SilentRunning]

Originally posted by: taltamir
Right now there is huge price gouging, so it might behoof you to wait a bit... then again if you see a good deal nabbing it might be better.

Is $159.99 for HD3850 considered price gouging?

 

[taltamir]

no... 209 for a 256MB 8800GT is price gouging.
189 for a 3850 is price gouging...
270 for 3870 is price gouging...
330 for 8800GT 512MB is price gouging...

Heck... ALL the GTS, GTX, and Ultra products are way overpriced right now, they are old outdated and with the exception of GTX and Ultra obsolete (those two still win in performance... but are not justified unless you have tons of money)

 

[judasmachine]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102714

This is what I was looking at, and of coarse, it's out of stock.

 

[madh83]

Why don't you just get one of the others?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814161211

 

[SilentRunning]

Originally posted by: madh83
Why don't you just get one of the others?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814161211

I pm'd him earlier about another one too.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

what about the performance increase?

 

[whistleclient]

Originally posted by: judasmachine
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102714

This is what I was looking at, and of coarse, it's out of stock.

it's back in stock

 

[fleabag]

Originally posted by: Inspector Jihad
what about the performance increase?

The $200 won't justify the performance increase in my opinion.

 

[tuteja1986]

MSI 3850 256MB for $169 is worth the upgrade.

 

[fleabag]

Look, you'll have to decide whether or not this card is worth $170-$200 for an incremental upgrade.
http://firingsquad.com/hardwar...ance_preview/page4.asp

Yes this card is faster than the X1950pro but considering neither the 3850 card nor the card you have can play crysis (a current gen game) at 1280X1024 with 0AA shows that this would be a waste of money since you can't get good performance in a current generation game without turning down some settings..
http://firingsquad.com/hardwar...iew/images/cry1280.gif

I'd just wait if I were you, however if you can make back enough money to pay for this in full (and then some) then I'd say go ahead.

 

[whistleclient]

Originally posted by: fleabag
Look, you'll have to decide whether or not this card is worth $170-$200 for an incremental upgrade.
http://firingsquad.com/hardwar...ance_preview/page4.asp

Yes this card is faster than the X1950pro but considering neither the 3850 card nor the card you have can play crysis (a current gen game) at 1280X1024 with 0AA shows that this would be a waste of money since you can't get good performance in a current generation game without turning down some settings..
http://firingsquad.com/hardwar...iew/images/cry1280.gif

I'd just wait if I were you, however if you can make back enough money to pay for this in full (and then some) then I'd say go ahead.

Those FPS were done on Catalyst 7.10 drivers-- didn't they release an ATI hotfix for Crysis based after the 7.11 drivers? I wonder if it helped FPS any...

 

[nemesismk2]

Here in the UK the 3850 is very good value for money at around £100. Nvidia can't touch it because there is nothing in the 8800 range which is either instock or even close to £100!

Yes the 3850 Pro would make a good upgrade for someone with a x1950 Pro!

 

[RanDum72]

Originally posted by: fleabag
Look, you'll have to decide whether or not this card is worth $170-$200 for an incremental upgrade.
http://firingsquad.com/hardwar...ance_preview/page4.asp

Yes this card is faster than the X1950pro but considering neither the 3850 card nor the card you have can play crysis (a current gen game) at 1280X1024 with 0AA shows that this would be a waste of money since you can't get good performance in a current generation game without turning down some settings..
http://firingsquad.com/hardwar...iew/images/cry1280.gif

I'd just wait if I were you, however if you can make back enough money to pay for this in full (and then some) then I'd say go ahead.

Crysis IS a current game but I wouldn't base the feasibility of an upgrade based on its perfromance on ONE game alone. The 3850 has DX10 so it is future-proofed to some extent (Vista Aero eyecandy, etc..), can playback HD content better and has better potential to get better/faster as driver upgrades come up. It all depends on the user what he's going to use his PC mainly for and if he is comfortable with the upgrade costs (he can always sell his old card).

 

[Griswold]

Get a HD3850 and you'll be fine. It will be a good upgrade. Dont bother thinking about the "ifs" and "whens" concerning the semi-paperlaunch cards.

 

[GundamF91]

No do not do it.

I have the ATI X1950 Pro, and with playing Oblivion and Supreme Commander, it's definitely adequate for the resolution you're playing at. As for Crysis, unless you just have to play DX10 games and all their special GFX handling, it's not worth the upgrade. If you really want faster Gfx, then you need to get 8800GT. The jump from x1950 to x3850 is not worth buying a brand new card (unless you can sell x1950 for a good price).

I see you also have e6300 which I think you can overclock to some higher level and squeeze more performance that way for free.

 

[Gikaseixas]

save some more or wait till stock levels are higher and buy a 3870 instead or a 8800 GT.

The increase in performance will be greater

 

[JACKDRUID]

Originally posted by: SilentRunning

Originally posted by: taltamir
Right now there is huge price gouging, so it might behoof you to wait a bit... then again if you see a good deal nabbing it might be better.

Is $159.99 for HD3850 considered price gouging?

no. its pretty much msrp price for 3850.

but now that 8800gt 256 is out, it pays to wait a few days to see how prices of different cards adjust, then make a decision based on which has the best value.

 

[judasmachine]

Originally posted by: Gikaseixas
save some more or wait till stock levels are higher and buy a 3870 instead or a 8800 GT.

The increase in performance will be greater

I think I like this answer as I do have a bit of throw away money (if that even exists, but that's another story) that I could give her. I was really trying not to put her out over my Xmas present.






EDIT: BTW, I'm really interested in picking UT3, and I still play Oblivion. I'm not too sure about Crysis, but someday I probably will pick it up just to check if I like it. I did like Far Cry.