Hi Guys,

I need to upgrade my g/c as I'm getting really crap fps when the server gets full (32players).

What card would give me a minimum of 60fps with all the eye candy and lots of action in TF2? I don't want to upgrade my CPU/RAM.. Just the gpu. (E8400 overclocked to 3.8GHz so dont think thats the bottleneck)

I'm struggling to find reviews where they take into account the minimum fps achieved. I have a Sapphire 4850 which is decent for running games at low res (by that I mean below my screens native res)

my spec:
1) 1680x1050 screen res
2) os: Windows Vista 32bit
3) 4gb ram
4) E8400 @ 3.8GHz

I thought vista was the culprit so installed XP on another partition. Same kinda fps (latest drivers yada yada yada).

Budget: Don't want to spend over £150. Is this possible? :)

a 4890 is a really good choice and you could crossfire the 4850 with it just for the hell of it

[url]http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-XFX-HD-4890-PCI-E-20-(x16)-Mem-3900MHz-GDDR5-GPU-850MHz-Cores-800-2x-DL-DVI-I-HDTV[/url]

I have to say it's strange that you don't get a smooth fps with that rig - I run the following:

q6600 o/c'ed @ 3.8ghz
asus 4850 o/c'ed @ 700/1100

and I play on a 1920x1080 32" LCD.

I play TF2 all the time at max setting at this resolution, and it runs great. Based off benchmarks, I should be around 85fps or higher, I never go below the 60hz my display puts out.

A 4850 is plenty for that resolution to be honest.

I think you need to look elsewhere. Look at the processes running in the background. I think that is somewhere to start. There is nothing wrong with a 4850 for your resolution :)

i would have thourt a single 4850 would have been fine at that res, with this 8800gt i seem to get 75+ in a maxed out server even with most of the players on screen + explosions and fire and all that good stuff and 100+ on 20 player games with everything maxed on my 42" @ 1900x1080

id say for your budget sell your 4850, then try find another £30 or so and get a 4870x2, but if you want a single card then the 4890 would do the job

EDIT: the 8800 rig i got them fps on spec is
Q6600 @ stock
2 gig ddr2 800 @stock
8800gt @ stock
xp 32 bit

I'm running 1920*1200 on my main screen and not having a problem with TF2, running a 4850 at stock speeds.

Is it really an FPS drop or maybe network lag? If the FPS are still high but the players are jumping around I think your network doesn't exactly like it.

hmmmmmmmmmmmm :(

Thanks for the feedback guys - it's good to hear you're all are running the same card at higher res with minimal fps loss!

I think i will need to investigate further - I dont think its a network issue, I don't get any lag/loss / that much choke.

Although, I do only play on heavily modded server. I'll try playing on a normal server :p and will report back :)

Don't know how much of a difference it would make but noticed your running a lot of RAM on a 32bit OS meaning the system will only be seeing about 3.5GB overall inc. GPU RAM and system. Upgrading to 64bit might help a bit.

I can play tf2 at 1680 x 1050, ON A 8500GT.. 620/1140/1120

You ar better af with Windows Vista x64 or Windows Xp x64 Or Windows 7 x64 For max performance

Greetz devil0wner