New GFX Card Help

[Hippo08]

Hey everyone, so I just ordered a new graphics card and now I am kind of wondering if it was the right choice.

I got a SAPPHIRE 100225L Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102719 - for 110 after mail-in rebate.

I like to play games for a semi-extended period of time. But I don't really play HUGE demanding games. As in I won't play Crysis and others.

Games I play/want to play:

World of Warcraft
Warhammer Online
Team Fortress 2
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Is that card a good choice for those games? Also take into account that I like my games to look really good/pretty when I am playing them. Will this card do this for me or should I send it back and get a Radeon 4870?

System Specs:
Processor: Intel E8400(Dual core 3.0ghz)
Memory: Corsair XMS 4gb(2x2gb) DDR2 800
Mobo: ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard

[Alaron]

The HD3870 will be a fine card for the games you listed, as long as you're playing them at a decent resolution and not anything super high.

[Hippo08]

What exactly does resolution have to do with the graphics cards' performance? Will it actually look any different if i lower the resolution?

Can I turn up the filters like AA and AF to make it look prettier or will the games become un-runnable if I do this?

Thanks again,

Hippo

[pam123]

Here's a list of screen resolutions : http://www.ngohq.com/peripheral-equipment/13167-4-3-widescreen-resolutions-list.html

The higher the resolution the more powerful the graphics card needs to be to run games at an acceptable frame rate.
Throw in AA and AF and the power requirement goes up higher.
Add in a game like Crysis ( and enable soft shadows while you're at it ) and you can bring any system to its knees with high resolutions and all the extras turned on.

So why do you want to turn everything up to high?
Because games can look so much better that way, provided you can still run them.

If you have an lcd you know about using native resolution.
With crt monitors you could change resolutions to get yourself decent frame rates if the game was pushing your graphics card too hard or if you just had to have AA and soft shadows enabled.