I am trying to choose between the HIS HD 2600XT: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161207 or the Powercolor HD 3850: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131090 There is only a $15 difference between the two! Is there any reason then to get the 2600XT even though my rig is only a P4 3ghz with 1.5gb of DDR 400 memory with a Abit IC7 mobo? And if I am totally off and I should consider other cards in the Nvidia line then let me know
Anybody? I'm just wondering whether my old computer will pose such a bottleneck that I wouldn't see a difference between the 2600XT and the 3850?
Your CPU will be the bottleneck. It will improve the frame rate of old games, but it won't do much for new games. For those the frame rate will be as bad as ever. The 3850 has issues with a lot of MBs and you probably need a new PSU. Therefor you are better off buying the 2600.
I have a 535W Enermax PSU that I installed 2 years ago so I should be ok. But if I want to run games like TF2, you are saying that I might as well get the 2600XT and not the 3850?
The 2600 is a crap card. http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=528&card2=550 I put some bench images here for the PC HD3850 agp http://newbling.net/BenchmarkImages/HD3850/ The MADDx5 is actually slower at old games and faster at new ones. You need a faster GPU for some games, not many though.
The chart you showed is a 2400XT, how is the 2600XT? Would the 3850 give me a much higher performance boost? And I heard of the problems with the drivers. If I install the latest omega drivers, do I still have to apply the hotfix 8.8 patch afterwards?
Lets say. Ur CPU is slowing HD3850 alot BUT, u coud still use higher lvl of AA / AF than 2600XT and still have same FPS. Also u can use higher game settings with HD3850. 2600XT is just so slow for any AA or AF. "exept for old games"
Sry I clicked the wrong one, not hard to work out how to select the right one... does not change that 2600 is still a slow card. All I can tell you is at 1680x1050 games are fps limited by the 3850 so I imagine any slower MADDx5 card would be even worse. The CPU will not slow the card unless you play at 1024x768 or something.
The CPU impact in FPS will be there in any resolution regardless because raising the resolution will not give you higher FPS, if you are CPU limited, raising the details, Anti Aliasing levels or the resolution will give you the same FPS, specially in older games, in newer games, raising the detail or resolution will cause a FPS drop (Except some Physics or objects settings in game which will depend more on CPU). Since the price difference is so little, go for the HD 3850, lots of games today are GPU limited and even if your FPS aren't ground breaking, you are able to use higher leves of FSAA and details, something that the lowly HD 2600XT won't. I upgraded from the X1950XT and I found that my games ran more smoothly with much higher eye candy (Old games didn't showed up much of a difference, but newer games, I was surprised), Gears of War stuttered a lot in my old X1950XT with everything maxxed (33 fps average) and Anti Aliasing was unusable, now I can play with 4x FSAA and Adaptive Anti Aliasing on with the same maxxed details and the game won't dip below 38fps, average 54 and 62 highest at 1280x1024. I was able to max out Call of Juarez in DX10 mode at 1280x1024 with 2x FSAA, or 1024x768 at 4x FSAA and was beautifullly smooth (I'm using a CRT loll)
Thanks for the info, the HD 3850 it is then. Since both the Powercolor and the Sapphire is the same price ($115 AR) on Newegg, which one would you guys pick? Powercolor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131090 Sapphire: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ards-_-Sapphire+Technology+Limited-_-14102730
Does powercolor take 2 slots? Atleast it has good fan. Also check bundle. games etc. I woud go for powercolor =) " cause cooler"
Well, if you don't have an Intel Chipset, go to Sapphire, Powercolor card is quite picky with nForce and Via systems. If you have an Intel Chipset then better go off to the Powercolor version, just bear in mind that AFAIK the fan setting is stuck at 100%, if someone can prove this wrong, it would be great. Both cards are nice overall.
