Final HD 4850 Question!

[crazyguy_60]

OK, after a lot of posts about the Hd 4850, and different versions blah blah, I think I need to ask only this.
Is This Card worth getting, with games like F.E.A.R, Call of Duty 4 and a spot of Crysis on medium-high settings in mind?
Please give me as much feedback as possible, this is my first PC build, and I want this PC to be good!

 

[crazyguy_60]

PS
I will be using:
AMD X2 Dual Core AM2 Athlon 64 5200 2.7GHz
Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H AMD 690G Socket AM2
Corsair 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2
Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW
Maxtor DiamondMax 21 SATAII 250GB 8Mb
EZ Cool 600W PSU

With this card (hopefully)

 

[darkguset]

The card rocks, i own a HIS HD4850 and finished all 3 of the games you mentioned. FEAR i finished with an X1950PRO at high settings and 1400x900, the Call of Duty at 1680x1050 all settings max and 2x AA, and Crysis at 1680x1050, 0xAA, 16xAF.

The only drawbacks in your system would be the CPU and the 2GB of RAM.

I used an Intel E8400 @ 4.05GHz and 4GB of DDR2 @900MHz, 4-4-4-12

Hence a HD4850 will be more than enough for your system. You should consider upgrading the rest of your system before looking for a more powerful VGA.

 

[darkguset]

The card rocks, i own a HIS HD4850 and finished all 3 of the games you mentioned. FEAR i finished with an X1950PRO at high settings and 1400x900, the Call of Duty at 1680x1050 all settings max and 2x AA, and Crysis at 1680x1050, 0xAA, 16xAF.

The only drawbacks in your system would be the CPU and the 2GB of RAM.

I used an Intel E8400 @ 4.05GHz and 4GB of DDR2 @900MHz, 4-4-4-12

Hence a HD4850 will be more than enough for your system. You should consider upgrading the rest of your system before looking for a more powerful VGA.

Sorry i forgot to mention that if my X1950PRO could give me 38FPS at FEAR with everything maxed, then you can expect the HD4850 would give me something in the range of 60FPS+ solid.

 

[crazyguy_60]

OK, as a matter of fact, the E8400, the E7200 and the Athlon 64 5200 where the processors I was thinking about. But I think I'll go with an E8400
I've decided on a P5Q motherboard, as I have heard that they are very good.
Finally, I would like to know why you don't think 2GB is enough RAM.

 

[darkguset]

OK, as a matter of fact, the E8400, the E7200 and the Athlon 64 5200 where the processors I was thinking about. But I think I'll go with an E8400
I've decided on a P5Q motherboard, as I have heard that they are very good.
Finally, I would like to know why you don't think 2GB is enough RAM.

Hey mate!
The E8400 is the best choice of all for gaming. It overclocks easily close to or above 4GHz. is dual core and has 6MB of cache 2 (3MB per core). It is also quite cheap and affordable, although the price has gone UP the last 1-2 months since they are selling like hotcakes!
Anyway, excellent choice!

Regarding the RAM, it is not that i believe that it is not enough, actually 2GB is right on the limit where you could see a difference in your games.

Most games will not even touch anything above the 2GB limit, hence you are quite safe. Crysis is beginning to change that with accessing as much RAM as 3GB+ easily. Although it will use that RAM, if you are playing in lower resolution and settings you will not see much a difference. BUT in higher resolutions and settings it might make the difference between 28 and 34fps. Now that might not seem much, but it helps you get more than 30fps and will make your game seem more fluent, with less sags and "freezes" in the game. Hence helps the actual immersion in the game. Less "stuttering" etc etc.

The other reason i would suggest getting 3-4GB of RAM would be if you sometimes want or need to Alt+TAB your way out of a game for whatever reason (answer MSN, run a trainer program to cheat in the game, etc etc.). With 2GB it might take you up to 30 seconds to see the desktop. With 4GB it will only take you 2-5 seconds max.

As you can see it is not necessary to upgrade the RAM, but it will help your system to become much more "fluent". But i lived with 2GB before and jumping to 4GB did not make a big difference in games. Only the desktop in general and multi-tasks have become much more fluent. Hence you can leave that upgrade for later on. You can try with 2GB first and see if you are happy. If you are then stick with it.

Enjoy your new system!

 

[kingtz]

OK, after a lot of posts about the Hd 4850, and different versions blah blah, I think I need to ask only this.
Is This Card worth getting, with games like F.E.A.R, Call of Duty 4 and a spot of Crysis on medium-high settings in mind?
Please give me as much feedback as possible, this is my first PC build, and I want this PC to be good!

Just to give you a reference, I am running:

Asus HD4850 512MB
P5Q PRO board
4GB DDR2 PC1000
Vista Home Premium 64
E8400
All on Factory settings, no OC

for COD4, I play with everything Maxed, 4AA, 8AF @ 1680x1050, and get 80-92FPS. On really intense fights with flash bangs, smoke grenades, air strikes and helis all going off simultaneously on a 52 player map, it might temporarily drop down to 70FPS. On some of the smaller maps, I consistently get 91FPS.

But yeah, if you're running vista, get 4GB ram at least. Makes running different programs simultaneously less painful and you won't crash if you Alt-TAB.

 

[crazyguy_60]

OK. 4GB it is then!
Thanks both of you for your help, I'm almost ready to go ahead with the build now.
Buy before I do, I have one last question.
Will all of the above parts that I posted Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW
Maxtor DiamondMax 21 SATAII 250GB 8Mb EZ Cool 600W PSU and now and E8400, 4GB or RAM, and a P5Q motherboard) work together running on Windows Vista Home Basic well?
Thanks so much for your help, my one year long saving up and part choosing quest is almost at an end! (I'm only 15)

 

[kingtz]

Your parts are fine, but why are you getting Home Basic? IMO, it's kinda crappy. Might as well get Home Premium (the OEM version) while you're at it. ANd make sureyou get the 64bit Vista or your ram won't register at 4GB.

 

[SpinachEater]

OK, as a matter of fact, the E8400, the E7200 and the Athlon 64 5200 where the processors I was thinking about. But I think I'll go with an E8400
I've decided on a P5Q motherboard, as I have heard that they are very good.
Finally, I would like to know why you don't think 2GB is enough RAM.

Good choice. The AMD CPU would hold you back a bit. Are you using vista? If you play Warhead it takes up to (from what I have been hearing) 1.5 GB of RAM. Vista-32 on my system uses around 700-800MB. You would run out if using only 2GB on Vista. Getting a 2x2GB kit is the way to go. It is all you need at the moment. Check out Tigerdirect. I got a blackfriday flier with Corsair XMS 4GB DDR2800 for 31 some bucks. Sale ends today. Snag em like they're hot.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=3228139&sku=C13-6082

P.S. Do get a 64 bit version OS if possible.

 

[crazyguy_60]

OK, so Vista Home Premium OEM, 64 bit edition
Thanks for your help