• 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.

HD4850 overkill for me

D

DeathCloud

Gawd
Joined
Jul 21, 2005
Messages
1,004
I am needing a new card as mine is hiting the crapper. I have been a hardcore Nvidia fan but the price / performance of the HD4850 is to good to pass up. The question is this, I have 1 gig of ram and a P4 overclocked to around 3.6. Would this card be overkill for my current system?


Edit: I should also say I am currently running a 7900GS. Resolution I like is 1680 x 1050 on a 20.1 inch widesreen monitor
 
gut shot, i would say yes. What size monitor (and resolution) do you game on?

On the other hand, even if you buy a video card at half the price, you're not going to be able to replace your mobo/cpu/ram for $90, so you might as well get a good GPU now so it'll hold you over when you do upgrade the rest.
 
Yes. Your CPU will likely be bottlenecking your gaming.

Example: My Opty 165/2Gigs ram was severely bottlenecking even games like WoW with a 8800GT on 1920x1200.

Opty 165: 20 fps or below average in WoW (non Shat). I got 20 or below FPS with a 7900GS as well.

E8400: 60 fps constant in WoW (non Shat)
 
I would guess you are GPU bottlenecked with any game you play that is relatively new. 4850 FTW!
 
The CPU will be a big bottleneck with your current system, however the 4850 is a great deal now and it would still be fast enough when you do upgrade that CPU+mobo.

If you instead buy a slower, cheaper card now, you'll have to get a faster GPU later, along with the new CPU.
 
Save the money and upgrade all at once. The 4850 will only get cheaper and maybe by the time you upgrade something better will be out for the same price. Considering you are running a P4 with 1 gig of ram it sounds like you need a new mobo+cpu+ram as well. Even my c2d bottlenecks this card is some instances unless I push it past 3.0 (I game @1280x1024 though).

But, if your card is dying and you have to buy now, do as JimmiG suggested.
 
well I bought it and so far so good. I just ordered 4 gig of Ram and my mobo can handle a core 2 duo so that will be next paydays purchase :).
 
Yeah for some of us it's not possible to spend $1000 at once on a complete system overhaul. Upgrading bit by bit works fine too for everything except the most demanding games, and 3DMark.
 
I got my 4850 before I had my E8500, I was using the E2160 and even overclocked I noticed that I was pretty cpu limited due my low cache. However, I would say that it's certianly worth it because I then just saved for the new CPU and was done, and I then had a very powerful setup. I'm very glad I didn't get something slower so that when I eventually upgraded CPU's I wouldn't just be dying to re-upgrade my video card again. I am very content and will not be upgrading this card until at the earliest Jul '09.
 
JimmiG said:
Yeah for some of us it's not possible to spend $1000 at once on a complete system overhaul. Upgrading bit by bit works fine too for everything except the most demanding games, and 3DMark.
Click to expand...

$1000??? CPU+Video card+RAM for a decent spec'd machine is only like $350-400, a far cry from $1000.... :rolleyes:
 
kllrnohj said:
$1000??? CPU+Video card+RAM for a decent spec'd machine is only like $350-400, a far cry from $1000.... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I believe it depends on your interpretation of renovation... for example, say I wanted to go all out for my renovation next summer and upgrade to Q9650, 4GB DDR2-1200, and a 4870x2. Even if the 9650 comes down to a $350 price range and the 4870 drops to a $450 price range, thats still 350+120+450 = $920. Not to mention extraneous small upgrades a person may add to that.
 
;)
kllrnohj said:
$1000??? CPU+Video card+RAM for a decent spec'd machine is only like $350-400, a far cry from $1000.... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

It all depends... JimmiG said a complete system. This means a mobo, power supply, case, heck, even CPU fans, sinks, case fans all add up. Case is about $100(chances are, you won't want to put your brand new spanking system in a 4 year old, P4 case where it turned all beige, would you?), fans are about $100(lets face it, who has a stock CPU cooler with one case fan :p), Mobo is minimum $100(but who's gonna get a $100 motherboard?!?), power supply is about $80. A new monitor too, if possible!!

But you are also right if you wanted to make the most stock box ever. I suppose you could make a machine for $350.

Back to OP, yeah I had a very similar system, I had a P4 3.6 prescott with x800 then I fit an HD4850. It was leaps and bounds in performance. Then I upgraded the rest of it to the system on the sig. It was another leaps and bounds. The P4 most definitely bottlenecks this videocard. There would be a significant boost from 7000 to 4850. There would be another significant boost from going P4 to C2D/Phenom.

Have fun with the upgrade, I certainly did.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top