Upgrading from ATI X800XT, need some advice!

[Willdo]

Hi guys,

I'm running a several-years old Dell XPS, and I'm looking to upgrade the graphics card to help me run games a bit better (Oblivion, GRAW2, Company of Heroes etc). I've currently got a Radeon X800XT (please see the rest of my setup below).

I've done quite a bit of research, but I'm a bit confused by all the options. I was thinking of going for an X1950XTX, but there's all these HD cards out now too. I had assumed they were a direct upgrade from the 1950, but a lot of them seem to be very cheap. Can anyone enlighten me as to what they're about? Also, is it likely that upgrading my card this much will just leave me with bottlenecks in the rest of my system?

Thanks!
Will

Specs
====
Windows XP 32-bit
Intel Pentium 4 3.4Ghz CPU
Radeon X800 XT 256MB PCI-E Graphics card
3GB DDR2 RAM

[PsYkHoTiK]

Hi!

Welcome to TechARP!

Hmm..

Another thing we would need to know is what is the PSU that came with the XPS rated for?

GPUs tend to suck quite a bit of power at startup and possibly under load. Also does your current graphics card have a 6pin PCIe power connector?

There are some good cards out there for a relative bargain that would be way faster than the graphics you have right now.

Though you may experience some system bottleneck with that CPU you have right now on the more intensive games.

Personally I doubt Oblivion (taking from your list) will be too bad but Company of Heroes might still be a tad bit slower then ideal.

[Willdo]

Hi, thanks for the reply!

Looking in the XPS manual, the info I have on PSU is:

===
460 Watt
931.2 BUT/hr heat dissipation
Fixed-voltage power supply - 110V at 50/60Hz
===

I believe the X800XT has a 6-pin PCI-E connector, but I'm not 100%.

I'm a student at the moment and it'll be a couple of years or so before I can upgrade to a completely new system and CPU, so essentially I'm trying to get the most performance I can from my system, and it looks like at the moment my graphics card is my weakest point. I'm mostly concerned with running things like Oblivion, The Witcher, CoH, NWN2 at high detail settings, and would like the option of running some new games like Dragon Age Origins at reasonable detail settings.

Will

[Chai]

I think your machine should handle all the newer 4800 series. If you are worried about power consumption, maybe you can consider 4770 or 4830.

[PsYkHoTiK]

Yeah, either one of those ATI cards that Chai recommended would suit your needs real well.

Or for 20 USD more, you could get the 4850 as well (slight increase in performance - depends on game). The 4770 drives a hard bargain though (up to you to decide if ~20USD is worth the performance or not)

A lot of choices in that range.

[The_YongGrand]

The Radeons 4830, 4770, 4850 will really do well in those newer games.

For budget, you can consider the 4670 too.

[Lacus]

But 4850 sucks a bit more power imo...either get a 4770 or 4830 should be good enough

[Willdo]

Great, thanks very much guys!

I've had a look around for a 4830, and have found a Sapphire 4830 on Play.com for £90.

This is only £10 more than the 4770, which I can manage. Is Sapphire an ok brand for these cards?

Also, I take it the 4830 is gonna perform better than the X1950 XTX? The latter is about £20 more expensive for some reason!

Will

[Chai]

If 4770 is cheaper, then you should get that instead. It should be very similar to 4830, if not faster.

It should be easily faster than X1950 XTX as it's 2 generation old!

[Max_87]

Even with 2 cards, X1950XTX still won't beat 4770