AMD Phenom 8450, which video card?

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flipside217

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Nov 11, 2008
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Guys and Gals, I'm wondering what kind of video card I should get for a Phenom 8450 processor. I had a Ati 4850 card but had to return it due to it being defective. On 3dmark06 my scores were around 9300. Is that normal? I was thinking that it would at least reach the 10k mark. I was running it off 32bit Vista with 2 gigs of ram. I'm starting to wonder if the 4850 video card is "too much" for the Phenom 8450 processor.

Other vid cards I was considering is the 9800gt or the 9600gso. Pretty much a price range around 100-150.
 
I have a 19" lcd. I'm probably going to have to hold off until i get a new power supply since my current one is only 400w zalman with 15A on the +12 rail.
 
Goodness, you need a new PSU. Look at this Antec EA650 for $70 with free shipping. 45A on the +12V and has a 120mm fan which is good as it will be quiet and will run cool.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371015

If, you are looking at a 9800GT, look at the MSI N9800GT OC for $115 ($20 MIR) It's pretty good for a 19" lcd gaming.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127381

Here's a review of that card. Note that since you have a 19" lcd, your native res would be at 1280 x 1024 or 1440 x 900 for widescreen. Don't get the 9600GSO that's weak especially if you paying over $100 for it.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/msi-9800gt.html
 
If you plan to stay with the 19" lcd for a while get the 9800GT. If you plan to upgrade to say a 22" LCD get the Radeon HD4850. The 9800GT will be good for your AMD Phenom CPU with the 19" display. The reason is because since you don't have a really fast CPU, the Nividia chip cards such as the 9800GT puts less load on the cpu as oppose to an ATI chip based card like the HD 4850. However, as you go higher in resolution and enable AA and AF then, the HD 4850 will pull ahead of the 9800GT.
 
thanks for the input guys. I was thinking about a 9600gso since its 50 bucks after rebate. Would I still need a new power supply for this 9600gso? If i do then I mid as well just get a 9800gt or HD4850 and a new power supply to save some time and money in the long run.
 
HD4850? I would get the Antec True Power Trio with 32A on the +12V over the Seasonic 350W with only 27A on the +12V. Plus, free shipping for the Antec Trio PS.
 
Which card was it that nVidia cut the number of shaders but keep the original name, was it 96000GSO, I can't remember. If 9600GSO is the card then you should be looking for the old one.
 
9300 3DMarks might be slightly low for that system. I guess it depends on how much 3DMark uses that third core, and also on how much it benefits from the IPC improvements AMD did to the Phenom over the Athlon. I got 10042 3DMarks with the 4850 and an Athlon X2 4800+ Brisbane at 2.9 GHz. With the same CPU at the stock 2.5 GHz, the score was about 8900 3DMarks. WIth my current Phenom X4 at 2.6 GHz, the score is 11659 3DMarks.

The 4850 is a perfect match for a Phenom, IMO. It's fast enough not to bottleneck the CPU even with some AA applied, but not fast enough to be overkill. A 4870 would also be a good choice, at least for a Phenom X4 - in Fallout3, I have to drop to 2x FSAA for totally smooth framerates (though it is perfectly playable at 4x FSAA), indicating that the videocard is the bottleneck in this game and not the CPU.
 
well, i just ended up getting the HD 4670 since I usually game on my consoles and only getting it just to play L4D. I can see it now, *hardwareguru shakes fist at me.. lol
 
nice! Also I assume it would be good with my current power supply since it doesnt required a external power.
 
Yah, that card only consumes 60 watts soo.. its not power hungry. You must have the Zalman ZM400A-APF PSU.
 
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