nVidia 5900 replacement

[h_pavon]

Hello guys!

Just need to hear from you experts on this matter..... I recently installed Far Cry on my system:
AMD 2700XP
512mb 333fsb DDR Ram
80Gb 7200 WD HD
Leadtek Winfast FX5900 LX Version 2.8ns ram

I was dissapointed to see that the game didn't run smoothly when I maxed all the options at 1024x768 display resolution...... I'm planning on swapping the FX5900 LX for the ATI 9800 Pro that runs around $200.00 in NewEgg........ will I get noticeable performance gains in Far Cry and all the new games to come (HL2, Doom3, STALKER, etc....) with the ATI 9800 Pro 128mb, can't go over 200 dollars so that's my only choice for the moment.

Will CPU & Ram upgrade increase the game perfomance of my pc or the ATI will be enough, if that is the case!

Please advice me on this matter, Thanx in advance.

 

[Arris]

Well I'm running FarCry with all graphic settings on and medium AA and it runs nice a smooth, mind you I'm running it at 1024x768.

Athlon 2100+ 333fsb @ 2.17Ghz
Abit NF7-S v2.0 nforce2
1Gb OCZ EL-DDR PC3500 (2-3-3-7)
Sapphire 9800 (overclocked to pro speeds)
Western Digital 80Gb 8mb 7200rpm
Creative Augidy2

 

[h_pavon]

Thanx for your post Arris.

Well!.... I was trying to run the game with all options maxed out cause that's what high end graphic cards do, not just FPS.... what I mean by maxed out is Ultra High settings in all the game options, but keeping the display at 1024x768.... which means 8xAA and 8xAF...... I know I can play the game fairly well if I lower AA to 4x.

But still!...... my main concern is whether I should swap the video card or not..... or if I need more ram or CPU power to achieve the performance I'm expecting from my system?

Once again thanx everyone for your kind help on this matter!

 

[LNCPapa]

Think you're asking for a bit much - doubt you'll find a card capable of what you're asking for today. It's a brand new game using many of the new capabilities of the new cards - it's gonna take a while. Remember Quake III when it first came out? I doubt you could run those settings very well even on Need 4 Speed Underground which has been out for a while now. Don't worry though, some new hardware is just around the corner.

 

[agissi]

Yeah FarCry is VERY demmanding. A 9800 may be able to pull the FPS you want at those settings, as FC may like the ATi hardware much more then nVidia;s, but I think LNCPapa is right..

Ofcourse if you do want to play at those settings with non-laggy FPS, you could always buy a 9800PRO.

 

[Rick]

Any possibility it is the CPU that's the problem here?

The 5900 is a pretty top-of-the-line card and a 2700+ just isn't that awesome anymore.. With 3.4Ghz systems out etc...

 

[Steg]

Rick - when it comes to gaming those 'blazingly fast' 3.4Ghz P4s dont pull anything like the performance boost you expect 1.5Ghz of extra processing power should. IF your CPU is holding you back h_pavon then buy an Athlon 64 - for gaming they will cream the P4s any day.

For games like Far Cry both CPU and Graphics cards are stretech to their limits. A new CPU & some more (1gig+) nice high speed ram would do your performance alot of good - but you will get the biggest performance boost from a faster graphics card - but then the bottleneck WILL switch to your CPU and RAM.

As for graphics cards running Far Cry with maxed out AA/AF is more or less impossible on any card today. A 9800XT might do it - but not wonderously smooth. If you are considering upgrading wait for the next generation of graphics cards (NV40 & R420) and then buy an NV40 - 16 pipelines of pure speed - cant be bad.

Steg