Is it worth it?

[Ethan_Kaizer]

I have an Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 at 2.4 GHz. My graphics card is an 8600GT, and the power supply I have is a stock case psu. I am looking to replace my 8600, as I want more performance, and also mine tends to get pretty hot. Since I'll have a budget, I was thinking of getting a Corsair 550vx, and a Sapphire HD 4850 Toxic Edition, because it's got better cooling, and it's also overclocked a bit (and I'll probably OC it even more). These upgrades will happen in about a month from now.

My question is, is this upgrade worth it, or will my CPU bottleneck? And no, I can't overclock it

 

[Merkwürdigeliebe]

sounds like a decent choice of parts, and i don't think your cpu will be a problem, even on stock speeds, it won't bottleneck a 4850..

 

[kobe24]

yeah nice gcard should do u good for a while in games.

 

[Ventriac]

That should not bottleneck at all I wouldn't assume, I would recommend overclocking it though

 

[veg1992]

I have an Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 at 2.4 GHz. My graphics card is an 8600GT, and the power supply I have is a stock case psu. I am looking to replace my 8600, as I want more performance, and also mine tends to get pretty hot. Since I'll have a budget, I was thinking of getting a Corsair 550vx, and a Sapphire HD 4850 Toxic Edition, because it's got better cooling, and it's also overclocked a bit (and I'll probably OC it even more). These upgrades will happen in about a month from now.

My question is, is this upgrade worth it, or will my CPU bottleneck? And no, I can't overclock it

I think you can do better than that for that much... but its always safe to overclock, unless you go selfish and go too far

 

[Ethan_Kaizer]

I think you can do better than that for that much... but its always safe to overclock, unless you go selfish and go too far

What do you mean? For that amount of money I'll be spending?

I like the Toxic Edition, a lot. I especially like the Zalman cooler, which will do a good job cooling this card, unlike how the card usually comes (although I do know about the manual fan fix). If you're saying not to get the 4850 at all, I can't really say I agree, I don't think there's any card in the range that'll match it, especially after I overclock it (which I'll be able to do a lot with the Zalman cooler). And I don't need a 4870 or 1gb of RAM or anything, because I only play at 1280x1024, and I don't think it will be worth that extra money.

Question 2: Is there going to be any huge advances in graphics cards in a few months? I don't want to buy a card only to have it be obsolete a few months later. I always feel like this industry moves too fast for consumers.

 

[Nagasama]

well...being "obsolete" and being "the newest" are two different things.

 

[Baez]

Go for the 4850 but don't go for the cooler. I think that's what vern was trying to say. Even with the new HSF you won't be able to OC that much so that you get a huge difference in games. I've even seen some cases where performance drops because the card needs to be volt modded before hand to work effectively.

Your card won't be obsolete in 3 months time. It's been almost 2 years since I got my 8800GTX (November 2006) and I can still play anything and everything on high to maximum settings.

 

[baron5]

yeah the 8800gtx is a warrior tho xD. i agree, forget the toxic, just go with a standard HIs one and o/c it ur self. sapphire have a bad warranty now.

 

[AP4LIFETN]

make sure the new PSU fits in your case, if your using one of those OEM pcs the dimensions of the PSU might be different.