Will a AMD X2 4000+ with 2Gb Ram keep up with a Radeon 3850?

Or will the performance of the video card be bottlenecked by the CPU/Ram.

I've got a hard spending limit of $350 that I want to use to get a new Video card & CPU/Mobo/Ram. Should I stretch and reach for a Radeon 3850 to go with a AMD 4000+ CPU and 2 Gb DDR800, or will the the GPU be bottlenecked by the CPU and RAM. In that case, I could go for better balance with a cheaper Radeon 1950xt or 2600pro and get a AMD 5000+CPU etc.

I am looking to run Bioshock and HL2 and am interested in knowing what kind of performance I can expect with either of the above approaches. Is decent performance in Direct x10 even possible with this setup or should I set my sights for DX9?

Thanks.

Or will the performance of the video card be bottlenecked by the CPU/Ram.

I've got a hard spending limit of $350 that I want to use to get a new Video card & CPU/Mobo/Ram. Should I stretch and reach for a Radeon 3850 to go with a AMD 4000+ CPU and 2 Gb DDR800, or will the the GPU be bottlenecked by the CPU and RAM. In that case, I could go for better balance with a cheaper Radeon 1950xt or 2600pro and get a AMD 5000+CPU etc.

I am looking to run Bioshock and HL2 and am interested in knowing what kind of performance I can expect with either of the above approaches. Is decent performance in Direct x10 even possible with this setup or should I set my sights for DX9?

Thanks.

xpdashxp

Thanks for the recommendations.

It looks like all the Radeon 3850s are PCI Express 2.0?Does that mean I need to spend $100+ on a PCIE 2.0 mobo to take advantage of the 3850 or will it even work in a PCIE 16 mobo?

Thanks.

Thanks for the recommendations.

It looks like all the Radeon 3850s are PCI Express 2.0?Does that mean I need to spend $100+ on a PCIE 2.0 mobo to take advantage of the 3850 or will it even work in a PCIE 16 mobo?

Thanks.

xpdashxp

It'll work fine in a PCI-e 1.0 mobo. So no need to buy a new mobo. :)

Also, like muscleserge said, see if you can get the 512MB version of the card; the onboard RAM will help out if you do choose to play at a higher than average resolution (at least, not too high).

Dude I have an AMD 5000+ CPU and a 2600 XT...... And I would much rather have the 4000+ HD3850 combo.

Money better spent on the GPU IMO.