• 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.

Possible Bottleneck?

R

RikkAndrsn

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 15, 2007
Messages
156
Will a 5400+ X2 on an AM2+ MoBo (780G) with 3 GB of DDR2 667 bottleneck a HD 4850 on Windows XP?

I'm looking to upgrade an older spec'd PC of mine for LAN parties and such (mostly CSS, BF2, and TF2). It was originally a straight HTPC, but who says it can't become a partial gamer? I'll go for a HD 3870 if I can't run the HD 4850 without throttle problems, but there's no need to take a drop like that when the prices are so close right now.
 
I would vote no, but I haven't been in the AMD game a lot. The 4850 is a nice card, plenty fast, but I don't think it will outrun that AMD chip, and if it did, not by much.
 
At lower resolutions and without AA or AF, you'll be somewhat CPU bound. Most of us play games with 4x AA and 16X AF or better and at higher resolutions, and then you become GPU bound (well, actually video memory bandwidth bound).

I would replace the RAM with 2x2GB of DDR2-800 RAM and overclock the 5400+. It should reach 3+ GHz even with the stock cooler.
 
An X2 at 3ghz in GRID is CPU bottlenecked at 1280x1024, even at 8xAA. That said, it doesn't really matter since an X2 at 2.6ghz is still pulling very playable ~50fps average. It won't set any records, but it'll be playable with all the bells and whistles. In CSS and TF2 I was getting 100fps minimum at 3ghz with 8xAA at 1280x1024.

I would still say it is worth it to get a 4850 over a 3870, as AA can be enabled in just about everything.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top