Upgrade 4850 to what? pls help

[skate9345]

hi,

im thinking of to upgrade my old 512mb 4850 and im wondering what could be worth an upgrade, i can't max out fallout 3 on 8x aa i have to use 2x and it looks *** then and in far cry 2 i have to play on high in order to use 2x aa i can't even set it to ultra high without aa, my res is 1680 x 1050 and im on a budget,

the choises i have in mind is : HD4890 1gb, gtx260 core 216 896mb, hd4870 1gb, gtx 275

but in either of them i will be overclocking to the max and im aware of the 4890's overclocking potential but im thinking of raw performance and is it worth upgrading? will i be able to turn atleast the settings to ultra high with atleast 2x aa? and fallout 3 on 8xaa? without any lag? pls help

and Thanks in advance!

 

[obsidian86]

what are the rest of your specs?

 

[jay2tall]

In my opinion, I would not upgrade from a 48xx to another 48xx card or an nvidia of the same gen or performance level. If you are going to upgrade my opinion is to go with the 58xx series cards. A 5850 will run you $300-$310 but will basically double your performance. I'd like to know your PSU specs, but the 5850 uses pretty much the same amount of power as a 4850, maybe a little more at load.

If you have a crossfire motherboard, you can always try and run a 2nd 4850, but you have to make sure your PSU can handle it and that you have really good case airflow. It would be a cheap upgrade, but crossfire setups can be a pain. Trust me I tried to run (2) 4870s and the top card kept overheating. I sold them and got a 5870.

If you are on a tight budget, and a 5850 isn't possible. My honest suggestion would be to save your money, and wait till the prices come down and save a few more bucks. Unless you want to try your hand at crossfire. A 4850 obviously runs your games just not with all the visual goodness you want.