Need to upgrade

[kutmasta]

Need to upgrade 8800GT 256mb or 3870

Budget is around £120-40

So far I think I have 2 options:

3850 Pro 512mb
8800GT 256mb

Ive currently got this:

A64 3200+
1gig Geil Ultra-X
MSI 6600GT
Asrock 939dual-sata mobo.

How badly will the A64 bottleneck the cards?
I'm also planning on getting the cheapest 939 X2 chip I can get too, so probably a 3800+ or a 4200+

I basically just want to play UT3, Crysis and the other next gen games on something other than low settings

Also, do I need the extra video RAM? Bearing in mind the max res I will be running at is 1280x1024.

(Please ignore any noob mistakes/questions, I haven't been on this forum since I build my previous PC)

 

[kutmasta]

Yeah, I'm planning on buying a 2 gig pair from somewhere, and selling the Geil to get some of the money back.

my main question is how much difference video ram makes for the settings and resolution I will be running stuff at. And if the 256mb version of the 8800GT is still better than the 512mb version of the 3850.

 

[kutmasta]

OK,

I've done some more research, And I reckon it boils down to the 8800GT 256mb, and the HD3870 512mb version.

Looking at the low resolution benchmarks, the 8800GT is better. But at higher res with AA and the ATI card gets slightly better framerate.


There just arn't enough benchmarks for the 8800GT 256mb out there for me to make a proper decision IMO.