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4850 variants & WotLK

T

tybert7

2[H]4U
Joined
Aug 23, 2007
Messages
2,763
First lets get a summary of my aging system.

Opteron 170 at stock clock speeds (2.0 GHz per core)

2 GB pc 3200 ram

ati x1800 gto (256 MB video ram)



the cheapest upgrade path is the video card, doing the cpu would entail upgrading the motherboard AND the RAM for a total of 3 upgrades minimum, while STILL having an ancient video card.



So for a performance boost the video card seems the best candidate to get some more juice out of my system.

Dalaran turns my system into a stuttering mess. Just too much going on. I am looking at an ati 4850 card but am not sure if it is worth it to go for the 512 or 1 GB version.


I checked some of the standard benchmarks and the scores were pretty identical, As I game at 1680x1050, I am not pushing ultra high resolutions so the 1 GB is certainly not critical. But.... The extra draw distance in wotlk seems a memory hog compared to what came before..

Is that memory? or the gpu speed mostly? (cpu is fixed at the moment lest I go full swing into the upgrade cascade)


When I am in Dalaran in prime time on my high pop server, will the extra memory make things noticeably "smoother" even if the raw numbers may be similar?

I would be HAPPY to pay more for a more "smooth" experience, but I have no clue if going to 1GB will go a good ways to getting there.


One thing is certain, either would be a massive step up from my current stuttering mess, but wotlk does seem to fill alot more memory, so for those who have had both versions of memory, does it make things.. smoother?
 
I run at 1680 x 1050 as well. With my current video card Shatt gave me some pretty low fps when I was still using my Opteron 175. That chip was just too slow. Basically, for me, it didn't matter what video card I had because my CPU was just too slow to run the game like I wanted. Low fps in Dalaran is one thing, but low fps in a raid is totally unacceptable to me. Perhaps you don't raid, I dunno.
 
ThisMonsterLives said:
I run at 1680 x 1050 as well. With my current video card Shatt gave me some pretty low fps when I was still using my Opteron 175. That chip was just too slow. Basically, for me, it didn't matter what video card I had because my CPU was just too slow to run the game like I wanted. Low fps in Dalaran is one thing, but low fps in a raid is totally unacceptable to me. Perhaps you don't raid, I dunno.
Click to expand...

Hmm, if there really is no substantive boost that a better card would give, that means I need to get a new core system.

I do raid at times, its ok in the raids so far, but Dalaran is a different matter, shatt was rough too.

When you were having slow downs, what graphics card were you using with the opteron 175? And when you upgraded your cpu/MB/memory, did you keep the SAME card in and notice a big improvement in frame rates?

I am trying to isolate the most effective route to improve performance
 
For awhile I had an 8800 GTS 320MB. I bought my current card on total impulse and noticed basically no increase in performance with my Opteron system. Upon getting a new cpu, board and ram I noticed a huge improvement.
 
ThisMonsterLives said:
For awhile I had an 8800 GTS 320MB. I bought my current card on total impulse and noticed basically no increase in performance with my Opteron system. Upon getting a new cpu, board and ram I noticed a huge improvement.
Click to expand...

Fantastic, thank you, thank you for destroying my hopes and dreams that I could get by without going through the upgrade cascade.
 
Your CPU is going to bottleneck a 4850. People say my X2 2.8GHz is on the edge of bottlenecking my 4850. Try overclocking it and see how far you can push it. Otherwise you can get a mobo, cpu and 4 gigs of ram for$150.
 
I agree. Your CPU and RAM are your bottlenecks in Dalaran, not the 4850. I just upgraded to 4gb of RAM (previous had 2gb), and even though I'm on a Vista32bit install, the performance benefits are HUGE with Wotlk. The expansion is just a giant memory hog.

And I also use a Radeon 4850 512mb
 
Have you tried turning on v-sync and triple buffering in WotLK?

Having v-sync enabled dramatically lowers the CPU load. I just tested this out on my system today.

Triple buffering makes it so that it doesn't half the fps when it can't handle 60, 30, 15, etc.

You may also want to think about overclocking that chip a bit to see if it helps. 2.5Ghz should be fairly easy to reach on an Opty 170.
 
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