Hi all,

With ATI recently releasing it's new GPU's I was contemplating upgrading to CF 4850's. I was wondering if with my current configuration it would be worth it, or if I wouldn't see an upgrade.

AMD Athlon 5400+
3 GB DDR3 RAM
WD 500GB HD
ATI Radeon Sapphire X1950 CF
Vista Home Premium 32-bit
MSI K9A Platinum Mobo

Will I be bottlenecked somewhere, or would it be worth it to upgrade my cards to two 4850's.

Thanks in advance,

-Kyl

one hd 4850 would do the job depending on your res cause its such a sick card. id upgrade the cpu aswell if it was me!!! it would be the biggest bottleneck!!!

Of course the 4850 is worth it. It's if your system is worthy of bottle necking two brand new components. Your thread sounds like it is questioning the quality of the 4850. Is your system worthy of 2 4850's. I say no. Go with one and you'll be very happy over your old cards.

What kind of processor do you guys suggest I get with a K9A Platinum board? Would it be easy to put in, or would I have to replace the entire board? If it's gonna bottleneck the cards, there isn't any point to me getting one.

I am really starting to hate that "b" word. I wish people would learn what it means, and stop using it in every post.

First, the 5400+ isn't a bad chip. Look on the Toms CPU charts. Even the 5000+ is able to beat the 6300 on the gaming tests. The 5400+ is even faster then that. (we are talking stock here of course...) While its not the best/fastest, the 5400+ is a "good" CPU.

Second, as someone rightly mentioned, you have DDR2, not DDR3. There are currently no AMD systems that use DDR3.

Third, you can safely run the 4850, your 5400+ will not "bottleneck" it. Lets review the term "bottleneck". If you had a single core 3200/3500+, and had the video setup you did, then I would argue that you had a CPU "bottleneck". A true bottleneck means that you would see no increase in speed, even though you upgrade X component. If you upgraded your video hardware, and saw no increase in speed, you MIGHT have a CPU bottleneck. (it could also be a RAM issue, or a low resolution issue, etc.) I would dump the 1950pro CF setup and get a single 4850. I'm not sure your CPU is fast enough to feed two of them however. I disagree with you however, there is a point in you getting one. The single 4850 is faster then your current setup, and it consumes less power/outputs less heat.

Personally I would try just one 4850 and see how it runs. If it appears that the cpu is really hindering the graphics card the best option would go with an Intel mb & cpu. The other option would to go with the 6000+ cpu, but I don't believe this upgrade would really be worth it.

How would you know if it's bottlenecking, without comparasions though?

So basically, two 4850's would be wasted on my computer. Thanks for the help. I do run 4 monitors sometimes, hence the dual gpu setup, but if it'll be a waste I won't bother. Thanks a lot again. I'm hoping the 4850 will boost my performance for Crysis and AoC

2/3 times faster.

You mean it would be slower? or 2-3x faster?

CF doesn't do multi monitor support, so just do what you do anyways.

Buy a single 4850 for the gaming monitor. Put two screens on this card. Get a second AMD card for the 3rd and 4th monitors. (3450? 3650?) This way you get a card faster then your CF setup, four monitors, and no CF issues.

Just start with one and see how it works for you... then you can upgrade again whenever.

Im very glad i went to frys today... got my new BFG 9800GTX for $179!

4850... 9800... close price/close performance/both have small pros and cons....

JUST GET ONE AND ENJOY IT!

I would def. have to agree. A single core just aint gonna cut it in the game world 2day with games like Crysis, Flight Sim X,COD4 or any other so u shud def. upgrade your CPU