AGP Sapphire HD 3850... A few questions.

[msjones]

Hi,

Im the new guy.... been using the site for a while now and decided to sign up to the forums, see if anybody can help with my questions.

Right here it goes. I have built myself a PC, just from hand me downs and bits I had laying around as spares. The spec is:

Intel Pentium D 925 3GHZ 2x2MB L2 Cache
Asrock 775VM800 Motherboard
2GB Kingston DDR 400
160GB SATA HDD
Asus X800 Pro AGP
600W PSU
20x DVDRW

With all the above hardware I am running Vista Ultimate with a rating of 4.2, the only thing bringing me below 5 is my memory... tacky valueram.

Anyway I have just been out and bought a brand new Sapphire Radeon HD 3850 AGP graphics card. Reviews looked promising. I will be installing it when I get home from work.

Anyway, could you tell me if I am going to get good performance from this card with the above spec... I know nothing will be as good as a C2D with DDRII but will this hold out at least another year or so before needing a replacement. Im not a heavy gamer, I play CoD4, GoW and hopefully assassins creed on my new card.

If at all which piece of hardware is going to be the worst bottle neck on my performance?

Thanks in advance,

Matt

[Rob]

I don't think you should have any problems ....all I can say is I got the same card ..And for me it was a very good upgrade ....I guess it all depends on what resolution Your going to play your game at....My Max Resolution is 1280x1024.. And there is no game out right now that I can play on high settings ..I mostly play Team Fortress 2 & Crysis....Although I am not sure about windows vista DX10 games Maxed out .

[msjones]

I don't think you should have any problems ....all I can say is I got the same card ..And for me it was a very good upgrade ....I guess it all depends on what resolution Your going to play your game at....My Max Resolution is 1280x1024.. And there is no game out right now that I can play on high settings ..I mostly play Team Fortress 2 & Crysis....Although I am not sure about windows vista DX10 games Maxed out .

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

Well I installed the card in my box last night and all I can say is wow. I have a 22" LCD and I can run Assassins Creed at full res maxed out. I am very happy with this card and dont see any reason to upgrade any time soon as I only use windows for light gaming, Im a linux man.

I will say though after reading your post I stuck my Pentium 4 530 Chip in, which runs at 3GHZ and there was a noticeable difference with that against the Pentium D. Do you have a 775 motherboard? I would recommend upgrading your CPU, I got mine from ebay for 40GBP.

Thanks,

Mj

[-RK]

CPU is your limiter there. Was the difference positive or negative between the PD and the P4?

Personally, I'd say that the C2D is the choice. You can pick up one that could outperform either of the pentiums for quite cheap now.

What's the latency on your RAM? Maybe get more of it for vista, but DDR400 should do just fine and 2gb is perfect for linux systems (1gb will do great on most linux distributions).

[Rob]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

Well I installed the card in my box last night and all I can say is wow. I have a 22" LCD and I can run Assassins Creed at full res maxed out. I am very happy with this card and dont see any reason to upgrade any time soon as I only use windows for light gaming, Im a linux man.

I will say though after reading your post I stuck my Pentium 4 530 Chip in, which runs at 3GHZ and there was a noticeable difference with that against the Pentium D. Do you have a 775 motherboard? I would recommend upgrading your CPU, I got mine from ebay for 40GBP.

Thanks,

Mj I've got 875p...Its a DELL XPS Gen 2...I got it 4.5 years ago its actually a really good computer ..But I'm kind of limited As far as upgrading the CPU....Can't even Overclock it....But I'm in no rush to buy a new one Just yet... will probably wait two or three more years .

[msjones]

I am using kingston HyperX DDR400 in my box. There was a huge difference in performance in games and general tasks with the PD. With the HD 3850 I can max out assassins creed and get 45+ FPS, heavy populated areas drops to about 32-35 FPS.

I have a C2D gaming laptop, better spec than my PC and it is know where near as fast.

[-RK]

Most hyperX will do you just fine for performance and overclocking if you so choose.

That's what I thought you meant with the Ps. My statement with the C2D still stands. What are the specs in the gaming laptop? if you've got a system with even a 2.5ghz c2d with just about any laptop graphics chip it won't go as well as your system with a 3850.

[sLinK]

Hey guys :D I have two questions: Is the GeForce 8800 GTX or GT alot better than Radeon HD 2600 Pro?
And wich one is the better one of Radeon HD 2600Pro and GeForce 7950 GX2?

I'd be happy if you wrote me an email... stefan__vr@msn.com

[Sunny]

Lol the 8800 GTX and GT are way better then the 2600 pro.

Yes the 7950 GX2 is better too.

The 2600 pro is ok for doing standard stuff and maybe playing games at low resolution.

[sLinK]

And what about the Sapphire Radeon HD 2900GT? Is it better than the GeForce 7950 GX2? I think i am going to play Age of Conan :D

[Sunny]

I would think that the 7950 GX2 would be better because it is basically like two cards in one. By the specs the 7950 GX2 would probably be the better card.

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=432&card2=537

The 7950 GX2 is rather hard to find now though. Do you know a place where it is available still that you would be able to get one? I haven't seen one to buy anymore. I just wanted to make sure because you are comparing these cards but you might not be able to find a 7950 GX2. Probably on ebay though.

I don't think that the 2900 GT would be that bad either.

[Radiator]

As far as I can remember from reviews , the HD 2900 GT is prettymuch as fast as a X1950 Pro , so better buy a HD 3850 .

[Sunny]

Yeah if you can go for a 3850 maybe 3870 if your looking for ATI cards.

[Radiator]

Or perhaps a 9600 GT , if you can find a good deal on it .

[sLinK]

OK, but do you think the 8600 GT is good enough to play Age of Conan? :P

[Radiator]

On low settings , maybe . Get a 9600 GT... it's faster than a HD 3870 ( which you can find for 120 USD nowadays ) and it's around the same price as the HD 3870 .