Gaming problems on ATI Radeon HD 3650

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

Before my computer broke, I have been playing COD 4 on full resolution, highest settings, at least 30fps. (1440x900)
However when it comes to Crysis, 1024x768 Medium exept Texture, Objects, Physics and Sound Quality on high. The fps randomly go down (12 minimum), however on the Sandbox 2 Editor, this never happens and Editor is a higher resolution. Should I try playing Crysis on DevMode or is this because it is a pretty crappy card?
Also can it run Call Of Duty 5 World at War?

 

[Waynos_Face]

Hi,

The Sandbox editor doesn't run as intense on Graphics Cards as the actual game as there is less to process, thats why if you go onto youtube people have it maxed out on 8800GTS when otherwise its not possible.

Look at the FPS for a 8800GTS on Crysis at 1280 x 1024 its only 35FPS on high settings and that card is worth 2 1/2 of yours, i had 3 x hd3650 in Xfire on my Phenom system and it was crap, when i got an 8800GT it beat all 3.

It will play COD WAW just fine but on low res and low detail.

The minimum you want in your PC if you want to play new games properly is a dual core, 2GB RAM and a 3870 or 9600GT.

If you have the DDR2 version of the 3650 then its crap. No oofence as i said i had 3, they are crap, but thats why they are £35.

Edit: This would be a very good upgrade over the system you have, see what you can get for xmas.

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

I'll probably have to for the time being, play Crysis through the Sandbox Editor then. The ATI Radeon 4870, is that good?

I **DON'T** like playing my games in low res and detail and I don't like nVidia.

 

[Waynos_Face]

Yeah the 4870 is an awesome card but if you spend £170 on it then you're gonna be wasting most of its power as your processor and motherboard are gonna severely bottleneck it.

Plus i'm pretty sure it has to have a PCI-E 2.0 slot and isn't backwards compatible.

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

SO basically I can't use it with a Socket 939 Motherboard.

 

[Waynos_Face]

Don't think so mate.

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

What about the HD 4850? Will that work?

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

UPDATE!!! WIKIPEDIA: PCIe 2.0 is backward compatible with PCIe 1.1
The HD 4870 will work!!!!

 

[Waynos_Face]

Yeah i would check first though as i'm sure i have read that it needs a 2.0 slot.

An 8800GT is 2.0 but works on a 1.0 slot, so do lots of cards but i think the the 4870 or maybe its the GTX 260/280 doesn't.

 

[Waynos_Face]

Haven't found anything conclusive but it seems that it will work on a PCI-E 1.1 which is 2004 onwards.

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

What? The HD 4870? I don't want nVidia because it is "The way it's **NOT** meant to be played" with many crashes.

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

If the HD 4870/50 will work, please tell me so I can start saving up money.

 

[Waynos_Face]

Will keep looking but even it does work your processor, memory and motherboard will not use all the power, at a guess it will be about 50%, still thats about 3 of the cards you have at the mo, but a serious waste of cash.

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

But when I do get a new motherboard, processor and memory, it will use it's full potential.
But you gotta admit it's better than the HD 3650.

 

[Waynos_Face]

Yeah its alot better, also what kind of PSU have you got???

ATI recommend at least 550W with a 6 and 8 pin PCI-E connector or enough spare molex to use the adaptors.

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

Dammit just a miserable 450W.

What about the ATI Radeon 3870?
Cam you tell me if it's worth overclocking the memory speed of my current ATI Radeon 3650? The GPU Speed is fine, runnng at 725mhz. The memory only runs at 800mhz. Is it worth overclocking the memory? If so, to how much and how woud I overclock it?

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

Also how safe is it overclocking my VRAM? I'm gonna use ATI Overdrive ONLY
Please don't give me any risky 3rd party software no matter how much better than ATI Overdrive.

 

[Waynos_Face]

Yeah use the ATI software, it will overclock it to end of safe limits, usually 5 - 10% so you might gain about 5 fps, its the DDR2 memory that sucks on that card.

A HD3870 will theoretically give a 2.5 x performance increase, however, your memory and processor are where it is going to slow you down.

It should work on a 450W PSU but nothing is certain as at load it will use half of your PSU on its own, depends on how good the PSU is.

If you are going to get one look for a GDDR4 version as it is about 15% - 25% better than a GDDR3.

 

[Waynos_Face]

HD 3870 GDDR4

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148929

HD 3870

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...adeon+HD+3870+512MB+PCI-E2.0+?productId=31344

8800GTS same performance cheaper.

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...R3+PCI-E+++Company+of+Heroes+?productId=34276

8800GS very similar performance, even cheaper.

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...0+GS+Alpha+Dog+-+Retail+Boxed?productId=34277

I still don't understand why you don't like Nvidia, i am loyal to neither, whatever gets me the best performance for the price gets my cash.

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

Sorry none of these cards are doing it. I know DDR2 sucks, that's why I'm trying to overclock it.

1. Ebuyer, a very bad site (Scammed me from something very expensive in the past)
2. I hate nVidia.