Reasonable low price choice for 1680x1050

I am getting a new monitor in the next few days, and think that my 2900gt may well be pushed above its limits at 1680x1050, previously I have always had CRT monitors (I miss my 22" phillips, may it rest in peace) so didn't mind dropping the res a bit because the pic quality never suffered but with LCD I will pretty much be requiring a card that can output native res comfortably.

I mostly play the following games:
http://www.xfire.com/profile/goldendragoon/
And Left 4 Dead, which for some reason isn't on that list.

However, as I am buying the monitor (this ****e 17" dell crt needs to die), and have to buy a new sound card as a priority over a gfx card, I may well only have ~£120 or so, can I get a worthwhile upgrade for my 2900gt at this sort of price, or should I wait with it for a while and save up a bit more?

Either a 4850 or a 4870 for that kind of money.


The 4870 is a fair bit better maybe save a few more pennies :P

Think the 4870 can be had at novatech for around 150ish

At 1680 x 1050 a Radeon HD4830 would do, and if you're looking to buy now go straight to ebuyer and grab this Force3D card which has just appeared today at an unbeatable £81.61!!! Plus you'll get free delivery with their super-saver 5-day option. For the money you'd be daft not to get one.

Go! Buy It!

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Originally Posted by Golden Dragoon

I am getting a new monitor in the next few days, and think that my 2900gt may well be pushed above its limits at 1680x1050, previously I have always had CRT monitors (I miss my 22" phillips, may it rest in peace) so didn't mind dropping the res a bit because the pic quality never suffered but with LCD I will pretty much be requiring a card that can output native res comfortably.

I mostly play the following games:
http://www.xfire.com/profile/goldendragoon/
And Left 4 Dead, which for some reason isn't on that list.

However, as I am buying the monitor (this ****e 17" dell crt needs to die), and have to buy a new sound card as a priority over a gfx card, I may well only have ~£120 or so, can I get a worthwhile upgrade for my 2900gt at this sort of price, or should I wait with it for a while and save up a bit more?

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A radeon 4850 will play all of those games easily and costs around £120 so that's the card I would go for.

Been a while since I looked at graphics cards and didn't even know the 4830 existed, I assume from looking at it it is similar to my 2900gt, in that it is a full featured 4k series with some pipes disabled?

In comparative terms the 4830 is similar in performance to the 8800/9800 GT if that helps you place it performance wise, and yes it is a 4850 with some pipes turned off (160 to be exact) and a lower clock speed.

I had a 3870 which is similar in performance to the 2900XT and moved up to a 4870 (got myself a bargain) and it makes a huge difference in performance at 1680*1050 but a 4830 or a 4850 will still be a decent boost from the 2900GT.

If you can wait it out for a couple of months the new revision of ATI cards will appear in April time, if you can not wait I think I would be tempted by that 4830 for £80 from eBuyer that is some serious bang for buck.

Any details on the new cards, or are they just a process shrink of the curent ones like the 3k series were? (the 2k's really needed it, one benefit of a newer card will be much lower power usage, they are power hogs when folding)

Edit: on an unrelated note, where do you get your F@H sig from? mine tends not to update that often, and is a nightmare to set up.

As a few others have said in this thread. The HD 4850 is a solid performer at this resolution at a lower cost. I would definately recommend it.

Yep 4850 would be a fine choice for the £120 region, as mentioned the 4830 would save money though and probably take most of what you throw at it at that res. Still though, the 4850 would probably ensure you can play tommorrows games as well at least for a bit longer than the 4830