Hi everyone,

I am currently allocated myself a small budget to do some computer upgrades (first to replace an aging mouse, plus a new monitor).

Now I have about $200 left. I am debating the viability of upgarding my X1900 XTX video card to the new Radeon 4870 (I will need to add about $150 on top of my budget for the new card).

My current CPU is an AMD 64 x2 4800 (same generation as the X1900 XTX). Is this CPU going to be a bottleneck regardless what GPU I use, or are today's games (playing Mass Effect at the moment) designed to shift all graphic burdens to the GPU instead of GUP + CPU?

If upgrading from X1900 XTX to Radeon 4870 isn't going to bring significant benefits, I plan to save up the money for the next PC overhaul upgrade.

Please let me know if GPU upgrades should usually go with CPU upgrades, or are GPU only upgrades worth the money if the CPU is one generation behind the GPU.

Thanks!

of course it is a lot of performace

if i am you i prefer to keep those 200 to build a new pc in the future

check this out http://www.gpureview.com/Radeon-HD-4870-card-564.html and this http://www.sapphiretech.com/en/pro [...] p?gpid=136 hope it helps

The 4870 will kill a 1900. Maybe twice as strong. Your cpu may well slow your system down, but you wont notice that much, as your gpu upgrade will keep you busy. Comparing to other systems, yea, youll notice them doing better, but not as much as you think. Id do it now, then change your setup later if youre not completely satisfied.

I think it will be a very significant jump, but that may not mean that it is worth it to do it. If you can still play games at acceptable frame rates and settings, then it might be better to just wait and upgrade everything later when you can get an even bigger boost.

As for bottlenecking, if you overclock your processor, you might not get the full performance of the 4870, but it most likely wouldn't be noticeably slower than a more current cpu.

You also mentioned that you are getting a new monitor. If the resolution of your new monitor is higher, that might be something to consider as well.

Well, I don't have the CPU issue you do, but I just recently (As in like, two days ago) upgraded from my x1900xt, to an HD 4850, and the 4850 is about twice as fast as my 1900 in most games that are GPU limited.

Hope that helps out!

The jump should be quite noticeable.

Not only will it in general be noticeable, but with anti-aliasing and quality options enabled it should put more stress on your gpu, making cpu somewhat less the deciding factor in your performance - additional AA/IQ options that your 1900xtx might not have been capable of regardless of what kind of a processor you threw at it .


btw OP; i'm trying to remember the name of the game that is in your avatar - I recognized the plane thing right away actually lol; but that used to be one of my favorite games on my pentium 100 ^^

Unless you have a really big monitor, rock a 4850 and save the rest. That will get you a very nice performance boost and give you a little jingle in your pocket for your next build.

That said, in your position, I wouldn't bother upgrading if everything seems fine now.

Thanks everyone!

Good to know I will get decent performance improvement out of getting a better card. I will get the card and start saving up for the next PC upgrade.

The game is called Raptor - Call of the Shadows

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapto [...] he_Shadows

You can search youtube for quite a few clips of this game. I still play it with a DOS emulator (Dos Box). One thing I like about this game is its heart pumping midi music. Also, any of today's PCs can play it with maximum framerate!

lol

yea dude I actually beat Raptor a few times back in the day - I just couldn't remember the name of it

Its awesome, I used to love all the upgrades and stuff you could get and ya know back then that game had great graphics for its time