ATI or NVIDIA?!

[jessew6889]

Current System:
X2 5000+ / 720 BE
EVGA 730a
2GB Crucial Ballistix
500w PSU

I bought the 720 but, really cannot tell the difference between the two, so i have the x2 in now, and think ill just sell the 720... unless someone can give me a reason not to based on what im looking to do...

I just recently sold my gtx 260 for bills, and now I need a new gfx card... dosn't have to be at the 260 level, I just want something that will play new games at high, well.

I bought a 4850 from best buy (in the mean time, Its highly over priced and going back after I figure out what im going to buy) and it runs ok on MW2 which is all I'm really running now, but I want something that will be able to handle games coming out over the next 6 months to a year at high settings on a 1680 x 1050...

Money isn't an issue now, but I want good price/performance

If I'd be better suited getting a 4650 and adding ram, let me know that also!

Thanks

 

[river686]

personally, i would definitely go nvidia, because some graphics engines are more biased on the nvidia gpu, like the crytech engine. and plus from reading about future proofing with dx11 and ATIs 5000 sires cards, i don't see much of an overall performance gain, actually right now DX11 is slower than DX9 so i would wait until nvidia launches DX11 cards, by that time DX11 will be a bit more utilized anyway. oh and here are some articles on DX11 performance and ram performance encase you want them.

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/pc/2009/12/01/directx-11-performance-first-look-dirt-2/1

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/memory/2008/07/08/is-more-memory-better/1

by the way you have good tast in your hardware

 

[masterjaw]

I've checked EVGA site for the 730a motherboard and I think it doesn't support PII 720 BE which might be the reason for the lack of performance.
http://www.evga.com/support/motherboard/

The 720 BE should perform way better than your old x2. Either you get a bios update (if it exists) or replace your mobo with a good AM2+ one.

As for the GPU, check the latest article on that.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2521.html

As for the crytech engine, it doesn't really prefer Nvidia hardware. Crysis doesn't benefit from using specifically either ATI or Nvidia cards, it only benefits from a powerful GPU setup. And IIRC, Crysis doesn't use Nvidia's proprietary Physx.

 

[jessew6889]

Yea, youre right, sure dosn't show support for the 720, but it does for other Phenom II's? Maybe its just an older list? I had read that AM3 cpu's were backwards compatable with AM2+ sockets, so long as you upgrade the bios, which i did when I first got the board and it seems to detect it fine (Shows up in hardware explorer correctly anyways)

 

[masterjaw]

The Phenom II's supported by your mobo are the ones with AM2+ socket (PII X4 920 & 940). PII X3 720 BE is an AM3 socket CPU. Unless you got bios updates to support new AM3 cpus (which I doubt will happen) then there's no way you would be able to fully utilize the 720BE.

Regarding the backward compatibility, yes they do as long as the motherboard supports the new AM3 CPU.

 

[jessew6889]

I've checked EVGA site for the 730a motherboard and I think it doesn't support PII 720 BE which might be the reason for the lack of performance.
http://www.evga.com/support/motherboard/

The 720 BE should perform way better than your old x2. Either you get a bios update (if it exists) or replace your mobo with a good AM2+ one.

As for the GPU, check the latest article on that.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2521.html

As for the crytech engine, it doesn't really prefer Nvidia hardware. Crysis doesn't benefit from using specifically either ATI or Nvidia cards, it only benefits from a powerful GPU setup. And IIRC, Crysis doesn't use Nvidia's proprietary Physx.

Hey... tell me this means my AM3 720 BE is compatible with my evga 730a

Link: http://www.evga.com/support/drivers/default.asp?switch=2

 

[masterjaw]

^ The link you provided doesn't say a thing.