HAY GUYS

Nexius · Local time: Jul 28, 2008, 06:46 PM

Heya guys, looks like this sort of topic is pretty common so my apologies for adding yet another, but digging through a couple of the others didn't seem much help. So I'm looking to upgrade my PC, don't need anything too crazy, but would like to run more current games a bit better. I can run just about anything fine, but it would be nice to use all those fancy effects more and up the resolution, y'know? I -assume- my graphics card is what's currently holding me back, but not too sure.

Mobo: ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe
Proc: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+
RAM: 4GB Corsair something or other, don't remember the exacts
Video: Radeon X1600 pro

So assuming it is my card, what do you think would work well within the $200-$300'ish price range? (Though of course, if there's something cheaper that works great, I'm all for it) Also, should I go with NVidia or stick with ATI? And should I look into doing the whole Crossfire thing since my Mobo has two PCIe?

Hoping it is the card and not my mobo/processor, those things are a pain to replace. Either way, any advice is appreciated, thanks.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Nexius · Local time: Aug 16, 2008, 12:35 PM

Whoah, didn't even notice the replies here, sorry for responding late. I did a bit more research, and I did end up going with the HD 4850. Sure enough, it was my card holding me back, I went from running Bioshock on 1024x768 with medium'ish settings with some lag to max settings 1600x1200 smoothly. I could give Crysis or something a shot to really see how my system holds up now, but so far I'm more than satisfied with its performance.

As for ATI cards running hot, this thing sure does. It stays at a steady 75-80'ish C, but even after a long run it doesn't seem to heat up much more, and it's yet to have any problems. I dunno how it'd handle overclocking, but I don't have a need to really push it yet, and hopefully won't. I've just been taking a little more care and not leaving my system running for extended periods in case.

Thanks for the help guys.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Nexius · 03:26 PM

Well, correction on that. Obviously the stock fan settings are worthless, so after reading up a bit on how to adjust it I did. Set the fan to a steady 40%, and the temp dropped from 75 to 50 within minutes. A little odd having to go into text to adjust it, but was plenty easy with a nice YouTube tutorial.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.