Is an ATI 3870 for $100 a good buy to replace my 7900gs KO?

[ruff_ryder_20]

Just curious, I am able to get a card for $100CND and it would be replacing my EVGA geforce 7900GS KO which I currently have oc'ed. I am just wondering if this would be a wise decision to make... he is selling his other card as well he has them running is crossfire right now, he said both for 200 but unfortunetly I have a dfi lanparty ultra-d UT NF4 board...

 

[fugben]

why not work for an extra 6 hrs get the extra 60 $ and get a radeon 4850 for 160 $ which comes with a free witcher game.

The difference between the 4850 and 3870 in performance is like a male silverback gorilla fighting some tech nerd in a cage rage fight.

Not pretty!!!

Do yourself a favour and treat yourself to a
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127359

 

[outlw6669]

^
LoL but true.
The 3870 would be a very nice upgrade from a 7900GS.
The 4850 will be a massive upgrade.
Save a little more and get something twice as good.

 

[ruff_ryder_20]

I have enough for it, people at the ncixforums are telling me though that it wouldn't really work with my computer and that it would be a bottleneck,

my system is the following:
DFI lanparty ultra-d UT NF4
Athlon64 3700+ oc'ed to 2.5Ghz
4x512mb kingston value ddr400
Mushkin HP550 (brand new)
so would getting the 4850 still be worth it or would it be bottle necked to the same performance as the 3870?

Thanks

EDIT: and it is 100 dollars more if you add in tax and shipping and probably boarder fees if its from the states, but I can get it for 185 before shipping and tax with instant rebate at ncix, and I hate MIR so it really isn't 159...

 

[outlw6669]

Hells yes!
Even bottlenecked by the CPU, it will let you turn up much more eye candy/AA/AF than the 3870. When you decide to upgrade the rest of your platform you will be in an even better situation. Much better choice than a 3870.

 

[Onus]

You could always move a 4850 into your next rig.

 

[ruff_ryder_20]

would trying to get my hands on an x2 939 help at all like a 4400x2?

 

[outlw6669]

Yes, if it is affordable.
For what you will probably spend on it, you would be well on your way to a new Mb, CPU and RAM.

 

[ruff_ryder_20]

yeah I know I want there asus P5Q pro and the E8400 and of course some DDR2 ram, I am saying good buy to both nvidia and AMD, cept I am not really saying good buy... since they are ATI lol confusing stuff lol It will run me like 400 dollars for all I need, minus the video card which I will most likely get first...

 

[outlw6669]

You could always get a P5Q-E for $160 and a E2180 for $70. Even at stock speeds, the E2180 will outperform a 4400x2 and it can be massively overclocked very easily. Total including GPU is around $400.

 

[ruff_ryder_20]

forgetting the ram though i gor ddr1 if i were to upgrade i would prob go for the 8400, probably would add a huge difference in performance compared to the 2150, although it is a very tempting cpu, definitely a good cpu though for the price...

 

[outlw6669]

Sorry, I am at work so I can't see everything
So make it about $440 then as RAM is cheap.

Yes, the E8400 will be much better at stock and can be overclocked to 3.6-4.0Ghz with relative ease. The E2180 should be able to match the E8400 for stock speeds when overclocked but will likely perform about 10% slower due to lost cache. Either would be an excellent upgrade from a 3700+ but you are correct, the E8400 will net you better performance. Maybe not as huge of a diffrence as you may think, but better none the less.