* Blonks:
> I've got a an Athlon x2 4200+ running at 2.65GHz and an 8800gts 512mb.
> I've moved from a 19" to 24" monitor with a 1920/1080 res and my frame
> rates have dropped accordingly.
> So, is it worth getting something like a 4870 1Gb (which is very cheap
> ATM) or is my CPU the limiting factor?
Test it. Take a demanding game with integrated benchmark like Crysis,
set it to 1024x768 and change the quality settings so that you get a
somewhat decent frame rate. Now do some benchmark runs at various
resolutions but with unchanged quality settings. If the frame rate
varies quite a lot between the benchmark runs then the GPU is the
limiting factor, however if the frame rate stays in the same ballpark
then the CPU is the limit.
As different games behave differently do the test with several games.
> If a new GPU would help then is the Radeon stil the best price /
> perfomance?
Depending on how the pricing is at where you live, yes. I got myself a
Sapphire Radeon 4870 Vapor-X 2GB recently. Yes, the 58xx series is
faster but more expensive, and the new Radeon 5770 can't surpass the
4870. I also had a Gainward GTX 260 GS with 1768MB before for testing
and the Radeon was a tad faster, and also less expensive.
Benjamin