Radeon 4890 question/concern

[bowhunterOH]

Hello everyone. I am new here. I just bought a XFX Radeon 4890 to replace my Geforce GTS 250. Well I put it in and was expecting a decent performance jump but it turns out that I got no improvement what so ever at 1680x1050. In Crysis Warhead, I got about 33 fps with both cards. In COD4, the GTS 250 actually got a few fps more than the 4890. I have 9.12 catalyst installed and the most recent nvidia driver as well. What is causing this? Is another part of my PC slowing it down? Below is my PC. Thanks for any help!

AMD Phenom x3 8750 at 2.4GHz
4GB PC2-6400 RAM
500W Antec Earthwatts PSU
Windows Vista

 

[rolli59]

Your upgrade was not massive and you should not have expected a big WOW factor. The GTS250 handles every thing well at 1680 x 1050. It is probably the 2.4GHz speed of your CPU that is leveling the GPU's out. You have two options, overclock your cpu I believe the 8750 is a BE with unlocked multiplier or turn up some eye candy (AA) that is where you will see the biggest difference.

 

[bowhunterOH]

Yeah, I knew it wasnt that big of an upgrade but I thought I would have seen a little more improvement. Thanks for the help!

 

[welshmousepk]

well, i imagine the CPU bottleneck is somewhat to blame there.

you have a pretty weak CPU, so the GPU change is likely being held back.

plus, crysis is very nvidia favoured. it performs better on nvidia card anyway/

but as roli said, that not much of a jump. youve basically gone up only 2 steps, in terms of available upgrades.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Overclock your CPU to around 2.8-3.0GHz.

A 4890 is equal to a GTX275, so it would be at least a two tier upgrade.

9800GTX/GTS250 < 4870 512 ~ GTX260 192 ~/< 4870 1GB ~ GTX260 216 < 4890 ~ GTX275

 

[bowhunterOH]

Okay, very good. Thanks for all the help!

 

[welshmousepk]

yep, unfortunalty the original phenoms are also very bad OCers. lots of heat output and instability at high voltages.

if your mobo supports it though you can grab a 550/720/955 phemom II, any of which would help alot.

as we've said though. youve only upgraded by a few steps essentially. but with a CPU upgrade, the difference should be more noticeable.

 

[bowhunterOH]

I just wanted to update this thread to thank those that helped me and to inform others that might be having the same problem. It was definantley the CPU keeping the 4890 held back. I bought a brand new AMD Athlon II x3 435 and OC'ed it to 3.23GHz and now I get about 41 FPS in Crysis Warhead opposed to the earlier 33. Thanks again!

 

[rolli59]

Good choice enjoy!

 

[sayantan]

I just wanted to update this thread to thank those that helped me and to inform others that might be having the same problem. It was definantley the CPU keeping the 4890 held back. I bought a brand new AMD Athlon II x3 435 and OC'ed it to 3.23GHz and now I get about 41 FPS in Crysis Warhead opposed to the earlier 33. Thanks again!

hey I also have the same problem .....Does your motherboard support AM3 processors?

 

[bowhunterOH]

hey I also have the same problem .....Does your motherboard support AM3 processors?

Hello there. I will send you a private message.