Video cards

Me again.

I think I shafted myself on my planned upgrade.

I need a minimum of Radeon 3850 video for what I want to do.

I purchased a board with Radeon 4200 video onboard, thinking that 4200 is better than 3850, no?

But a little more research indicates that in Radeon numbering the first digit is the series, and the next three indicate the "level" of the card.

So I need x850 or better, and bought x200.

I still need better video, no?

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Yea, integrated video is really only good for running Aero and playing back video.

And as for the 850 part, well those ranks are within families and not necessarily across them. Very true with ATI cards as the differences between the 2xxx, 3xxx, 4xxx and 5xxx families are so great.

This is where Tom's Hardware's handy rankings come into play. Just look for the HD 3850 desktop card on the ATI column. It shows the HD 4670 to be of similar performance.

What the chart doesn't show is the new HD 5670 that just came out last month. It's a bit faster than the HD 4670 so when the chart is updated it may be on a higher tier.

The HD 4670 is around $75 at NewEgg.

What did you have as a video card before?

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Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components

Tempus unum hominem manet

Thank you, FX. That guide is going to be very useful!

My current mobo is several years old, and was far from cutting edge even when new. It only has an AGP video connector, and I'm currently running an NVIDIA 7600 GT, that being the best it could handle.

I'm going to see if I can find an Ultra Mode compatible card locally that I can afford, and then I should be okay for another couple of years.

The neat thing is I'll be jumping 8-10 tiers on that chart. I should see an astronomical increase in my video quality, and in the overall performance.

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Father

As I was looking for a better video card, I came upon this thead. I noticed your sig and the 2 rigs you have there. Aside from the price, what is the graphics/speed differences between the 2 setups?

I have a minimal knowledge of computer inner workings, but want a proper computer for GR. My main desktop is in the shop due to a corrupted hard drive. Can I just upgrade the video card and be fine? Or will it be cheaper to build my own rig or just replace my 5 year old computer (sorry I can't give you stats on my desktop, due to it being in the shop.) Thanx for the sig, good info for folks like me.

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SN0WJ0B: 50 ice/ice Blaster, InvulnerBull: 50 inv/ss Tanker, Death.Venom: 50 nec/poison MM
Check out my slideshow

Generally in games, the HD 5850 is about 70% faster than the GTS 250.

The Core i5-750 is 30% faster per core than the Pentium E6300. This is before you take into consideration the the i5-750 is a quad core while the E6300 is a dual core.

You can't just transplant the video card. While it's true the HD 5850 is quite the power miser when compared to nVidia cards, it does use two 6-pin PCIe power connectors which the PSU in the $600 rig only has one. Yes it comes with one 6-pin from two 4-pin hard drive power connector converters.

It could run OK, probably will run OK but I would prefer a slightly bigger PSU that had two or more 6/8-pin PCIe connectors standard. Problem with the $600 rig is the PSU is part of the case and not just a bundle.

Another question is whether the E6300 is fast enough to keep the HD 5850 busy. If not that ~70% performance boost number will be less.

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Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components

Tempus unum hominem manet

I never liked that brand name of graphics. Its on my notebook and the graphics on Water is not good. I liked n-Vidia GeForce anything in High end. never go wrong with that.
try something with at least 1 gig of GDDR 3 graphics memory. my other notebook got it and its fantastic. Choose carefully


QUOTE=Tripp Hazzard;2590208]Me again.

I think I shafted myself on my planned upgrade.

I need a minimum of Radeon 3850 video for what I want to do.

I purchased a board with Radeon 4200 video onboard, thinking that 4200 is better than 3850, no?

But a little more research indicates that in Radeon numbering the first digit is the series, and the next three indicate the "level" of the card.

So I need x850 or better, and bought x200.

I still need better video, no?[/QUOTE]

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