OF the two what one?

[DX]

I'm looking at gaming and folding. I'm also looking for that bang for the buck. What one of the two can best deliver on all three?

SAPPHIRE 100245L Radeon HD 4850 512MB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102770
MSI N9800GT-T2D512-OC GeForce 9800 GT 512MB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814127381

I'm thinking that the 4850 is the winner for gaming but the 9800gt is going to be better at folding.

I guess I'm wondering just how noticeable is the difference between the 4850 and the 9800 in gaming at 1280x1024. If it isn't noticeable then its the 9800gt cause I have to have the box folding. If it is then I'll be getting the 4850.

Has anyone had both?

[DMB2000uk]

The 4850 is more around the 9800GTX+ level for gaming.

But you are right that the 9800GT would get more points folding than the 4850 would.

You are going to have to think long and hard about which you prioritize more, folding or gaming

Dan

[DX]

Edited to reflect that I removed the 9600gso option.

I'm leaning toward the gaming side right now. The 9600gt just isn't quite cutting the mustard with WotK at 1280x1024 with all the graphics maxed out. The 9600gso does but just barely and has hicups here and there. I figure I put the 9600gt on my amd 4000+ system and get the 4850 in the quad core box.

The one thing I forgot to put in the post that makes it real tough is that this would go in the ECS GF8200A board. This board supports hybrid SLI. SO will the onboard video add enough to the 9800gt to bring it even with the 4850? Cause right now as far as I can tell it isn't helping the 9600gt.

[Bwall]

Hybrid SLI won't be able to help it catch up to the 4850. Also keep in mind that you're comparing current performance in folding. In the near future we'll be seeing proteins with a larger number of atoms. The Nvidia cards do not perform as well as the ATI cards on these new work units so you'll likely see bigger returns from the ATI card. We've already seen the hit that Nvidia cards take with larger work units and the 9800 GT falls to near the same or lower performance of the 4850.

[DX]

That is true on the folding side but what about the gaming side? Is the hybrid + the 9800gt still slower than the 4850 in terms of gaming?

[DMB2000uk]

That is true on the folding side but what about the gaming side? Is the hybrid + the 9800gt still slower than the 4850 in terms of gaming?

Hybrid SLI won't be able to help it catch up to the 4850.

Dan

[DX]

It just seems so wrong; and AMD cpu, an nvidia based system board and an AMD video card slapped on top of it.

[skier]

just keep in mind the Athlon (X2?) 4000+ is your bottleneck, my 9600GSO paired with my 3.4GHz E7200 will probably get me better performance than a 9800GTX in your system, as i get great frame rates at high settings at 1440x900 in the most demanding game that I have, DiRT, but it's still playable at "ultra" settings

(and if you don't think DiRT has really high quality, i'm gonna post a bunch of screen shots at Ultra settings at some point here)


basically, the CPU is more valuable than the graphics card at this stage in technology(my x850XT going from a P4 3.0HT to my E7200 stock had a massive performance gain[ie, from "playable" on medium settings, to good playability at highest in PROSTREET])

[DMB2000uk]

AMD's chips aren't as much of a bottleneck as the P4's were.

Even with the AMD chip in the rig, I still think that it'd work better than your GSO. I think you are forgetting just how much more power the GTX has to start off with, so even if some of that is going to waste it should still have more power (aka fps) afterwards.

Dan

[DX]

Its the Phenom 9600 quad that I won and the ESC system board. I'm looking to put a different video card on it as the Palit 9600gt just hasn't got the juice to run Wrath of the Lich King at 1280x1024 with graphics maxed out. I hit any place that is on fire and the frame rate drops to 11-13 frames a second.

I'll put the Palit 9600gt on my amd old 4000+ (single core clocked at 2.6)

[martini161]

the only discreet GPUs that even support hybrid SLI are the 8500 and the 8400 so thats out of the question

[DX]

I discovered that recently. I'm going to turn off my onboard video in bios to see if that helps my game play tonight.