HD 3850

[WG1337]

Hi!
I'm going to get a new graphics card.
Was searching for a good one and this one matched my wants: http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=130&cat2_no=137&prod_no=1368#
Yeah, everything is nice, it has 512 MB and 256-bit, has 10.1 DirectX and it's overclocked.
It has support for ATI CrossFire, but not CrossFireX, but looking at AMD's homepage it's said that it has CrossFireX support.
Then how is it?
Also the word "overclocked" makes me nervous, because that means it produces more heat.
Even I have a large cooler for CPU, that doesn't effect GPU.
Also there is a problem with PSU.
It's kind of old and doesn't have the 6-pin connector.
I found that there is an adapter that makes 2x4pin connectors to one 6-pin connector for PCI-E.
It would be fine if I had some power to loose, but I don't, because my PSU has 450W and the card requires 450W.
Couldn't this adapter do something wrong?

 

[Kari]

didn't you read the link I gave you yesterday?? 3850 uses around 60 watts!

edit.hmm nevermind I'm thinking of some-one else... I think..
well here is the linky
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gigabyte-radeonhd3870-3850_5.html#sect0

 

[WG1337]

You didn't give me a link :/
To find out if it will be ok I need to calc how much does my HDD, CD-ROM, CPU, etc take?

 

[Kari]

^^yeah sorry for that
well HDDs optical drives, fans use rather small amounts of power, few watts each...
Usually in a gaming machine the craphics card uses the most power, up to 270W for 4870X2.
Higher clocked CPUs have thermal design powers of over 100 watts, depends greatly on type and model though, so actuall usage may vary a lot.

 

[WG1337]

The CPU uses 140W.
So that's 310W still left.
You said fans uses only a few, I have 2 fans. With drives etc could be 10W?
So if 300W is still left then I should be ok.

 

[roadrunner197069]

Your better off getting a good PSU as well, and for a little more you could get a 4850.

 

[WG1337]

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine just gave me 600W ^^
4850 you say... is it really better?
R4850-T2D512 - from MSI, costs a lot...
Plus a PSU... about 300$ i think so.

Atcually I think I should screw all this and buy new and good rams instead, so my PC runs some of those games a bit faster(still 2GB, but larger clocks).

 

[megamanx00]

Most 3850s can overclock their core to at least 730 just fine. I can overclock my core speed to around 750 and my mem speed to 2300, but the mem chips don't have a heatsink on them so I don't leave it at that speed since I can't afford a new card yet . You know, the Radeon 4670 provides a little more performance than the 3850 AND uses less power. You mighnt want to get one of those instead.

 

[Kari]

if you already have 2 gigs, ram isn't the best way of improving performance.
You could OC your cpu a little... But your current 7600GS will hold you back badly in either case.

For greater improvement I think you should really upgrade your graphics. I think your PSU will be just fine with either 3850 or with the newer and more powerfull 4850. OR if you can find HD4670, that would make great upgrade as well and it doesn't need any axtra power either, it'll work just fine with the power it gets from the pcie-bus so no extra connectors to worry about

edit: wow megaman beat me to it by 12 minutes, I'm so slow :/

edit2: heres a nice review of the 4670
http://www.guru3d.com/article/ati-radeon-hd-4670-review/1

 

[WG1337]

Ahh, it would be good if it had 256-bit.
Thought that this will be great, but missing 256-bit
Or maybe I don't need it?
We all like to compare everything to Crysis. Now with my 7600GS I can't go to higher resolution then 800x600 or it will lag.
I don't know what exactly does 2000MHz and other things.
Maybe this is better in performance then 3850?
Btw, if you were looking at my profile to find my pc specs then I should update them, now I have AMD Phenom x4 9950 BE and I overclocked it to 3.0 Ghz.
Wanted to buy RAM to increase the performance not for the GPU, but for the CPU.

R4670-2D512/D3 looks really new, isn't so easy to get here.

 

[Kari]

^^lol then you really should update your profile

The 4670 is a budget oriented model with rather good performance for the price, the narrower bus is directly related to the low manufacturing cost of the card. And yeah it is the newest member of the HD4000-series.

And I think crysis is overrated

edit: take a look at this review
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3405&p=6
it's pretty even with 3850, wins some, loses in others

 

[WG1337]

Well then I hope that 3850 will work good with my old PSU.
Otherwise I need to sell my old PC and buy a new PSU, maybe zalman to be quite ^^
But comparing 3850 to 4670 in performance, better who?

Ok, here are the results for people who will search and are having the same problem I had:
So under 450W PSU with 2 coolers, 1 SATA HDD, 1 DVD-ROM, CPU with 140W, 2 sticks of RAM/1GB per, and a HD 3850 is running fine.
I don't know what is it in english, but its SI is GB/s and from 21 GB/s to 51 GB/s with this card
I don't like how the VGA card goes with the heatpipe originally by MSI, because it hits the card. But since it's a device that delivers heat and not actually contains so I guess it's ok.
Tested LFS, GTA SA, TDU and other game without any problems.
I used a simple Molex to PCI-E adapter with 2x4-pin connectors.


THE SYSTEM IS UNSTABLE!
It turned out that I'm not having a dual-channel mode for RAM, so I fixed that.
Seems that this mode requires more power.
After overcloking CPU from 2.6 to 3.0 the system fails to boot because of weak power.
To be exactly - system reboots when PCI-E graphics card is used more, increased power.
Teset Crysis Warhead and it's a big pain in the butt, because system is crashing much :/

New PSU!
I bought a new PSU.
It's a HEC Cougar 750W.
PC hasn't crashed
I found also that RAM is the one who is making the most problems, because it's some dumb RAM.
If the memory clock isn't 667 then the RAM makes everything unstable!