Lower budget upgrade advice

[ccarroll321]

Hi fellas,

I would be grateful if someone could offer some advice on an upgrade suggestion I've been thinking about:

The best 939 AMD, to my knowledge anyway, is an a64 4000. I could clock this to...maybe 2.8-2.9.
And Nvidia 9600GT 512.

All this would end up costing me around $200. Does anyone think I would get decent performance for the price, or just roll out and swing in a new system?

Thank you
C

[gvblake22]

The 9600GT would probably be a decent upgrade, but the processor would not. You're probably better off getting the video card now (if you need that right away) and waiting to upgrade the processor (and mobo and RAM) later when you can afford it.

What application are you trying to get better performance in? Just general use in Windows or for specifically gaming or something else?

[One4yu2c]

With regards to the processor upgrade, save your money. Going from a 3800+ X2 to an OC'd 4000+ X2 wouldn't do anything for you outside of a small boost in some benchmarks.

[ccarroll321]

Hi, thanks for the advice guys.

I'm looking for game performance. Would a 3800 @ 2.5/2.6 power any newer graphics card? Or should I just wait a bit a but a whole new system?

C

[gvblake22]

When gaming, the video card is almost always the bottleneck. I used to game on an Intel E2140 system with an X1950Pro video card and 2GB of DDR2-800 RAM and it would do surpisingly well, even at 1920x1200 resolution. The E2140 is probably about even in gaming performance with the Athlon64 3800 X2.

If you've got barely any cash (or not enough for a good full system upgrade) then you can get away with just putting a new video card in your current s939 system. But if you're looking to make a reasonable upgrade to get more performance all around, then a new processor/motherboard/RAM/video card would be the way to go. With that system, it's either all or nothing (unless you are upgrading a part that you can carry over in the future, like a video card, hard drive, etc).

What is your primary goal with this system? If it is just to get a little better gaming performance at the least possible cost, then just upgrade the video card and see how it does. If you want to update your whole system for better all around performance and you are willing to spend a good chunk of change, then you're best bet is to replace the whole core of the system with something more up to date (like a Core 2 Duo LGA775 system). It's really not worth your while to try and upgrade any parts of the s939 system now, it would be a waste of money.

[One4yu2c]

Originally Posted by ccarroll321

Would a 3800 @ 2.5/2.6 power any newer graphics card?

Yes, though it may struggle at higher settings with a handful of newer games that tax the CPU (Crysis, Supreme Commander, etc). But, unlike a s939 processor upgrade, a PCI-E videocard upgrade can be transferred to a new rig if you decide to overhaul your system in the future.

Assuming you have a capable power supply, an 8800 GT would open up brand new worlds of gaming...

[ccarroll321]

Thanks for all the advice everyone.

Well, I'm not ready to upgrade the whole system yet, so I'd like to find a gpu that will let me play games at close to max settings. As long as I can play higher than 1360x768, that's fine--don't even need AA.

What would be the best move? A $140 9600GT, maybe a $154 8800GT? Something else? What kind of performance do you think I could expect with one of these?

Thanks,
C

[onebxr]

or...
Newegg.com - DIAMOND Viper 3870PE4512SB Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

[gvblake22]

Well, 1360x768 is a pretty low resolution as far as PC gaming is concerned, so how much higher are we talking about? If you're not going more than 1280x1024, then a 9600GT or HD3850 would do you just fine. If those break the bank, you could still get away with an 8600GTS or HD3650.

[ccarroll321]

Well, it's just that I'm used to playing games like Bioshock and STALKER at 1360. I think it's just a faith issue I have with pcs. Either that or because I have a 2 year old gpu.

I could acheive 1280x1024 max settings in current games like Crysis? With my 2gb ram and 3800 oc`d?