Keep X1950 or Get HD3850

[bobo2]

Thinking of a HD3850. Has anyone seen a difference in this and my X1950? Would like to try Bioshock on high will My X1950 work? BTW: my X1950 is a 256meg card. Thanks

 

[larciel]

Just got HD3870: moved from x1900xtx and it's so worth the money. MUCH less noise alone is worth it but now I can play 1920x1200 COD4 w/ all max

HD3850 shouldn't be much different. Go for it

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: larciel
Just got HD3870: moved from x1900xtx and it's so worth the money. MUCH less noise alone is worth it but now I can play 1920x1200 COD4 w/ all max

HD3850 shouldn't be much different. Go for it

Look at his CPU. A 2140 is a fine processor, but without any overclock, you're going to run into some cpu bottlenecking with a 3850/3870 or other current high range 3d card.

 

[Avalon]

I went from a 256MB X1950Pro (did you have pro or XT?) to a 256MB HD3850 and noticed a difference. My framerates in most resolutions were on average 33% faster. I had an OC'd E2140 though...unless you're playing at 1680x1050 or above, I think you'll be cpu limited.

 

[bryanW1995]

I went from an x1950xt 256 to a 3870 and the difference has been night and day. Ditto other comments re cpu limitation, however. Why are you not overclocking your cpu?

 

[watek]

If you're going to be running up coming games with more shader details, invest in a 512MB if it's in your budget.

 

[bobo2]

Thanks everyone for the reply. I will be OC'ing the CPU soon I just got this system running also the ECS G33t-M2 MB is not known for it's OC'ing ability. I would like everyone to know I haven't built a system since 02' got most of these parts from my son, newegg and Ebay. Is their some software I can use to OC the CPU? or do I just use the BIOS?

 

[LOUISSSSS]

USE THE BIOS to overclock

 

[JACKDRUID]

Originally posted by: larciel
Just got HD3870: moved from x1900xtx and it's so worth the money. MUCH less noise alone is worth it but now I can play 1920x1200 COD4 w/ all max

HD3850 shouldn't be much different. Go for it

3850 is much different from 3870..its midrange and will most likely not be faster than your 1950..

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: bobo2
Thanks everyone for the reply. I will be OC'ing the CPU soon I just got this system running also the ECS G33t-M2 MB is not known for it's OC'ing ability. I would like everyone to know I haven't built a system since 02' got most of these parts from my son, newegg and Ebay. Is their some software I can use to OC the CPU? or do I just use the BIOS?

You'll probably have to replace that for any decent OC. Oc'ing on borderline boards like that can lead to corrupted partitions sometimes, which is a huge PITA.

 

[kmmatney]

Originally posted by: bobo2
Thanks everyone for the reply. I will be OC'ing the CPU soon I just got this system running also the ECS G33t-M2 MB is not known for it's OC'ing ability. I would like everyone to know I haven't built a system since 02' got most of these parts from my son, newegg and Ebay. Is their some software I can use to OC the CPU? or do I just use the BIOS?

Use the BIOS is you can. I pin modded my cpu, so that it now defaults to the 266 Mhz front side bus, even on motherboards that have no overclocking whatsoever. This garauntees at least an overclock to 2.66 Ghz for my processor. For yours, it would make it go to 2.128 Ghz before you did any "overclocking".

A photo of the mod needed is here:

http://entertainment.webshots....1667960086116112ULvyBn

I was lucky in that we already had a window defog repair kit at my work, used for a project a while back, so I didn't have to spend any money on this. I just used tape to mask out the connection between the pins, and slapped the conducting paint on. This pin mod tells the motherboard to use the 266 Mhz bus speed for the cpu.


From the reviews at NewEgg, looks like your motherboard has some overclocking, so you should be able to just set the FSB to 266 for some easy overclocking. You may need to lower the memory speed, but probably not.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

I think the HD 3850 would be a big improvement. It shows performance of a 8800GTS 320MB. Get a 512mb version to future-proof somewhat and OC it by about 10%.
Somehow I don't think that a X1950 can match a 8800GTS 320.

Oh, and good luck with OCing.

 

[crisium]

I upgraded from an X1800XT 256mb to a 3850 512mb. Huge difference. And even with a socket 939 cpu. X1950 Pro would notice about the same difference, but if you're X1950XT you won't notice quite as much besides the extra memory, I reckon. That's still a powerful card. Which is it? If you have the Pro, upgrade right now.