advice please

[dashar]

hi..

i got bs tonight and with my sys it is playable but on low.

 

so i went to toms hardware and they have an agp card ,Radeon HD 3850 512 MB.. £100 quid from scan .co.uk..

what do you think.. good review...

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2118-6.html

 

i know pci is better but i dont want to have to pay ms for a new copy of xp just for 1 sim.

 

asus a8v de / amd 64 dual core 2.4 gig. 2 gig ram / x52 / trakir 4 //

 

 

please give estimates to fps. ps current card sapphire x850 xt pe

 

 

 

Manufacturer: Sapphire Cooling: Fan

Chipset: HD 3850 Interface: AGP 4x/8x

Edition: Connectivity: 2 x Dual Link DVI-I

1 x HDTV

Chipset Features: AMD Xilleon HDTV Encoder

ATi 3Dc+

ATI Avivo™ HD

ATI PowerPlay™

High-Definition MPEG-2 Hardware Acceleration

Microsoft DirectX® 10.1

OpenGL 2.0

Shader Model 4.1

Unified Video Decoder

Core Clock: 668 MHz

Shader Clock: 0 MHz HDCP Ready:

Memory: 512MB CrossFire Master:

Memory Bit Rate: 256 Bit CrossFire Slave:

Memory Type: GDDR3 Low Profile:

Memory Clock: 1656 MHz VIVO:

Cores: 320 Package Type:

 

 

:helpsmilie:

Edited March 30, 2009 by dashar

[Safari Ken]

Don't think of it as being for just one sim, think of all those future games as well. :smilewink: That said, the 3850 would be a nice upgrade for you, if not revolutionary. But the charts on Tom's are the best research, in my opinion.

[spyda]

i think it would be a good way to improve your performance, i would expect constant 25fps on low maybe even with a few medium settings in there. but only one way to find out :thumbup:

[MTFDarkEagle]

mm-hmm... that's veeeeery difficult to say, since dont know anything about the rest of your system. But what I'd do is buy a new motherboard, its faster now and better for the long shot. You wont need a new XP since its installed on you HD (or is it on your MB?:joystick:). So go for a new MB, with PCI-E 2.0 graphics compatibility.

 

EDIT: please excuse me for not reading properly :P:P

You filed your system here. Right, so my advice now is: get a new MB =D :P

Edited March 30, 2009 by MTFDarkEagle

[dashar]

thanks for input guys ill go for the card since im sure xp is only valid to the mobo you put it on . eg u can get a new same type mobo but not diffrent /upgrade.... i think

[Safari Ken]

There's a really good chance (if not 100%) that you'll have to reinstall your OS with a mobo/CPU swap. When I did it, I was able to boot and access my files and whatnot, but I could tell immediately that the OS was not at all happy with what I'd done, so a reinstall was necessary.

 

However, you have a certain number of activations for your XP, so you probably wouldn't have to purchase a new copy, just reinstall. Of course, if you were to upgrade your whole system (which it sounds like you won't be doing), I'd recommend bumping up to Vista at the same time...

[Mustang]

hi..

i got bs tonight and with my sys it is playable but on low.

 

so i went to toms hardware and they have an agp card ,Radeon HD 3850 512 MB.. £100 quid from scan .co.uk..

what do you think.. good review...

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2118-6.html

 

i know pci is better but i dont want to have to pay ms for a new copy of xp just for 1 sim.

 

asus a8v de / amd 64 dual core 2.4 gig. 2 gig ram / x52 / trakir 4 //

 

 

please give estimates to fps. ps current card sapphire x850 xt pe

 

 

 

Manufacturer: Sapphire Cooling: Fan

Chipset: HD 3850 Interface: AGP 4x/8x

Edition: Connectivity: 2 x Dual Link DVI-I

1 x HDTV

Chipset Features: AMD Xilleon HDTV Encoder

ATi 3Dc+

ATI Avivo™ HD

ATI PowerPlay™

High-Definition MPEG-2 Hardware Acceleration

Microsoft DirectX® 10.1

OpenGL 2.0

Shader Model 4.1

Unified Video Decoder

Core Clock: 668 MHz

Shader Clock: 0 MHz HDCP Ready:

Memory: 512MB CrossFire Master:

Memory Bit Rate: 256 Bit CrossFire Slave:

Memory Type: GDDR3 Low Profile:

Memory Clock: 1656 MHz VIVO:

Cores: 320 Package Type:

 

 

:helpsmilie:

 

I've been using a Sapphire HD3850 AGP card since last july, it's been more than capable for the latest games.

 

Oh, my my rig is an NForce 3 motherboard, 2gig DDR500 RAM with a single core AMD 64 CPU.

 

I can run DCS:BS, online or offline with pretty good settings.

 

Seems you're sitting in the same boat as me so to speak, living in the UK and struggling along, trying to get a decent PC with whatever funds you have :) the 3850, compared to the x850, will be a big jump ;)

Edited March 30, 2009 by Mustang

[Vekkinho]

in my case...

 

My old X800 died on me few months ago and I bought PowerColor HD3850, 512Mb, AGP! It was new but second hand, guy who sold it was looking for a PCIx but his friend from USA brought him AGP that he couldn't use. So he decided to sell it cutting the price by half. I got if for 60€, it was unpacked!

 

I noticed no FPS gain 'cause my other components can't produce it. We all know FC being CPU clock dependant and my old PIV@2.8 can't push any more than it does. However, FPS became more stable, I mean there's no sudden FPS drops during explosions. I also noticed better picture quality, you know that visibility fog we see in FC?! Well it looks better with 3850, it's more dense, volumetric smoke too!

 

I use lots of scenery addons, Birdy's high scenery which adds bunch of trees in the map, I like heat blur, I use internal mirrors with medium setting, water is set to medium, LOD distances 15K/50K, plane textures I use are mostly 2048*2048 so I can't say I'm taking it easy on my rig but my FPS are relatively OK!

 

Lot's of FC players use no trees at all to get as much FPS as possible, but I believe it's kinda reducing the immersion, not using mirrors, canopy scratches and reflections is no good for me so it's really cranked up. It really burdens my rig but I noticed that having exact or maaaybe slightly better FPS with HD3850 over x800 probably means I reached my CPU ceiling. So I'm assured I'd have better FPS with better (faster) CPU. HD3850 is not being used completely because of my bottleneck CPU! It's underperforming in my rig, it can't show it full potential!

 

If I could find some better second hand CPU like PIV @ 3.4Ghz it would surely increase my FPS!

 

So yeah, go for HD3850 in AGP if you want to prolong your computer's life, it's the best AGP card you can find and it's pretty cheap but it won't show it's full beauty and performance because of other oboslete components!

 

Also have in mind that I had issues with Cat 9.2 and 9.3! Those drivers can't recognize AGP versions of HD3850 and won't install! Thing is, those new cards are produced in AGP only by manufacturers (PowerColor, Sapphire, Club 3D) and not by AMD/Ati, last AGP card that was officially introduced by Ati was X1950. Ati turned away from AGP few years ago but manufacturers can produce them so all newer AGP cards (series 2XXX and 3xxx) will have trouble with latest official Cats! So make sure you use drivers that come with installation disk, last good Cat for use with HD3850 is a 9.1!

 

Edit:

Perhaps Omega drivers might solve this problem, I can't say as I haven't tried!

 

Hope this was helpful!

Edited March 30, 2009 by Vekkinho

[dashar]

YEA WOWEEE, dident expect so many replies with good judgement n suggestions.

thks.Vekkinho. n Mustang,

this is great advice especially the bit a bout drivers .

IF i got a new mobo id need new ram ,(powersupply poss) so yes ill get the graphics card .

any one else use this new agp card????????

[dashar]

safari ken toms hardware is the biz, n thks spyda

[Mustang]

Also have in mind that I had issues with Cat 9.2 and 9.3! Those drivers can't recognize AGP versions of HD3850 and won't install! Thing is, those new cards are produced in AGP only by manufacturers (PowerColor, Sapphire, Club 3D) and not by AMD/Ati, last AGP card that was officially introduced by Ati was X1950. Ati turned away from AGP few years ago but manufacturers can produce them so all newer AGP cards (series 2XXX and 3xxx) will have trouble with latest official Cats! So make sure you use drivers that come with installation disk, last good Cat for use with HD3850 is a 9.1!

 

I can run ANY Catalyst driver, here is the latest 9.3 running on my HD3850 8xAGP card, everything is fine :thumbup:

 

 

the only ones who have issues with the latest drivers are the only who blindly use the auto installer....they forget to have the latest GART motherboard drivers installed and instead rely on the super crappy SMARTGART which f**ks up everything :D

 

heres an example:

 

With the 9.3, i manually unpack the driver to a folder, i edit the CX_77617.inf in the 9.3 and enter the command line:

 

"ATI Radeon HD 3850 AGP" = ati2mtag_RV630, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9515

 

after reboot, i direct the "new hardware wizard" to my folder, and it fully detects and sets up my card.

 

This works *every* time for me in every driver set :)

Edited March 30, 2009 by Mustang

[Vekkinho]

Trouble is I can't get GART drivers working with a ASRock i65G! I bought this MoBo last year 'cause my MSI Neo2 865PE died!

 

i65G was the only s478, DDR400 MoBo I could find here and it's a mATX that reduced my RAM from 4*1Gb to a 2*1Gb! MSI was bought in 2004 when I assembled my rig and lately parts start falling off slowly! Soon to be a digital typewriter, huh!!

Edited March 30, 2009 by Vekkinho

[Mustang]

Trouble is I can't get GART drivers working with a ASRock i65G!

 

oh well, lol, that sucks then, sorry :doh:

 

my experiences are with the super faithful nForce 3 250 motherboard (i use AGP GART 4.40)

[Vekkinho]

Yeah it really pissed me off: ASRock i65G being the only AGP, s478, DDR400 MoBo available in HW store, I always steered away from ASRock but you understand I couldn't avoid it this time...

[dashar]

ill get the board tomz what is that GART motherboard drivers

[spyda]

safari ken toms hardware is the biz, n thks spyda

no prob, my old rid was of similar setup