ATI Radeon X850XT Platinum. Upgrade?

[fatbill717]

I have a Dell XPS machine, about 3 years old.
The graphics card is an ATI Radeon X850XT Platinum.
I want to upgrade to the best card that will just plug in as a replacement.
Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[-Fran-]

Any more details?

Like: monitor resolution you play on and/or processor speed?

Esop!

 

[eklipz330]

we need to know your budget, everything about your psu, whether your x850 is agp/pcie, if you have at least a pciex16 on your board, your name, address, ssn....

 

[wgdz]

might need to know ur cpu as well as it might bottleneck a high end gpu

 

[-Fran-]

we need to know your budget, everything about your psu, whether your x850 is agp/pcie, if you have at least a pciex16 on your board, your name, address, ssn....

I bet he likes long walks on the beach, lol.

Esop! X'D

PS: Sorry, couldn't resist xP

 

[megamanx00]

Yeah, buy the most expensive card your budget can afford :lol: . Really without more information I can't make a better suggestion.

 

[fatbill717]

Thanks for the interest.
I play at present at 1280x1024
I have a Pentium4, 3.73GHz processor.
The ATI board is in a PCI bus, so I expect it's a PCI board.
Intel(R) 82801Fb/FBM PCI Bridge 244E
" " PCI Express Root Port x 2
Intel(R) 925X PCI Express Root Port

 

[Dekasav]

I *just* went from an X850XT to an HD 4670 today, and I've gotta say it's great. I'm replaying Oblivion on totally maxed settings, and nothing's ever looked better (to me). I'm playing at 1440x900, and so far it's running beautifully. Much quieter, too (I have the MSI version). I'm loving it. For ~ $80 it's a steal.

 

[fatbill717]

Oh, and 2Gb RAM.

 

[fatbill717]

I forgot the budget.

Anything within reason.

 

[-Fran-]

Well, Dekasav said it well: Either a 4670/9600GSO/8800GT (close to each other in price, 8800GT performs a little better, but costs like $30 more though) or a 4850/9800GTX (also close price range).

You CPU will limit to some extent your FPS, but won't be too much troublesome. The lower end i'd recomend is the 4670 and my personal favorite is the for mid 4850. Either is a good choice for you.

Esop!

 

[megamanx00]

So you have a Pentium EE 965 right? A Radeon 3870 or 4670 would be a good sub $100 upgrade for you. If you spend a little more money though you can go with an 8800GT 512. The Radeon 4850 is a good buy, but unless you plan to upgrade the rest of your system anytime soon you won't get much of a benefit out of anything faster than an 8800GT. If your system can handel that X850XT Platinum, then it should have no problems with the Radeon 4670. On the other hand a Radeon 4850 and 8800GT need more power,(even the 3870 needs a little more power) so make sure your PSU can handle it.

 

[Shadow703793]

Well, Dekasav said it well: Either a 4670/9600GSO/8800GT (close to each other in price, 8800GT performs a little better, but costs like $30 more though) or a 4850/9800GTX (also close price range).

You CPU will limit to some extent your FPS, but won't be too much troublesome. The lower end i'd recomend is the 4670 and my personal favorite is the for mid 4850. Either is a good choice for you.

Esop!

+1. Also don't forget a good PSU!

 

[mactronix]

The 4670 would be your best bet both as far as being sure the PSU could handle it and from the view point of not wanting to put something in there that your CPU will restrict. A 3850 would be about the same performance wise but would need more power as would a 8800GT 512 which would be a bit better i guess. The 9600GSO is just a renamed 8800GS which is a cutdown 8800GT but would use slightly less power. A 4850 would most likley be restricted a fair bit but that just means the FPS will max out and you can run with more AA/AF.
I would look on it as a price performance exercise.
You would need to check your PSU first but Dell PSU's are generally pretty good.
The 4670/3850/9600GSO would be a good fit with your machine power and performance wise
The 8800GT512/3870 would probably be ok but i would start wondering about restrictions here.
And im sure a 4850/9800 would definatly be restricted.
So have a look see where the prices are and go from there.
Mactronix

 

[-Fran-]

The 4670 has enough with the PCIe power.

The 4850 draws ~110W, wich means ~10A on the 12V rail (11A to be sure).

The 3850 draws ~75W, wich means ~7A on the 12V rail (8A to be sure).

The X800XT draws ~65W (i saw a review with 76W), wich means ~6A on the 12V rail (7A to be sure).

I'm not sure about nVidia's, but i read that with the 9800GTX you need a 350W+ PSU. I couldn't find individual card power draw

In other words, with a 400W+ PSU you can run any of those cards if they have a single 12V rail with 13A for the graphics card

Esop!

 

[Dekasav]

Well, my X850XT has a six pin power connector (I think that's what it is), an extra power connection at least, so doesn't that mean the HD 4670 *definitely* takes less power? I suppose the old connector could be for safety, but, I'm thoroughly impressed with (my) HD 4670. HDR is in fact the coolest thing.

 

[fatbill717]

Many thanks to all who answered.
I have decided to go with the HD 4670.
At that price, will it be much better than my x850xt?
Will everything just plug in ?
Off the subject, but what's the best joystick for aircraft sims?

 

[rdb]

4850's are down below $140 with rebates

 

[Dekasav]

Yes it's a huge upgrade, HDR looks great (You get it now!). It will just "plug in". Unscrew/take out your monitor cable from the back of your card, pull out the power cable from your card, take it out of it's slot, put the HD 4670 in the slot, put in the monitor cable. (Install drivers on disc) Done.

 

[mactronix]

Yes it's a huge upgrade, HDR looks great (You get it now!). It will just "plug in". Unscrew/take out your monitor cable from the back of your card, pull out the power cable from your card, take it out of it's slot, put the HD 4670 in the slot, put in the monitor cable. (Install drivers on disc) Done.

You forgot to tell the Op to be sure to uninstall the old drivers properly first.
Mactronix

 

[megamanx00]

^+1