Graphics How Faster would a 5850 be over my 4870 1Gb

The problem is RAM is so damn expensive right now!!! I'm still pondering if I should get more, as another 4GB of mine is £100!!!!

 

XP Pro is 32 bit. So yes, it won't even be able to see 4 gig. The difference between 2 and 3 gig will mainly depend on what he has running in the background. If his XP is really lean already then it probably won't make much of a difference.

He's playing at 1080p... So yeah, 2gig would help for that. But even a 1gig 5850 would be a good upgrade from a 4870. As for GTA4 I played it on 2 gig and it was fine. Like I said, if it was Vista or Win7 though it would be a different story. Same goes for running all kinds of junk in the background. With XP though it's possible to keep it very lean.

If it still doesn't work well at 1680x1050, you might have a compatibility issue. It would be worth trying the game with all the stuff on your taskbar closed to see if that helps. Close everything like virus shields, itunes, defrags, etc. Just remember to turn the important stuff back on again after you finished testing the game. Also, can you test to see if your CPU gets maxed out while you are playing? You can do that with task manager. Your CPU is plenty powerful enough, but I think your graphics card is holding you back. As others have said, the 5850 is a fast card if you could afford it. Games are so graphics card dependent so something like that is pretty essential now if you want to play your games with nice settings.

 

For people who say that he doesn't need +2GB of RAM, they're in denial.

Play some STALKER or Crysis, and then tell me that.

 

I play them on Win 7 with only 2GB, and its just about ok, borderline I'd say, but I'm looking for more as it is needed.

 

Has even DDR2 gone very expensive too? It was super cheap last time I looked. DDR3 on the other hand.. ouchie.

 

Well a 4GB kit of my Reaper stuff is around £100!!! The DDR3 version of mine my mate uses has gone up £40 since april!

 

Wow, nasty.

Reminds me of years ago when there was that big fire that bumped RAM prices.

 

This is just price fixing...

 

Don't forget that GTA4 is a pretty hard game to get running completely smoothly, and it's seems to be more CPU intensive than GPU.

I have a similar spec to the OP and I have to drop the resolution to 1440x900 on my 22" screen to get a decent fps.

 

every major benchmark of the 2gb HD5870 compared to the 1gb HD5870 shows that theres is only a difference at ultra high res, even then the difference will only be a few FPS.

i game at 5760x1080 and i doubt id even notice a 2gb frame buffer over a 1gb.

 

please note that i have no programs running in the background the pc has a hand full of programs on none of which running whilst Gaming, I have orderd an other 2Gig of ram £55 from scan (matching pair to what i own) i know this will limit me from pushing the BLK past 200 but i am happy @4.2Ghz, i am also going to reformat and reinstall and see if a clean driver install helps

 

hardly anyone but the enthusiasts run 64 bit and even some enthusiasts swear by 32 bit because it is less issues with peripherals (lack of drivers mainly).

I myself run 64 bit but I really should have more ram than 4GB though. But cant afford anything at the moment. Barely enough for food.
This computer is almost 3 years old too.

But yeah it was totally stupid of you guys to suggest RAM upgrade when he obviously runs a 32 bit OS. You should have suggested he upgrade to Windows 7 64 bit as well.

Not everybody runs Windows 7 yet guys.. calm down..

maybe time for a new "what OS do you run?" poll?

 

Yeah, I admit I assumed the OP was running 64bit; it's what most enthusiasts run. However, the OP will still benefit from an upgrade as he'll actually be able to address ~3GB of system RAM and 1GB of VRAM - that extra RAM will help.

Well go on then!

 

Also, GTAIV will not let you max some settings with a 1GB gfx card anyway - that game wants all the gfx memory you can throw at it, even at 'normal' resolutions.
For example: I cannot max it at my res of 1280x1024 with a 5770, after pushing the sliders to the right, about halfway or so it already says 'out of memory'... so there's that.
But I wouldn't buy a gfx card with more than 1G of memory just for GTAIV.

 

expensive upgrade to grab when your os will only recognize 25% of it...considering you need to give the 4870 to your kid, grab the 5850. or grab a gtx 465 and slam your head into the wall...

 

i think 2gb RAM and win7 64bit would be a the best upgrade for you. the 4870 is not a slow card by any means.

 

Problem is gta4 can not be maxed out period unless you have a 1.5gb graphics card memory

It's also a really badly optimised game for pc and if you push draw distance to max you will struggle on fps on most cards. (5870 you can't max it out)

you can force it to max settings but the fps drop is pretty drastic

dropping resolution doesn't give a huge boost to fps these days, most games the dif between 1920x1080 and 1280x1024 is 10-15 on min fps. On an intensive game like gta4 you should look at reducing draw distance that's were the biggest gains are to be had

similar to arma2 max draw distance in unplayble 2-5k is all good

Crysis is about only game that will struggle

 

after much thought i have decided to wait a while before buying a new graphics card i have added more ram and it has helped im may just give my stepson all the parts out of this pc and start again i am sure he will be happy with this rig it can get 3295 points on the 2007 Benchmark
and will play any of the game's he plays on his laptop with ease i will just have to tell my other half im gunna spend £1000 on computer parts should be a laugh !

 

So you're gonna spent a grand on a new computer because you can't max out GTA 4?

 

Not really, even a lot of pre-built consumer desktops and laptops are coming with 64-bit installations now, mostly because people would complain if they were sold a computer with 4GB RAM and they couldn't use it all.

The changeover is inevitable as technology advances. Any 'enthusiast' who still uses a 32-bit OS is not an enthusiast, and the only people who have an excuse are those who do so out of necessity (i.e. program compatibility). It's not 2006 any more; 64-bit drivers are every bit as advanced as 32-bit drivers and I have never had a problem finding drivers that work on a 64-bit OS.