Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.
HD 4890 is a good temporary solution. I wouldn't excpect it to last years though, unless you are fine with going without DX 11 for a long time.
I would get a 4890 and then expect to upgrade again in a year when the DX 11 games start coming out. There will be better DX 11 cards then anyway...
You will definitely need to upgrade your mobo. Your current one does not support any processor worth buying. You can get a cheap AM2+ mobo that will support your current RAM. You will then have access to pretty much any processor AMD has to offer. To stay cheap I would go with an Athlon II which...
I don't think you can do much with that socket AM2 motherboard.
If you could spring for an AM2+ mobo you could upgrade to a Phenom II or Athlon II processor and keep your DDR2 RAM.
If you don't plan on overclocking you can get a cheap ASUS or Biostar AM2+ mobo for $60-$80 and a quad core...
I went from an 8800GT to an HD4890 and I saw a huge difference. But I upgraded my processor at the same time so my experience may not be as accurate. I went from struggling to play Crysis at 30 FPS on lower resolution to max settings @ 1920 x 1080.
They are advertising it for a reason. People will buy it. There are some people that make $1700 in one day's work. To those people this price is nothing. They aren't necessarily suckers, they just don't have to seek good deals on everything they buy.
I would go with the 4890 over the GTX 285, no questions asked. The 5850 vs 4890 is where the real decision to be made is. The only real question is can you afford to spend $300 on a video card? If so the 5850 is a much better choice than the 285.
Unless of course money is no object. If that is...
Try a little basting for added flavor before popping it in the oven. I would recommend letting it bake until the center turns golden brown. Should come out nice and moist.
I am in total agreement that they should try to minimize card length if at all possible. I already had to move a hard drive in order to get a 4890 in my case. Also, on a some motherboards a large video card can limit your access to Sata ports. You can blame that on poor MB design but still, if...