Card for Call of Duty

Hi there,

My system, at the moment:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+
2 x 1GB DDR2-800 Dual Channel
WD Raptor 74GB SATA
Maxtor 250GB EIDE
GeForce 7600GS 256MB PCI-E
Asus 22" Widescreen LCD (1920x1080 native res)
Windows XP SP2

I play Call of Duty (World at War) and less frequently, WoW. WoW runs well, but Call of Duty is horrendously slow. The cinematics (intro video) when you start a new game are fine, but the game play is jerky. Graphics are about 3 seconds behind the audio. I am playing at 1920x1080 at high detail, which is part of the problem, but even at 1600xwhatever it's not much better. Any lower than that looks bad on this screen although once you get down to 1280x1024 it's bearable. 1024x768 is just fine, but again, looks nasty on this screen because of the high native resolution.

I am looking at either a 9800GTX+ ($199 at my local mom 'n pop computer store), or a 4870 for $239. Both cards have 512MB. Both are Asus brand.

Please share your experience/recommendations.

Thanks!

Thanks Kelfin. What do you think about the 4850?

It's between the 9800GTX+ and the HD 4870, closer to the 9800GTX+.

BTW, you should have a 450W+ PSU for any of these cards.

Edit: does your motherboard support SLI or Crossfire? If you have a SLI MB you should get the 9800GTX IMO, otherwise the HD 4870.

The 4850 is a great card.....I currently have an iceq4 version, and I max out cod4 and world at war with relative ease. I game at 1440x900.....so perhaps if you want to max those games out at your native resolution you should just go for the 4870.

My choices in the following order - 4870 - 4850 - 9800gtx+.

You'd probably be happy with the 4850 or 4870. I play COD4/5 with my 8800GTS 512MB and it pounds both games @ 1440x900. I can do 60-75FPS in both easily in most areas.

The 4850 beats out my 8800GTS overall. If you can afford the 4870 though, get a good deal/rebate, it wouldn't hurt to go that route. Just means you can hang on to that video card a little bit longer.

The deal Kelfen linked to looks good.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102810

If you go HD4850:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814131125

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814161235

hell if it is 10 dollar difference why not

Well...since call of duty is a very primitive and very low graphical game to begin with...even a 8600gts can/should be able to max it out at your native resolution if not close to maxing it out. Personally I still like the game cause its fun and I have an 8800GTS 512MB and I max out cod5 at 1920x1200 with around 400fps+. So if your only interested in playing this game, dont waste your money on a good card, cause you dont need one for this game