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Video Card Upgrade question

A

Airmack

n00b
Joined
Dec 15, 2009
Messages
12
New member here. Got a question.

I am only playing TF2, COD4, L4D2 & my video card is a
GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP

If I put in a
VisionTek 900244 Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP

Will I notice a improvement?
 
In a word, YES. There will be a very noticeable difference, especially with AA and AF enabled.
 
The 4870 is a powerful card. You will see a frame improvement plus eye candy.
 
major factor is your resolution. I actually made the same exact upgrade you did. It wasn't as awe inspiring as I had hoped, but I was able to use AA in a lot of games when I couldn't before, and there weren't anymore big framerate dips.

Given the price of the 4870, I'd say it's absolutely worth it, but I would look to a 1GB card, 512MB is not enough for a big monitor or lots of AA.
 
you need to list ALL of your specs when asking questions like this. your cpu and resolution alone will be huge factors in determining if its worth it.
 
You forgot to post the resolution you game at. If you are at 1920x1xx0 and up try and get a 1Gb 4870.
 
4870 is a beastly card that will last a longggg time!
 
runudownquick said:
You forgot to post the resolution you game at. If you are at 1920x1xx0 and up try and get a 1Gb 4870.
Click to expand...

He also forgot to list the PSU since what's the point of upgrading if the PSU can't handle it.
 
well COD was on 1024x768 but i moved it to 1152x864 just to see how it is.

Every thing else non game is 1680x1050

psu is cooler master 550watt which I won from www.3dgameman.com woot!
 
Is the power supply the COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power 550? Also, what O/S are you running? Windows XP?
 
The eXtreme Power Pro 550 watt is a heaping pile of shit (no offense, but it really pisses me off that an otherwise reputable company with plenty of good PSUs like the RealPower Pros can put out such crap as the eXtreme Power series). There's no way it will handle a 4870 for more than about 3 months before it blows up.
 
ordovician said:
The eXtreme Power Pro 550 watt is a heaping pile of shit (no offense, but it really pisses me off that an otherwise reputable company with plenty of good PSUs like the RealPower Pros can put out such crap as the eXtreme Power series). There's no way it will handle a 4870 for more than about 3 months before it blows up.
Click to expand...
the 4870 draws about the same amount of power as the 8800gts 320mb.
 
It draws about 22 more watts than an 8800GTX, so I guessing it draws about 30 more watts than an 8800GTS. That's 2-3 more amps. The PSU supposedly has 2x16A rails, but I can't find the max combined load. It's got to be less than ~28A. I'd put $20 on that PSU crapping out if he put a 4870 in there. I had one of those PSUs, and a Core 2 Duo E4400, 4gb, 2xhdd, and 8800GT killed it. Also seen other people have issues with it.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=22
 
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