Upgrading...Am I ok?

[Spain]

I have:

Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb AGP
Motherboard D865Perl
Intel P4 3.0 CPU
3 Gig Memory

I am think of buying:

ATi Radeon HD 3850 AGP 512mb 8x AGP

Does it matter if I get the Saphire version or any other versions?

Thank you!

[Radiator]

I'd suggest an entire new PC ... that CPU is going to bottleneck you and so will the RAM .

[ultima]

uh ok i can see maybe the cpu limiting, especially for newer games
since they use more than 1 cpu core

however maybe he can't buy an entire system

and the RAM comment is so out of left field
how do you know that 3gb of ram is limiting ???

how about you go and read this
and be amazed that 3gb is lots and 6 gb doesn't help much at all

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-module-upgrade,2264.html

[ultima]

oh and it doesn't really matter which version you get for a 3850

[Radiator]

uh ok i can see maybe the cpu limiting, especially for newer games
since they use more than 1 cpu core

however maybe he can't buy an entire system

and the RAM comment is so out of left field
how do you know that 3gb of ram is limiting ???

how about you go and read this
and be amazed that 3gb is lots and 6 gb doesn't help much at all

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-module-upgrade,2264.html
Pentium 4 , that means the PC is ancient which means the RAM is also slow .
Probably DDR400 or something , which is in fact SLOW . While it will get you through , it would be a far better option to get a new PC .
I didn't say anything about the amount of RAM bottlenecking it .

[Spain]

Thank you for your initial review of my situation, however which ATi video card would be a good fit for my current system?

[Radiator]

Well the HD 3850 would be the only option . BUT that CPU WILL bottleneck it .

[Rob]

Ive talk About this before ...And I know that most of the guys on here Will disagree with me ..And they are probably right that you should up grade to a new computer If you can afford it ..But I'll tell you that I've got HD3850 And it will play any game that I'd throw at it on high settings ..@1920x1200...like CRYSIS WARS AND F.E.A.R.2 ,L4D ..And the games are very playable With no problems. So if you want to get another year or two out of your computer that Would be the way to go .

[Radiator]

Those games you mentioned do not require a uber good PC . Crysis Wars is a lot less demanding on the same settings , than Warhead or the original Crysis .
L4D and F.E.A.R. Project Origin run great on my pc even .

[Rob]

That is true ... And I was able to play warhead With everything on very high settings except for motion blur and AA OFF....And it was very playable and looked awesome...I don't think the cost off a 3850 Is really all that bad for getting a couple more years out of your computer ...And then save up And then get A really good PC down the road that will be better than anything that's out right now .