How do I maximize the performance of a Radeon HD 4850?

[silent hero]

I game on a Conroe Intel e6600. I understand that the three most important parts of a computer (games-wise), in order, include: 1. GPU 2. CPU 3. Memory. Is my CPU bottle-necking my HD 4850? I play Crysis at 1680x1050 at 'High' graphics settings and I'm really struggling to stay over even 20-25fps towards the end of the game after you escape the large cave. All of the games I play are played at 1680x1050 resolution.

Also I recently posted a thread about temps of the e6600 and I was curious because I want to OC it but is it really going to make a big enough difference? I will need to buy a new heatsink ($30-$40) in order to safely OC it.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Omegas]

OC your E6600 to ~3.0 and see if it helps out. The stock heat sink can do that with no problem.

 

[InCogneato]

your problem is not a bottleneck, its just that crysis is a poorly designed game

go to Catalyst's advanced config, go to Overdrive on the left, and crank up the GPU clock all the way, and the memory clock a little less than all the way, click the "test settings" to make sure they will work and enjoy. i dont think the GPU/Memory needs to be at some specific ratio, i could be wrong though and i hope someone will reply confirming that this is ok. also im sure the GPU can handle it, but the new cards have super slow fan settings, so do this at your own risk. you can tweak these fan settings if you want though.

OC your e6600 to 3ghz like the guy above me said too, should help.

 

[snoops]

Crysis on the last few levels runs like crap on most systems at high settings. My Q6600 clocked at 3.2ghz and a HD4870 at 790mhz could not run smooth with high settings. So overclocking your system isnt going to improve things much.

Turn your settings down to medium and you will be fine.