HD 4870 1gb

Hi, i have about $250 and am looking for a new card to replace my 9600GT. I was thinking of getting this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161265

My specs:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5200+ Socket AM2
AMD Original AM2 CPU Fan
ECS nVidia GeForce 7050M-M Motherboard
4GB DDR II 800 Memory 240 Pin (Kingston)
Western Digital 160GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA II
LG 22X DVD RW + Dual Layer
nVidia GeForce 9600GT 512MB DDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI HDTV
600 Watt Heavy Duty Power Supply

Will it work and is it a good card for the money? What sort of performance will i get on STALKER?

Thanks.

I'm not sure if this is the same thing you're looking for, but the one I linked you to is supposed to be a great graphics card.

Im a bit of pc noob and am really confused on what to get. It looks as if the 4870 is the best for around my price range. Is the GTX 260(216 cores) better. I can do some simple software OC if that matters. Also is a graphics card the best thing to update at the moment?

bump

ICEQ 4 isn't all that great - you're better off with the Toxic cooler already linked to, but it is cheaper on Newegg (or it was last I checked). The HD4870 1GB and GTX 260 Core 216 pretty much go back and forth from what I've seen. I do believe the GTX 260 has a slight edge at lower resolutions. You really can't go wrong either way. As for upgrades...well, an SSD is a pretty nice upgrade. Your budget is just about enough for a quality SSD like the 60GB OCZ Vertex, which would really make your system scream. It'll be more noticeable than upgrading your 9600GT anyway.RayvinAzn

ICEQ4's are fine, there's nothing wrong with them, but they are more expensive. They run great, no heat issues like some have said and I'm running 2 of them in crossfire. I don't regret having them, just paying the price I did, so be it. I think some people that have heat issues have some bad airflow in their cases or they put'em in a small case with barely any room as it is. Mine are sitting at 35-38c idle and about 50-60c on max load. For a video card, them are pretty good temps to me.

Anyways, if you want something a bit cheaper, the Sapphire 1GB HD4870's are about $189 (US) and just as good. You'll be fine with either the GTX260 Core 216 or the HD4870 1GB.

EDIT: True, the 4890's are worth waiting for if you can wait for them. ;)

Woul getting these two things: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103471 and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186149 help me more than getting a single IceQ 4+ 4870 ?

the 4870 1 gig would give you the better jump in performance, going from a 9600gt to a 4870 1 gig is a big increase. I got stalker free with my card, XFX 4870 1GIG XXX, but I don't play it much. Crysis is much better to me. 1680x1050 very high 20-25 except ice levels. When I did run stalker it ran almost maxed very smooth. The iceq4 turbo looks to be a very good card. With my card I had to do a bios update to stop screen flickering, so it was kind of a hassel, but when I got through that my card has been a powerhouse. I run 32 bit vista, people with 64 bit vista were having more of a problem with the BIOS update. My card runs 60c max at 42% fan.

Yeh. Get that 4870 first. That should give you a nice boost in performance. Ultimately, you will need to get a Core2 CPU(plus mb of course) to see probably a similar increase (or more)again in performance. Of course, changing motherboards and CPUs are going to be much more difficult than changing the GFX card. So try the GFX card first.

Good luck