Just got the ATI 4850

[mattjk]

Did a comparison test compared to my old card (probably not a very good test but heyho i still think the result is impressive)

Ati X1300

Ati 8450

I'm a little concerned my CPU might be bottlenecking the card anyone got any ideas on how to tell? I'ts an AMD dual core 2.9Ghz

Oh and I suspect its pointless but is there any point increased the PCIe bus speeds (I doubt there is as my old card didnt benefit at all and everyone says it doesn't but what about a faster card?)

 

[MDT48]

I'm assuming you've got an old AMD Athlon X2 rather than a Phenom?

There's a chance that your system could be CPU limited, but it's gonna depend on what you're playing. If you're firing up Crysis, then yes, no doubt, your CPU will have a detrimental effect, but anything using say, the Source engine, would be just fine.

We did a full review of the 4850 a week or so ago, and it turned out to be a great little card for the money. OK, so if you can stretch to the 4870 you'll be a happy bunny, but if not, the 4850 will serve you well. And of course you can always buy another one a few months down the line and go Crossfire.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/graphics/review/2008/07/20/ATI-HD-4850/p1

If you look at the performance results at the end, you can see that the 4850 can hold its own with most games. That said, our test rig was using a Quad Core QX9770!

The problem with upgrading your CPU, is that you're going to have to change your motherboard and memory to get the best results. Which almost means you're building a whole new system.

Overclocking can help, but unless you're using an X2 FX series, it will be clock locked. That means you'd have to overclock the FSB, which will put strain on your memory too and could cause instability if there's little headroom in it.