SAPPHIRE HD 3850 512MB GDDR3 AGP

[anubisX]

Hello everyone, I'm going to buy this AGP and I need to know something about this card. I've heard the card is really good but has a driver issue and the problem still appears. Can you please tell me if this one is best buy for me ? My PC is quite old and it's a HP Pavillion t530i,

Asus Motherboard
Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz HT
1 GB 400MHz Memory
256 MB nVidia 5200 FX AGP (currently using)


Do you think the HD 3850 is good for me or I need to think of something else ? I don't play a lot of games but like to watch HD movies.



GeCube has also released HD 3850 512MB GDDR3 AGP and is available. Which one do you think will be the best buy ?

[KarmaKiller]

In all honesty, I'd go save the money on the new card, and try to get a new desktop. You won't get half the performance you should out of either of those 2 cards with your current CPU/RAM/etc.
If I had to pick one of the cards though, it would be the Sapphire card. IMO, it's more of a trusted name, but that's just my two cents.
Good luck!

[anubisX]

So what do you suggest ? I would like to upgrage my GPU coz 5200 FX is way too backdated and it has no HD support. Which card should I buy then ?

[Atomic Rooster]

You could save yourself some money and get something like a Radeon HD 2600PRO. It will perform better in games than your FX 5200 and has full HD support.

[ShyguyXPC]

one thing I might be concerned about is how well that Power supply will hold up in the old HP rig...

I just picked up a decent HD2600 Pro for my AMD rig today for $60 on clearance at worst buy (best buy), 2 reasons I picked up that, 1st I needed a card ASAP that was going to be way better than the onboard Geforce 6100 stuff... second I needed one that wasn't going to be a major draw on my PSU, though its a 450W PSU, its only got a measely 17 or 18Amps on the 12V rail, other wise I was going to get something a bit better, but required a seperate PCI Express Power plug into the card.

but it was a 512MB card also, installed it & to my surprise the card wasn't as bad as many people claim it is. I'm not really running any "new" games on it, about the most advanced game I run on it is GRAW, that & Joint Operations... both can be run fully maxed out on it, getting at least 30+ fps (only running at 1024x768 on the current 15" CRT for that PC).

anyways, as Karma said, you might be better off saving up for a new rig, the 3850 will do great, but the rest of the system will probably be holding back the cards performance a bit, & then you also have to make sure the PSU will run it fine. Something like a 3650 I imagine would do great.

as to which card would be the better deal, it all depends, you may be able to find one cheaper at one retailer than the other & vice versa... Sapphire has been an ATI card manufacturer for a loooong time, but GeCube has been around for quite some time too... at least since the 9800/X800 days I think...

though Sapphire is the much more recognized brand of the two.


LOL I see AR posted before me... yeah, an HD2600 Pro is pretty nice too, like I mentioned just picked one up at Best Buy Today on clearance... though mine was the last PCI-Express one they had, they had plenty of the AGP models also for $60.

actually I have to see how much I have left over the weekend, they have something else on clearance there that I'd love to get my hands on... Seagate 500GB PATA 3.5" drives for about $55-60 or so...

& looked like they had plenty in stock on the shelf...

[KarmaKiller]

That's what I was thinking. You wouldn't get the full performance of the 3850 anyways, with the rest of your setup. So you could get something like AR suggested, and save yourself some $.

[anubisX]

Oh, I got it. My PC is from Stone Age compared to yours Well, I don't play a lot of games just like to watch HD movies. You're right, may be I should save some money and later get a decent PC and then buy the HD 3850. Thnx a lot friends You saved me a lot of money.