Hi guys, I've been lurking in the forums for quite a while
and decided to register and begin my post about my planned
video card purchase.

Basically, I prefer to play my games on 1024x768 resolution (My
monitor is still a 17 inch CRT monitor and thus best resolution
is 1024x768?) because I do not see any visual improvement beyond
that. No AA but 30 to 60FPS constant if possible. Detail levels
from medium to highest are acceptable for me.

The most recent games I have bought are Oblivion and Bioshock, and
currently I'm not planning to buy any games more recent than those
two as my buying tendencies is to wait till their price goes lower
than half than when newly released.

Current my system consists of :

MSI K9VGM-V Motherboard
Athlon64 X2 5600 OCed to 3010Mhz (215x14)
Palit GeForce 7600GS 256MB gDDR3
2056MB DDR2-667 RAM

In this rig, I think currently the bottleneck is found in the
video card and because of it I'm planning to buy a Radeon
3850. So in my current playing preferences, would it be
better to buy a 3850 rather than a 3870 because I actually
prefer to play on 1024x768 performance wise?

I think you'll be fine with the 3850 if you don't upgrade the monitor. Before I switched to a 22", I was running a 17" CRT, and my x1900xt had Oblivion running at 40fps on near-max settings outside, so I was happy. But if you are going to upgrade your monitor anytime soon, I'd go for the 3870, instead.

The 3850 is fine - if need be, you can OC it a little.

Instead of the 3850, why not go for the 8800GT 256MB? At that resolution, this card is perfect for you.

No one's selling that item anywhere here.

While the GeForce 8800GT 512MB are selling for $280 here the cheapest. Insane I know, perhaps it's the demand or something.


The Radeon 3870 costs about $200 while the Radeon 3850 costs about $155. At that price it's nearly the same price as the GeForce 8600GTS. So the choice is very obvious for me.

yeah... @ that res, you won't need the extra memory either... go for it

If you're cool with 1024x768 then the HD3850 is the card for you. The 256MB 8800GT sucks

This week will be a good time to buy one. With the 3870X2 out alot of places are dropping the price on 3850's and 3870's.

Any suggestions on a place that is dropping its price on 3850's? Newegg has been pretty steady the past few weeks.

Thanks,

I also have a 17" crt and I use a 512mb 3850. In CoD4 I get about 50 fps online at 1024x768 with all settings on high. I can crank up the res alot more and my fps drops to mabey 40 but like you said on a 17" crt it's hard to notice any visual quality increase past 1024x768 so thats what I play most games at. Games like wow or CnC3 i can use max res 1600x1200 with all the settings on the higest and still pump 50+ fps. So ya I think you will be happy with a 3850.

Newegg has just dropped some prices on the 3870s and 3850s already. Lots of instant rebates and free shipping deals.

3850 should be great even if you upgrade to a 19" lcd (1280x1024)...