Vista - The fastest card for a 1680 resolution monitor ?

Hi guys,

I'm looking to upgade my Radeon 1900XT. I've recently upgraded my whole computer with a faster mobo and CPU. Here are my specs.

720W PSU
Athlon Phenom 9850 Quad Core (2.5Ghz per CPU)
4GB RAM
64bit Windows Vista Premium
1680 Widescreen Asus Monitor

With those specs in mind which card would go best with it. I use my computer mainly for gaming, as well as my work with MS office etc. Games I'll most likely be playing this year include

Starcraft 2
Diablo 3
Dragon Age
Dawn of War 2
Fear 2
GTA 4
etc

I always play my games at either the highest or 2nd highest settings. I don't want to end up getting a card that is overkill for this resolution.

Thanks for any help.

um what is your chipset? is it ATI or Nvidia? if its ati a HD3870 will run all of those quite well and if its Nvidia a..... 9800GT? i know you can get a HD3870 for about $130

for 1680x1050 the recommended cards IMO are ....

9800GTX+ or GTX260(NVIDIA)

HD4850 or 4870 512mb (ATI)

the GTX260 & 4870 are recommended for 1920x1200 & above, so they shoot a little below their weight at 16x10 but will still perform exceptionally well....




SK

true but are those not overkill?

with the way things are moving at the moment, the GTX260 & 4870 will be in their element @ 1680x1050 very soon.

as developers produce more & more intensive games... your GPU power must rise with demand, if not you'll have to drop your settings or res, grabbing one of these higher end cards will just ensure a great frame rate for longer....

''its better to have & not need, than need & not have''......




SK

true......

And the prices of a 9800GTX+ are really low atm.

From personal experience a 4850 is definitely not overkill for 1680x1050.

gentlemen, my gpu struggles with gta4 at 1920x1080 on medium settings, so overkill is impossible with the card suggestions here.