Quote:
Originally Posted by Kalean
a 256mb 3850 will not be extremely gorgeous for 1650x1050 or 1920x1200 resolutions. It does not have enough VRAM considering the amount of different textures for terrain, mobs, characters, and npc's around the realm...You'll end up choking pretty hard.
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3850 is listed as THE cheapest from the best cards, and while I totaly agree memory size is important, lets not forget gpu speed is
way more important than memory size. For example, 3850 256MB will be much faster than 2600XT 512MB or even 8600GTS 512MB.
3850 256MB tests in FarCry:
1680x1050 with 4x AA and 8x AF - 77fps, nothing to sneeze about
:
Sapphire HD 3850 Review » Page 5 - Testing ( Setup,Benchmark FarCry) - Overclockers Club
To sum it up,
if 3850 256MB price range is all you can get,
there is no better card. If you can afford better - 3870 512 and 9600GT 512MB are just 50-100$ away. It all depends how much one
can spend and there is no need to look down to those who cant afford faster products, even 3850 256MB is offering amazing price /performance ratio, especially in older engines like FarCry.