I want to buy new parts for a computer in the next 2 month. I was looking at the radeon X850XT but was wondering if it would be too limited by the CPU.
If I bought a P4 3.4ghz or 3.6ghz and 2GB of DDR2 533mhz RAM, would the video card be somewhat limited or very limited?
If you have any suggestions of what other hardware to use dont hesitate.

Thanks

Dani AI

Generated

Short answer: an X850XT is not "too much" for a P4 3.4/3.6 — but whether the CPU limits you in practice depends on the game and the settings you choose.

Match the hardware to the workload. GPU-bound scenarios happen when you push resolution, pixel shaders, and AA/AF; those settings hand most work to the X850XT. CPU-bound scenarios are low-resolution play, heavy AI/physics/draw‑call engines, or lots of background tasks. What and are getting at is practical: small CPU upgrades often buy only a few frames in many titles, so balance matters more than top specs. is right that different platforms have strengths, but single-thread performance and your actual use pattern matter most for games of this era.

How to tell for sure: run a repeatable in-game scene (or the game benchmark) while logging FPS with FRAPS and watching CPU load in Task Manager and GPU load with your ATI tools or RivaTuner. If CPU hits 90–100% while GPU is well under max, you are CPU‑limited. If GPU is maxed and CPU is idle, you are GPU‑limited. To shift load to the GPU, raise resolution or enable AA/AF/shader detail. To reduce CPU pressure, close background apps, lower view distance/NPC counts, or disable CPU-heavy effects.

Practical recommendation: buy for the experience you want. If gaming at 1280x1024+ with max visuals is the goal, the X850XT will deliver the visual headroom you want; if you need heavy multitasking or long-term upgradeability, favour a stronger CPU/platform. Keep drivers, chipset files, and cooling in good shape — monitoring CPU/GPU usage and temps will tell you exactly where to spend the next upgrade dollar.

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Any CPU above 3000Mhz or 3000+ will give you suberb performance with that video card. Any CPU that starts doubling in price for the next model up in that 3000 and above range is probably not worth the investment for a few extra frames per second.

commented: thanks for your help +1

Good. A review on the internet said the x850xt was limited by the amd athlon 64 4000+ he used for his tests.

Good. A review on the internet said the x850xt was limited by the amd athlon 64 4000+ he used for his tests.

Well, that is true.......for pretty much any consumer processor currently on the market. Thing is, you get such good performance regardless that it's not really worth worrying about. :-|

Yep. Let's say that I just got confronted by the Terminator and I was drunk. I pulverized the mongrel.

Now I know if I'd been sober I'd have pulverized him a bit better and a bit quicker, but do I care? Shit no! The bastard's pulverized isn't he?

I can say that I pulverized the Terminator pretty well!! heh heh

Bought the card and other hardware and every game I tried (like Far Cry, NFSU2) ran flawlessly at 1280x1024 and every setting at max. Only Doom 3 doesnt perform as well with everything on. At least I can play with bump mapping without slowdowns... :D

Glad to hear it. Now I'm envious :D

yeah you should!! :)

And something really funny about it is that I also bought a 3.4ghz 2mb cache LGA775 cpu and the cpu temperature is lower than ever in my PC. I used to have a 3ghz S478 (sold it for good money to upgrade to PCI-E). It is probably because the ASUS P5GD2 Premium mobo I bought has this fanless cooling system under it. I still use the fan because I dont think fanless would be a good idea with expensive stuff like that.

The temp used to be around 40 deg Celsius and over 60 sometimes when in intense gaming. Now It is more like 25 degrees and not more than 35 in games.

Want my advice?

Intel? Come on man you are a gamer right? otherwise you wouldent be getting the Card. Drop intel dude they have the worst CPU's for gaming ask anyhardcore gamer its alll AMD i'm getting the AMD +4600 64 X2 (dual core) intel has a dual core chip but performance is much less then AMD for gaming.

No Intel for gamers!

AMD only way to go.

get a AMD dont be a n00b with an intel i mean jesus christ you may as well have a dell if your gonna game with an Intel.

Do me a favor take ur PC to any lan party, and you will get shoot down for having an intel

yaddam, you are correct in saying that AMD64 is a better option for gamers than current Pentiums.

But I'm damned if I understand why you'd pick a 4600+ dual core chip over a top-end single core processor. You'll get no better performance out of it as current games aren't written for multi-threading. As [H]ard|OCP states:

The Athlon X2 is specifically built for a more involved computer user, one that heavily multitasks or uses their computer for digital content creation such as video editing.

I like to play games but im not only for gaming... I have a life you know...

I know that AMD is better for gaming but... Right now I do play games and if I would have bought a AMD instead, my framerate and performance would have been only slightly better.
Even if it would have been 10 fps more, I dont care because I still go over 60fps in most games.

Also, on the long run I wont be playing as much so I wont go buy another top end graphics card. In 2006 I'll have a full time job so my playing time and free time will decrease dramatically. I will mostly use my pc for programs like visual studio and fireworks so I dont really give a crap about what people say about my Intel. Go get an AMD cpu if you want, I dont care and I've went to lan parties, I'm glad you werent there cuz you would have killed half the gang!!!

Respect my decisions... and I'll respect yours...

Well said, belama. I enjoyed reading that :D

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