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Thread: AMD 4850 with a P4 3GHz - Madness?

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    AMD 4850 with a P4 3GHz - Madness?

    Hi all,

    I'm thinking of updating my old work PC to be more of a media PC/second gaming PC and it's showing its age abit, especially in the noise department!

    Specs are:
    Dell Case
    Dell 350W Power Supply
    Dell 925X Motherboard
    Pentium 4 530 (3.0GHz), stock Dell Cooler
    4GB GeIL PC2-5300 (Added upgrade)
    1x 160GB HD, 1x 80GB HD
    ATI Radeon X800XT PCI-Express 256MB

    I was thinking of just upgrading the GPU at this stage, to keep costs down, to an AMD 4850 (~£110 at Scan). I have a feeling a motherboard and cpu swap would be better but that, with the graphics card, would bring it to about £250, which is quite a lot. That, and I think I'd need a new case would then be needed due to Dells proprietry fittings in its case, taking the cost even higher.

    Am I crazy to consider just a graphics card update at this time? I was thinking I could upgrade the rest at a later date?

    Cheers,
    G

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    Moosing about! CAT-THE-FIFTH's Avatar
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    Re: AMD 4850 with a P4 3GHz - Madness?

    The power supply would be my biggest concern as it is only 350w.Also the P4 would be a bottleneck in modern games IMHO. If I were to upgrade the graphics card I would get something like the bus powered HD4670 or a 9600GT which are relatively frugal gaming cards for power consumption.

    They should cost under £75 and would be a good upgrade over you existing card IMHO in newer games.

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    Re: AMD 4850 with a P4 3GHz - Madness?

    It'll be fine - a Dell 350W is very well rated and should be plenty for the 4850. Your problem will be solely on the connector front, but if the X800 took one then you can just use that.

    It'll be a big, noticeable and worthwhile improvement. Sure the CPU might limit you on some physics/AI heavy games, but just think of it as free AA/AF

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    Re: AMD 4850 with a P4 3GHz - Madness?

    I think your current CPU would be huge bottleneck TBH. As a comparison: Opteron Dual Core x64 1.8GHz (OC'ed to 2.25GHz) running an 8800GTX on WoW (which uses 2 cores) = 25-35FPS @1920x1200 high details. The same GFX card (which is slower than the 4850) on a Dual or Quad Core 2 @3GHz+ = Easily over 60FPS at the same or higher GFX settings. Your CPU is slower than the Opteron...

    A new GFX card might be worthwhile but the 4850 would be wasted as it won't perform anywhere near it's potential in most modern games.

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    Re: AMD 4850 with a P4 3GHz - Madness?

    Personally I would say not to go for a 4850 unless you plan to use it in a full new build sometime very soon. The CPU will be a huge bottleneck on that card, as someone suggested get something mid range, youll still notice massive improvements, but save some cash at the same time.

    Hawker

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    Re: AMD 4850 with a P4 3GHz - Madness?

    All interesting and valid views I think, thank you!

    Its pretty much as I'd assumed, the CPU would be a major bottleneck - it was just a question of how much...

    The ideal would be a new cpu, mobo and graphics card (and thus probably a new psu and case) but this seems excessive as it's my second PC. My main system is a 3XS Core2Duo 3Ghz, 4Gb, 8800GTS 640mb type affair so upgrading the second PC to much seems a bit redundant?

    I hadn't really considered the mid-range card option - what do people suggest? Maybe the 512MB Gigabyte HD4670?
    Or perhaps the 512MB HiS HD 4650? What do people think?

    If I go for one of the cheaper options, I could have a go at this to make the system quieter - more fitting for a media type second pc?

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    Re: AMD 4850 with a P4 3GHz - Madness?

    You could always upgrade your main PC's graphics card and use the 8800 in the media one (or sell it and buy a 4670, for lower power consumption) a 4850 or 9800GTX+ or if the funds allow a 4870 or GTX260 will give you significant benefits in your main PC.

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    Re: AMD 4850 with a P4 3GHz - Madness?

    Quote Originally Posted by Webby View Post
    You could always upgrade your main PC's graphics card and use the 8800 in the media one (or sell it and buy a 4670, for lower power consumption) a 4850 or 9800GTX+ or if the funds allow a 4870 or GTX260 will give you significant benefits in your main PC.
    Exvellent idea!!

    You could sell your 8800GTS 640mb for around £60 to £80 on Ebay and this would fund the purchase of the HD4670. The X800XT would sell for around £20 to £25 on Ebay too!! You could then replace the 8800GTS 640mb with a HD4850.

    Alternatively just replace the X800XT with a low powered media card like an 8400GS or HD3450.You will gain GPU assisted media playback and also these cards will tend to be quieter as they are easier to cool. Thye cost around £20 to £25 too. They will not be brilliant for modern gaming though.

    You could then upgrade the graphics card of your main pc to a GTX260 or HD4870 for around £170 to £180.
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 16-10-2008 at 01:12 PM.

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    Re: AMD 4850 with a P4 3GHz - Madness?

    Thanks for the suggestion Webby - I had actually considered (although not in detail) something similar to this, but the initial outlay is a bit high, especially having just received a rather scary phone bill!

    I'd probably want a 4870 in the main PC if I were to replace it, but I'm tempted to 'make do' with a 4650/70 in place of the X800 at the moment. That way, with selling the X800, I'm only looking at spending ~£40. If I was to go for the 'gold option' and get both the 4650 and 4870, I'd be looking at spending out, very roughly 50+180-70-20= £140.

    Thanks again for the suggestions though! And if anyone has any need of an excellent condition X800XT or 8800GS 640mb, feel free to contact me!

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