Looking to build a ~$500 computer, already have Geforce 8800 GTS.

[meat_helmet]

While the old 8800GTS cards are out of date, they still can handle alot. MY setup below will play Crysis on med-high settings with edge AA (not full AA - it requires tweaking) at 1680x1050 - that gives about 30-40 fps. So it should be fine for med settings as long as you dont go with a higher res.

 

[Hussein19891]

My 9800 gt handles crysis fine if only my CPU didn't bottle neck it, also sitck with the e7300 it's the same price as the e7200 with a faster stock Core clock, I will say the 9600 GSO is something I don't much hear of but the 4830 is a very good Bang For Buck AND I've heard 2 4830's in xFire are comparable if not faster than the $400 GTX 280 of course that'd be a different build altogether, but the 4850 is the way to go for single GPU BUT if Crysis is your thing then the 9800GT is a safe bet

not to mention MSI's version of the 9800GT is dead sexy almost makes think twice about my ROG edition, I say "almost"

The 4830 crossfire solution outperforms the GTX 280 in COD4 and GRID.

GRID is ATI optimized so that's a little unfair. Which means COD4 is the only game 4830's outperform the GTX 280, since it doesn't seem to favor ATI or Nvidia one way or the other.

 

[EvilSoup]

So in the future, I can get another 4850 to crossfire for better performance?

I would need another motherboard for the additional pci express 2.0 slot though.

Is it worth it to get a motherboard with 2 slots or just get a better card later like the GTX280?

 

[philbar71]

the rule of thumb is that it is always better to have one nice high end card vs 2 mid/low end cards. because some games don't support crossfire or sli.

 

[veg1992]

So in the future, I can get another 4850 to crossfire for better performance?

I would need another motherboard for the additional pci express 2.0 slot though.

Is it worth it to get a motherboard with 2 slots or just get a better card later like the GTX280?

You could, but I'd go with a faster card..

Dual GPU's come with a lot of crap and hassle...

 

[EvilSoup]

ok thanks.

 

[chesirecat1701]

You could, but I'd go with a faster card..

Dual GPU's come with a lot of crap and hassle...

+1 .... always a safe bet going with a faster single GPU and if you go that road may I suggest the GTX 260 216 if your going with nVidia

The 4830 crossfire solution outperforms the GTX 280 in COD4 and GRID.

GRID is ATI optimized so that's a little unfair. Which means COD4 is the only game 4830's outperform the GTX 280, since it doesn't seem to favor ATI or Nvidia one way or the other.

nuff said I'll eat my words but they are a nice little couple for around $220 for the pair

 

[Hussein19891]

With 4870's hovering around $200 along with the GTX 260's. It would be much wiser to crossfire a pair of those instead.

 

[baron5]

I played regular Crysis on medium-high on a overclock x1800xl with 1gb of ram and a amdx2 3800 @ 2.6ghz. I would think a 8800gts 640mb would be able to handle medium.

no way. my amd 5000+ at 3.3ghz and 8800gs overclocked extremely barley will handle crysis on medium when u get further into the game. this is on just bare medium, not med-high.

 

[Hussein19891]

no way. my amd 5000+ at 3.3ghz and 8800gs overclocked extremely barley will handle crysis on medium when u get further into the game. this is on just bare medium, not med-high.

It was probably DX9, low resolution, and with horrible frame rates.