Upgrading from a HD 4850?

[Fufanu]

Was wondering if people could give me some advise as to which graphics cards i could upgrade to.

my system specs are as follows:
GPU: HD 4850 512mb
Ram: 4gb (at 3.2 due to 32bit windows 7)
CPU: Athlon II X3 3.2ghz
PSU: 550watts (cant remember make and its late so i cant be bothered to check the back of the computer)
Motherboard: asus m7n38-am2+
Monitor: LG Flatron W2243S

ive been thinking of upgrading my graphics card latley and as i havent been keeping an eye on the latest cards im not sure what would actually give me a noticable increase in performance. Looking around the novatech webiste ive seen a 5770 1gb gddr5 for just shy of £60. i would be happy to switch over to nvidia as ive heard that the gtx 460 1gb card is a good one but on the same site it is nearly double the price. my budget for a new graphics card is about £100 but i am hoping to spend £60 to £80 (not the biggest but was hoping to get a semi decent upgarde for that price).

I try to run games at 1920x1080 as much as i can but as of today playing bf3 beta droped down to 1280x720 to get a decent playable framerate.

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

my only other concern for an upgrade would be a new motherboard as currently my 4850 is nearly tocuhing my sound card so a decent but not to expensive motherboard with a bigger gap between the PCIe and the other PCI slots (as the the newer cards are looking quite chunky) is what im looking for. ive seen an MSI 870-C45 AMD 770 (socket am3) for £44, but i have no idea if its any good, ive not set a budget for the motherboard yet so im open to all suggestions, but preferably on the cheap side!

Many thanks.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would be more concerned about the quality of your PSU. What model do you have??

[Fufanu]

I would be more concerned about the quality of your PSU. What model do you have??

Hi Just checked, i have a Hiper Type M 530w psu. thougth it was 550.

[mikeo01]

Are you into the newest PC games?

A HD 4850 is pretty decent, when overclocked its bit better.

Depends on your PSU. Hiper are not too bad, your RAM and CPU is fine so that shouldn't bottleneck any newer card you may upgrade to.

HD 5770 is pretty decent, not sure on the price though. Some shops sell for around £70.

It more powerful than the HD 4870 x2 but not as powerful as the HD 4890. A HD 4890 should be decent price if you look around. BUT a HD 5/6xxx series will hold out in the future for the upcoming directx versions and openGL

[teejay73]

Are you into the newest PC games?

A HD 4850 is pretty decent, when overclocked its bit better.

Depends on your PSU. Hiper are not too bad, your RAM and CPU is fine so that shouldn't bottleneck any newer card you may upgrade to.

HD 5770 is pretty decent, not sure on the price though. Some shops sell for around £70.

It more powerful than the HD 4870 x2 but not as powerful as the HD 4890. A HD 4890 should be decent price if you look around. BUT a HD 5/6xxx series will hold out in the future for the upcoming directx versions and openGL

I think you meant the hd4870 as opposed to the hd4870x2.., I think the OP would be hard pushed to find any 4 series cards brand new, a plentifull in the 2nd hand market maybe, also I note you have none of nvidia offerings there like the gtx260, 1 uk retailer is selling nvidia old stock refurbs with a 1 yr warranty, might be worth a look?

[teejay73]

Hi Just checked, i have a Hiper Type M 530w psu. thougth it was 550.

I used to have a hiper psu 530w and though not a bad psu back then, some had faults and the company since stopped making psu`s, that said though there is more to the psu than just using the wattage as a defining guide, As most of your critical components use the 12v rail, You will need to ensure that the psu will supply enough amps to your gfx card and that it supplies enough watts on the 12v rail, on your psu, The 12v rails (you have two on that psu) supplies a combined amperage of 37 volts and a total wattage of 336w, that is assuming you have the "type r" version like I had?

Remember before you purchase a new gfx card, ensure that your psu can run it and the rest of your system, Personally I would be wary of a hiper unit that has been running a while and then chucking a new, more powerfull card at it.

The good thing about those Hiper units was they supplied them with a great toolbox that I still use till this day!!

[teejay73]

This is the spec of your psu, which is slightly more than my old type r unit.

[teejay73]

MSI 870-C45 AMD 770 (socket am3)[/I] for £44, but i have no idea if its any good, ive not set a budget for the motherboard yet so im open to all suggestions, but preferably on the cheap side!

Many thanks.

Just to point out, at the moment you are using DDR2 ram on your am2+ mobo, to upgrade to a AM3 board you will need DDR3 ram, not a biggie as DDR3 ram is very cheap at the moment and 8gb can be had for very little these days, you might also consider upgrading to win7 64 bit to utilise the full amount of ram you have available....Just a thought.

[MSIC]

Hi Fufanu,
The guys here are correct to ask about your PSU as it is important that you dont "upgrade" from a fully working system to one that blows up!!
That said, i'm going to leave the specifics of the PSU to others.

In terms of your original request, I'd honestly have to caution against upgrading at this time.
Firstly, a 4850 is still a pretty good card, a little old yes but you are going to need to get something more powerful than a 5770 in order to really notice a gaming difference (IMHO, I never upgrade unless there is a minimum 50% difference in something like framerates). A Radeon 6850 would be worth I think, but is (just) over your budget. Maybe wait for the 7000 series to come out?

That said, there would be side benefits in such an upgrade - a reduction of power use, as well as access to Dx11 features assuming you are going to run Vista or Win 7.

[mikeo01]

Quick question, how good is the HD 4850? Is it worth going from a HD 4830 to a HD 4850. To be honest I only want to be able to run Splinter Cell Conviction and ARMA II smoothly.

[teejay73]

Quick question, how good is the HD 4850? Is it worth going from a HD 4830 to a HD 4850. To be honest I only want to be able to run Splinter Cell Conviction and ARMA II smoothly.

From memory I remember that the hd4830 was a bit of a good overclocker and could match the stock HD4850 when clocked, That said though the 4850 was also quite good at OCing so that would negate a 4830 clocked, If you are after a stock hd4850 performance then the 4830 will do you well at the res you game at assuming you OC it.

[mikeo01]

I have overclocked my HD 4830 from 575mhz to 950mhz and memory clock from 900mhz to 1150mhz.
Its as cool as ever.

So I should stick with my HD 4830 then?

[teejay73]

I have overclocked my HD 4830 from 575mhz to 950mhz and memory clock from 900mhz to 1150mhz.
Its as cool as ever.

So I should stick with my HD 4830 then?

A good overclock you have there and yes I would stick with what you have as you will not see any benefit from getting a stock 4850 to what you have now, unless you want to get another 4830 and xfire, Given that you have the very excellent 650tx, you can rest assure that power will not be a problem!!

Mmm just seen your Mobo, dont think it has xfire support!?

[Pob255]

the 4850 was better than the 4830 (even if running at the same speed)
However if all you're running is a 1024x768 monitor (that must be rather old, as most 17-19" lcd monitors became 1280x1024 in about 2007) then your 4830 should still be fine.

For a cheap 2nd hand option a 4870 or 5770 would be good
For a cheap new option a 6850

[Fufanu]

Cheers for the replys, im having to put the ugrade on the backburner at the mo as i have my mot for my bike this month and i know it needs a few things done so thats nearly £200 gone!

ive not had any trouble yet with my PSU and didnt know Hiper stopped making them, might just have to upgrade that to be on the safe side when i do things. think i might just hold on to the 4850 for a bit and over clock it some more (its currently at 700mhz core, 1125mhz on the memory) and wait for things to come down in price some more, any idea on the the 7xxx series is going to come out? also what is the gtx260 in comparison to the other cards that have been mentioned.

If i was to up the budget to £130 - £150 what cards should i be looking at and would they give a more noticeable increase in performance.

Regarding the upgrading of the motherboard i was looking at ram the other day and was quite suprised how cheap ddr3 is!

thanks again.

[teejay73]

Cheers for the replys, im having to put the ugrade on the backburner at the mo as i have my mot for my bike this month and i know it needs a few things done so thats nearly £200 gone!

ive not had any trouble yet with my PSU and didnt know Hiper stopped making them, might just have to upgrade that to be on the safe side when i do things. think i might just hold on to the 4850 for a bit and over clock it some more (its currently at 700mhz core, 1125mhz on the memory) and wait for things to come down in price some more, any idea on the the 7xxx series is going to come out? also what is the gtx260 in comparison to the other cards that have been mentioned.

If i was to up the budget to £130 - £150 what cards should i be looking at and would they give a more noticeable increase in performance.

Regarding the upgrading of the motherboard i was looking at ram the other day and was quite suprised how cheap ddr3 is!

thanks again.

The gtx260 was a bit slower than a hd4890, have a look at this, as this will give you a rough guide of performance for gfx cards http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/175?vs=170

For a budget of £130-£150, You could look at either a hd6870, which is a good card for the money and is a great card in xfire (if you wanted to go that route in the future) or Nvidia`s gtx560, which is on par performance wise with the hd6870, though being Nvidia, costs slightly more for the same performance, both cards are dx11.

As a suggestion, If you look at upgrading your psu, Then I would recommend the corsair 650tx, I have this psu myself and it is rock solid and offers a great deal of amps and watts on the single dedicated 12v rail.

Hope this helps...