Graphics Card Upgrade

WillC · Jun 8, 2008, 06:11 PM

Hey guys, my brother has recently purchased all new computer parts and put them together himself. He realized that the gpu he bought was a pretty bad choice and now he is buying another. The one he is using right now is a ATI Radeon X1650 Pro. He is hopefully going to change it out for Diamond Radeon HD 3870 Video Card - 512MB GDDR4, PCI Express 2.0, CrossFireX Ready, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDTV, HDMI Support, Full 1080p, Video Card 3870PE4512SB in Canada at TigerDirect.ca .
His current pc specs are:

Asus M2A-VM-HDMI Motherboard - AMD 690G, Socket AM2, ATX, Audio, Video, DVI, HDMI, PCI Express, Gigabit LAN, USB 2.0, Firewire, Serial ATA, RAID in Canada at TigerDirect.ca

DCLCD by Sceptre DCL20A 20.1" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 5ms, 1000:1, WSXGA+ 1680x1050, DVI with HDCP, VGA(D-sub), Built-In Speakers, 16:10 Aspect Ratio in Canada at TigerDirect.ca

AMD Ahtlon 64 X2 6000+ Processor ADX6000IAA6CZ - 3.0GHz, 1MB Cache, 1000MHz (2000 MTs) FSB, Windsor, Dual-Core, OEM, Socket AM2, Processor in Canada at TigerDirect.ca

HITACHI 750GB SERIAL ATA HD 720032MBSATA-3G 0A35154 AV in Canada at TigerDirect.ca

and ram is 2 x 1024MB DDR2 400mHz.

Would this new card need more cooling than the X1650 and will it work with his other stuff? Also, is this a good choice for gaming?

Thanks!

Mousey · Jun 8, 2008, 06:44 PM

I'd say for the 20" monitor the 3870 should be a fantastic choice. What does he play? If anything lol

A friend of mine runs a 22" monitor with a single HIS Radeon HD3870 and it runs gmod fantastically even when there's insane amounts of physics going on

And why did he go AMD? Go intel seriously. AMD are completely screwed atm unless they really pull their finger out and somehow release a processor that attracts more hype than jeebus.

OldBuzzard · Jun 8, 2008, 07:17 PM

As long as he has a decent PSU that would be a good choice.

Mousey, some folks, and I am one, choose what products they use/buy based on things other than all out performance.

In my case I will not buy any Intel or nVidia product based on their past business practices. I refuse to do business with weasels.

That's why I stay out of the "What CPU/GPU should I buy" threads unless they are asking specifically which AMD or ATI product to get. I won't allow my bias in that area to effect someone else's decision.

BlueMak · Jun 8, 2008, 07:21 PM

What type of games does he play, it is very important.

The Radeon can be a great or a not so great card depending on the games you play.
Also, not sure if it has changed with the latest releases or not, but at least till recently ATI/AMD/Radeon cards did not allow through their drivers to play games that are not 16:10, with fixed correct aspect scaling ratio, which can be a big problem if you play mostly older games that do not have any support for widescreen resolutions. I am saying this because the monitor chosen is a widescreen one. Nvidia drivers support correct aspect ratio, though it is a hit and miss affair depending if the drivers feel like you are worthy enough for it or not lol.

I don't know about the quality of the monitor you have chosen, but they did provide with many monitors the tv show Earth Final Conflict, so extra points for that.

I agree the chosen CPU is not the best possible choice for performance, but it all depends on what you are buying it for exactly.

I have good experience with Hitachi HDDs, but others don't.

The stock/included cooling on any new graphics card is enough for it as long as you don't overclock it, so, don't worry about it.

WillC · Jun 8, 2008, 08:44 PM

Thanks.
Ok, so his CPU has already been bought and the 30-day money back return or whatever has ended, so he is basically stuck with that.
Mostly he plays Team Fortress 2 and some Civ/Settlers games. I think he also plays either world of warcraft or age of conan.

So basically what you are saying Bluemak is that he will not be able to play ancient/older games that do not use the same aspect ratio as his moniter/GPU?

procupine14 · Jun 9, 2008, 01:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldBuzzard

As long as he has a decent PSU that would be a good choice.

Mousey, some folks, and I am one, choose what products they use/buy based on things other than all out performance.

In my case I will not buy any Intel or nVidia product based on their past business practices. I refuse to do business weasels.

That's why I stay out of the "What CPU/GPU should I buy" threads unless they are asking specifically which AMD or ATI product to get. I won't allow my bias in that area to effect someone else's decision.

good one. Yeah that's basically the same reason I decided that I'm not going with a Q6600 rig any longer for my new build. Its back to AMD for me.

In any case thats a nice card. It should please him much better than that other thing

While i do agree that that CPU isn't the best in the world it is a great value (I personally would have gone for an AMD Toliman or Phenom but then again it all depends on how much money there is to be spent lol)

BlueMak · Jun 9, 2008, 06:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WillC

So basically what you are saying Bluemak is that he will not be able to play ancient/older games that do not use the same aspect ratio as his moniter/GPU?

He will be able to play them, but if they do not support widescreen resolutions and AMD hasn't fixed their drivers yet and the monitor doesn't have built in hardware scaling for that purpose, then he will probably have stretched game screen when playing any such game.

He might want to check this site for help with that.
Welcome to the Widescreen Gaming Forum

WillC · Jun 9, 2008, 11:32 AM

Ok, thanks again guys he is probably going to buy this. I will tell him to make his own account and post what he is going to buy before he does so. I did that and it was a great help.