Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphic & Displays > Graphics Cards > 3870 vs 9600gt at low resolutions

3870 vs 9600gt at low resolutions

Forum Graphic & Displays : Graphics Cards - 3870 vs 9600gt at low resolutions

Tom's Hardware: Over 1.4 million members in 6 different countries available to answer all your high-tech questions. Sign up now! Its free!
Word :    Username :           
 

ok so i hv narrwoed down to these two cards. i will be playing all the latest and the upcoming games with all the eye candy (aa and af) but at low resolutions.which wud be better.

i got a 400w plus psu

c2d 2.66ghz,4gb ram

i wanna play assassins creed, stranglehold, pure, gta4, left 4 dead, bioshock, dmc4, etc.

which card wud be better in the long term at low resolutions

i got an old 15" crt monitor...cannot afford a new one for an year

p.s. i wont be upgrading my pc for abt 2 yrs now and pls dont suggest any new cards.


thnx in advance....cheers

Sponsored Links
Register or log in to remove.
- 0 +

You`ll almost certainly need a PSU upgrade for either as both need at least 400W according to most sites.
So, what is your PSU? If it lacks the power, then, obviously neither of the cards you`ve listed will work. If it does have the power, then buy the cheapest, either will drive a 1024x768 monitor perfectly.
But I`d really suggest this, it`ll use far less power and is cheaper than either while still giving enough performance to match your monitor:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814125244

Reply to coozie7

Well since a 15" will be limited to a max of 1280x1024 at best it really doesnt matter which one you get. they will both give insane frames at such a low res.

Though like was said your PSU will be lacking.

Unless your planning on getting a 22" or higher lcd later the cards your looking at are kinda overkill unless thats what you want.

If your really stuck on those two cards i can only speak for the 3870 since i havent had a chance to use the nvidia card you mentioned. i played cod4 with that card in xfire mode and got 70 frames pretty much all the time. but that was at 2560x1600 im sure it will do what you want at the res youll be using it at.

------------------------------ M2R32-MVP Deluxe || Athlon 6400+ x2 || 8gig PC800 Corsair Expert
ATi Radeon 4870 x2 || Sound Blaster XFi Titanium
2 X 500gig 1 X 250gig Hitachi || 16x Pioneer DVD-RW - 16X DVD
Samsung 305t 30" LCD 2560x1600 || 1000watt enermax Galaxy
Reply to EnFoRceR22

I have a Palit 9600 gt sonic and @1680 x 1050 far cry 2 bench mark maxes @85 fps and bottoms out @48 fps.
CoD 5 averages around 48 fps....My brother has the 3870 and it's about 2-5 fps faster...
Hope this helps!

------------------------------ Intel C2D E8400 @3.0GHZ, Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3L motherboard, 4GB OCZ vista platinum DDR2-1066 , Seagate320GBsataII 16MB HDD, BFG GTS250oc 512 GDDR3...3Dvision glasses and samsung 120HZ screen.
Reply to johnnyq1233
- 0 +

if i get both at the same price then which shud i go
and
does 3870 gv more frames than the 9600gt

this comparison is really confusing. dunno wich way to go

Reply to tufel
- 0 +

coozie7 wrote :

You`ll almost certainly need a PSU upgrade for either as both need at least 400W according to most sites.
So, what is your PSU? If it lacks the power, then, obviously neither of the cards you`ve listed will work. If it does have the power, then buy the cheapest, either will drive a 1024x768 monitor perfectly.
But I`d really suggest this, it`ll use far less power and is cheaper than either while still giving enough performance to match your monitor:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814125244




what when i upgrade to a new monitor? 4670 is just 128-bit which might prove to be bottleneck in the future. dont u thnk?

Reply to tufel

it COULD become a bottleneck... but it's still not a bad card...

It has more texture units than the 3870... which was the 3870's bottleneck..

yes, the 3870 IS better than the 4670... but it is better at different things. The 4670 doesn't suffer as much under AA

Reply to idisarmu

Another feature of the 4670 is that the power requirements allow you to sell to basically anyone with a 250-300 watt PSU and a PCI-e slot. something to think about as most people will not have a PSU with a 6 pin connector

Reply to The1tarheel
- 0 +

@TUFEL; I reccomended the HD4670 because of its good performance but mainly its low power requirements. Even at 22" 16x10 resoloution it will play modern games but at reduced settings.
As you have stated in your other thread, you do not have a great deal of money so I`m suggesting the HD4670 because it WILL run on your system and not risk damaging the PSU by placing it under a heavy load, while the faster 9600GT and HD3870 MIGHT run on your system and will strain the PSU more.
Once again, we need to know exactly which PSU you have!

Reply to coozie7
Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphic & Displays > Graphics Cards > 3870 vs 9600gt at low resolutions
Go to:

There are 1219 identified and unidentified users. To see the list of identified users, Click here.

Please mind

You are about to answer a thread that has been inactive for more than 6 months.
If you still wish to proceed, please ensure that your posting is original and does not duplicate or overlap any prior responses to this thread.

Add a reply Cancel
Sponsored links
  • Ask the community now
  • Publish
Ad
They won a badge
Join us in greeting them
  • 01:00 vianescute won the Freshman badge
  • 01:00 meywd won the Freshman badge
  • 01:00 nayega won the Freshman badge
  • 01:00 gpfear won the Freshman badge
  • 01:00 Conrad925 won the Freshman badge
  • 01:00 skythra won the Freshman badge
  • 01:00 Ckaz won the Freshman badge
  • 01:00 james59 won the Uniformed badge
  • 01:00 snarl won the Uniformed badge
  • 01:00 patlabor44 won the Uniformed badge