X850XT - time to upgrade?

[haggy]

Hi All -

I am in the process of upgrading everything.

I picked up an X850XT for $20 - just because it was $20 haha.

I have an Asus Striker Extreme board coming with an E6550 chip and most other new components.

The question is -

My monitor maxes at 1280x1024 with 8ms response. I love my monitor and do not plan to upgrade anytime real soon or my wife will shoot me.

Will the x850xt handle Bioshock/Crysis at lower 1280 resolution? I do not have the cash at hand to get an 8800GT or Ultra yet. Or should I look at older mid-grade cards like the 7900 series for now?

Thanks for any assistance!!

 

[Cowboy420]

It will handle them fine at lower resolutions if you dont want to buy something new now..

 

[ClearM4]

BioShock requires a SM3.0 video card. (x850xt is a SM2.0 video card)

It will run with some hacked game files, but its not perfect: very slow load times (main issue), 16bit color and not 32bit color, missing textures in a few areas.

Files and info can be found here: http://www.paolofranchini.com/shshock/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=05a5a05c4fad48035d4d28f022a3fefc

These files can be applied to the Bioshock demo if you want to get an idea of what you will experience playing Bioshock with a x850xt.

Crysis runs at a mix of medium and low settings at 1024x768 averaging 22 FPS. Playable for me. Your system will do better than my weak Barton 2500+ @ 2.2Ghz. Crysis is very cpu demanding. The medium shaders look much better than low shaders and are worth the performance hit. Again, download the demo and try it out.

 

[killster1]

seems like tons of new games require 3.0 sm shader.. i traded my wifes x850xtpe a month ago and got a 7900gt to replace it.. x850xt are very very very fast cards but the lack of sm3 killed it for me when i tried to play bioshock and medal of honor airborne..

 

[haggy]

Great info - thanks guys.

I was not even aware of the 2.0 vs 3.0 issue.

Guess I may have to find a few more things to sell so I can get a good card.