Sapphire ATI Radeon 3850 Cards (Size vs Speed)

There are two cards from Sapphire I've got my eye on right now.

SAPPHIRE 100248L Radeon HD 3850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3

or

SAPPHIRE 100249L Radeon HD 3850 1GB 256-bit GDDR2


Purpose:

Gaming - COD(WAW) and Crysis
HD Video / Blu-Ray Playback

Purely based on these specs of these cards, which card will perform better in Gaming?

Resolution wise I think 1GB will be better. But what is the major deal with GDDR3 as opposed to the GDDR2?

I have a feeling I should go with the 1GB verson, but I am asking for some purely technical advice and how it will fare in the real world.

Can you explain? and I mean in technical and real world applications.

9800GTX+ for $115AR.

SAPPHIRE 100265HDMI Radeon HD 4830 good cooler + overclocker

$99.99 ($84.99 after $15.00 Mail-InRebate pdf )
Free Shipping*

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102822

+2 for the 4830 :-)

Would the choice of procesor matter significantly if I were to go with the Sapphire HD 4830?

The 4830 is selling for about $115 CAD here on newegg.ca. Link: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produ [...] 6814102803

Not bad at all for affordable Multimedia and gaming on my screen which is not a HD ready monitor.

ATI Radeon cards seem to be on top on a technical and theoretical level, but how about nVidia? They seem to have slower clocks, less memory, etc, but benchmark performances are pretty close in real world tests. How about nVidia?

Again, would it make a huge difference which processor? More Cores? or Faster Speed? Because if speed is all I need, I can get a 2.8 Ghz single core processor or something with Hyper Threading. The Intel E8400 is a bit out there for me price wise.

Thanks.

if your going to get one of the 3850s you should definately get the gddr3 version. and dont think that you cant run crysis. i have a 3850 almost exactly like that one spec wise. its an msi and looks a bit cooler but that doesnt really matter. if its stock u can run crysis on high at a 1440X900 resolution, 2X AA, and get 20fps average in the open. if ur in more enclosed space its more like 26fps. when i over clocked mine with riva tuner i gained about 7 - 12 fps on average. so a constant 25 - 3x fps for crysis looks really good. most games have to have like 40 fps to play as good as crysis can with half that. If you dont like the idea of over clocking then run it at 1280X800 res, 2X AA, everything on medium. u'll get like 50+ fps and btw crysis on medium looks better than almost any other game on their highest settings. just something to keep in mind

well. i have a phenom 9600 black edition 2.3GHz stock. i have it overclocked at 2.7 GHZ stable. it is a quad core but my friend is using a dual core for his. either way i'd say you'll need at least a 2.5 GHz dual core so you can take advantage of the multicore function crysis uses. for gaming a dual core is a minimum requirement. you can get an amd 2.7 GHz for like 65 bucks free ship.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103300

512mb HIS IceQ Radeon HD 4670 Turbo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814161252

Slightly faster than the 3850 with no need for an external power connector.

It compensates. The memory is overclocked by 200mhz on top of the architectural enhancements and the 30mhz core overclock. Check the charts on here if you wish