Conroe or Video Cards

J

J-M-E

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 3, 2005
Messages
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Well I have a choice to make.

And that choice is to upgrade to dual 7900gtx's, or an intel conroe,

Right now im running dual 7800gtx's with 256mb of ram an an AMD Athlon64 4000+ running at 2.8ghz.

I do most of my gaming at either 1920x1200 or 1600x1200 resolution. How much would a conroe and a new motherboard\ddr2 memory impact my gaming performances versus like, a next gen video card or something.
 
I gotta pull my 7900gtx's sometime next week to help pay for my new conroe rig sitting on the table
 
why not just transfer your two 7800GTXs over? seriously, those should be enough. A Conroe and some RAM will probably benefit those two 7800GTXs. Plus, Conroe's can oc pretty far. I'd tack on a nice high end CPU cooler like the scythe ninja or big typhoon

So do something like:

MSI 975X Platinum rev 2.1B -175 (or Abit AW9D-Max - 240)
Conroe E6400 - 240 (estimate)
2Gb (2x 1gb kits) Team Xtreme DDR2 667 (overclocks like a mother) - 240
7800GTX SLI (your old ones)

Tasks that are more CPU intensive, you'll see insanely bettered performance. For games, it'll depend. if it's FEAR, you'll see a noticable difference (like 5 - 10 FPS better). But performance gain will vary depending on the program

(plus, you save a couple of bucks)
 
IMO the Conroe makes better sense in the long term. I don't think you'll notice a huge jump in speed in games either way but if you're planning on getting DX10 card(s) then it seems a waste to go from 7800GTX SLI to 7900GTX SLI now.

Edit: Yeah, what StealthyFish said :)
 
StealthyFish said:
why not just transfer your two 7800GTXs over? seriously, those should be enough. A Conroe and some RAM will probably benefit those two 7800GTXs. Plus, Conroe's can oc pretty far. I'd tack on a nice high end CPU cooler like the scythe ninja or big typhoon

So do something like:

MSI 975X Platinum rev 2.1B -175 (or Abit AW9D-Max - 240)
Conroe E6400 - 240 (estimate)
2Gb (2x 1gb kits) Team Xtreme DDR2 667 (overclocks like a mother) - 240
7800GTX SLI (your old ones)

Tasks that are more CPU intensive, you'll see insanely bettered performance. For games, it'll depend. if it's FEAR, you'll see a noticable difference (like 5 - 10 FPS better). But performance gain will vary depending on the program

(plus, you save a couple of bucks)
Click to expand...

yup he's right on there. go Conroe if you must upgrade.

IMO you don't need to upgrade at all yet.
 
If you went with the 7900GTXs, you would only see a marginal performance boost, however the Core 2 would give you a lot bigger of a boost, judging from benches, in the range of 15-30 fps easy.
 
If you decide to go with an E6300, or an E6400 (allendales) go with a i965 chipset motherboard. If you go with an E6600, E6700, X6800 It is better to go with an i975 chipset. Just thought I would let you know :)
 
J-M-E said:
Well I have a choice to make.

And that choice is to upgrade to dual 7900gtx's, or an intel conroe,

Right now im running dual 7800gtx's with 256mb of ram an an AMD Athlon64 4000+ running at 2.8ghz.

I do most of my gaming at either 1920x1200 or 1600x1200 resolution. How much would a conroe and a new motherboard\ddr2 memory impact my gaming performances versus like, a next gen video card or something.
Click to expand...

conroe over next gen video card.

your 2x 7800 GTX's should be enough for current-gen games at those resolutions. i have one 7800 GTX, and i do fine at 1600 x 1200. keep the 7800 GTX's and put them together w/ a C2D setup.

i assume your athlon is single-core. why not go w/ a dual core athlon/opteron and OC that sucker instead?
 
Video Cards > CPU.

If you are a gamer you are doing yourself more of a favor improving your video cards than if you upgraded your CPU.

Sidenote: I don't think you should upgrade, but you did not give that option.

Here's the articles you'll want to look at:
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTEwOCw1LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTAwMiwzLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

The point it, if you have to upgrade now then the only reason to do so is to have better gaming performance NOW. So there is not reason to buy a Conroe at this point. If you do not have to upgrade now, then there isn't a reason to buy a Conroe right now, with Quad core coming soon, DDR2 prices through the roof and virtually no gaming benefit in most cases.
 
Don't hotlink images - fugu

Conore won't do anything for you unless you game at 800x600 with nothing on like these reviewers seem to do.

The only reason I made the A64 move is because they stopped making faster video cards which would sit in my tbred box, namley going PCIe on the elite cards:(

Any CPU made in the last 3 years is so powerful that the GPU becomes the bottleneck in high res gaming or even medium as shown here with a 7800GT and multiple processors.

OTOH you will almost double you gaming experiance buying another GTX.


For 99% of the PC users out there, dual core, let alone 64 bit, or even Athlon64 / P4's / Conroes are far from worth it. Spending your money on GPU is you're a gamer is far wiser. And a sweet monitor of course.

Now if you got unlimited funds sure go ahead E6800, 4gigs of ram, raptor RAID etc etc etc but be sure to get two X1950xtx's while you are at it or you'll be slower than me with a $100 chip and 1G ram and slow 7200rpm hardrives .

http://xbitlabs.com/images/cpu/cpu-games2/fear.png
 
i'm in the same boat myself my "old" riggs a asus a8n-sli delux with OC'ed 144 opty and DFF-lp ultra d with overclocked 3200A-64 . anyways my vga's are somewhat old i've got a x800pro oc'ed to XT aned a old x800xt .


i'm itching to build a new core 2 , but the lack of "normal" priced ocing MB's and expensive ddr 2 and lastly the upcomming 4300's with a 9x multi are making me put that off untill jan.

i've been seeing some good deals in the vga on x1900xt's ,x1900gt's 7950's and some killer deals on 7900gto's--i may have to spring for on of these as dx-10 is looking further off and more expensive than i would like .

if i had two 7800gtx's--i think that would be enough power for some time to come . my advise sit on your wallet untill the cheap core2's come out--then consider a dx-10 card as well. a few months wait will pay off big in saving $$$ and if you upgrade from your current rig your going to pay big $$$ for a modest boost . if you decide on a more powerful gpu other than a dx-10--the dx-9's should be even less expensive than they are now. :cool:
 
you would probably get a nice boost from upgrading to conroe. i did. but are you going to notice the difference between 70 fps and 85fps? doubtful, some say impossible. keep what you have (i know its hard) wait for c2d/975/ddr2 prices to come down and then upgrade. next gen nvid will be out then, you can get 8800gt sli. thats an upgrade worth the money. and worth the wait.
 
I don't think you should upgrade to Conroe right now OR touch your video cards, they're both exceptional.

Why? The ram market sucks right now because AMD's move to DDR2 has raised demand. There are no DX10 cards out yet, and there won't be for another 3-6 months. You might as well wait for the ram market to settle down and for the DX10 cards to be released.

If you already have 2GB of ram, and you're craving the power of dual-core, why not upgrade to an X2? You can get an X2 4800+ (this is dual processors with the same specs as your 4000+, and typically overclock nicely) for around $260 and keep your motherboard and ram.

I know, every tweaker out there is ITCHING to get their hands on Conroe, but there's no need. Conroe and its descendants will be around for some time yet.
 
And don't forget the chance of directX 10 games being available when vista ships is about ZERO.
I took almost 5 years for games to come out that were fully DX9 complient.

Gun Metal was the first one.
 
Find a third party to host your images do not leech from other sites. Dr.Evil

Don't beleive CPU hype means nothing for gamers.. a $45 celeron is fast enough for any game out.

Ooooo Conroe so fast, right? Got some 800x600 lovin' woot!
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/intel_core_2_sli_performance/images/fear800.gif[/IMG]

Well ot quite, little playable res AA/AF have a way of normaliing CPU's make them all look same.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/intel_core_2_sli_performance/images/fear1600.gif[/IMG]


Now throw in two 7900GTX's and look what happens, that's awesome!!! And thats where you want to be as a gamer. High res high deatils. Notice CPU is non factor.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/intel_core_2_sli_performance/images/crossfear2048.gif[/IMG]

Video Video Video BABY!!!
 
yeah, i really wonder where people come up with the "Conroe will improve your FPS". There may be a few games (CS:S comes to mind) that could benefit from a stronger CPU, but across the board a video card upgrade is preferable.

Bottom line is that he OPs system really isn't lacking much in either department and therefore it would be wisest to wait until springtime, or at least see how the g80 performs.
 
I wouldn't upgrade the video, either. The man has DUAL 7800 GTXs. This is approximately the same horsepower as a 7950 GX2. Buying a setup significantly faster than his current SLI setup will cost him upwards of $600 (even after he sells the GTXes for $150 each), because he'll basically have to run dual x1950 XTXs or 7950 GX2s to see a SIGNIFICANT improvement.

But then, I'll bet the original poster is used to paying $600+ for his video upgrades, so I may be talking nonsense :p
 
Building a new system Conroe is a no brainer, faster, cooler, better overclocker. I just question the need in the first place for new when I see so many single GPU setups. Which upgrading there would have a dramatic and shocking effect on performance to end user. I understand people just like to tweak and that's fine too but lets not think it's better value proposition than putting money into video.

And yes he would be better off with crossfire 1950xtx and selling his cards.. than selling his system building a conroe setup and keeping the GTX's.

But I think he should wait too.
 
Don't upgrade at all.

Going from dual 7800s to dual 7900s won't make a huge difference, nor will switching to conroe. I imagine you'd be selling your old hardware after the upgrade, but even if you're only spending a hundred dollars (net), I would consider that a waste. Next generation cards are right around the corner. Wait a couple months instead and you'll actually see some improvement.

... then again maybe I'm just too miserly. I'm still on athlonXP with a 9600 pro :p
 
Don't hotlink images from other sites.- Dr.Evil

2x7800GTs are slower than 1 X1900XT... to whoever is wondering. Even in NV biased games.



http://www23.tomshardware.com/charts9/526-548-215.png[/IMG]

If you have the choice, get a single X1900XT or a 7900GTO. 7800GTs these days are expensive, so a new 7900GTO(7900GTX in disguise?) or a X1900XT would run for the same money, or less, then a 7800GT. Get one of the forementioned and be happy :cool:
 
Endurancevm said:
2x7800GTXs are slower than 1 X1900XT... to whoever is wondering. Even in NV biased games.



[IMG=[color=red]no thanks, I don't own THG, so I am not stealing their BW[/color]]http://www23.tomshardware.com/charts9/526-548-215.png[/IMG]

If you have the choice, get a single X1900XT or a 7900GTO. 7800GTs these days are expensive, so a new 7900GTO(7900GTX in disguise?) or a X1900XT would run for the same money, or less, then a 7800GT. Get one of the forementioned and be happy :cool:
Click to expand...
How come the 7800GT (an obvious downgrade) just entered the discussion?
 
StealthyFish said:
why not just transfer your two 7800GTXs over? seriously, those should be enough. A Conroe and some RAM will probably benefit those two 7800GTXs. Plus, Conroe's can oc pretty far. I'd tack on a nice high end CPU cooler like the scythe ninja or big typhoon

So do something like:

MSI 975X Platinum rev 2.1B -175 (or Abit AW9D-Max - 240)
Conroe E6400 - 240 (estimate)
2Gb (2x 1gb kits) Team Xtreme DDR2 667 (overclocks like a mother) - 240
7800GTX SLI (your old ones)

Tasks that are more CPU intensive, you'll see insanely bettered performance. For games, it'll depend. if it's FEAR, you'll see a noticable difference (like 5 - 10 FPS better). But performance gain will vary depending on the program

(plus, you save a couple of bucks)
Click to expand...

some people dont have anything better to spend their money on hah
 
lol. Well, unless you're a complete graphics whore, I don't think it's necessary to upgrade from those 7800GTXs. DX10 is right around the corner, and you'll lose money if you try to sell off your DX9 cards when DX10 is out. Hold off, pick up a conroe. The CPU's raw power will guarantee that there are no bottlenecks on the CPU side, so you just have to worry about if your graphics card, ram, or motherboard is the one holding your performance back or not. that MSI board is probably one of the fastest 975X chipset motherboards out there. they've got crazy northbridge timings, and the team xtreme uses the same IC's as the Corsair PC2 8500 sticks. wait for a G80/R600, and I think you'd be set for one gaming computer that'll last you a good amount of time.
 
StealthyFish said:
lol. Well, unless you're a complete graphics whore, I don't think it's necessary to upgrade from those 7800GTXs. DX10 is right around the corner, and you'll lose money if you try to sell off your DX9 cards when DX10 is out. Hold off, pick up a conroe. The CPU's raw power will guarantee that there are no bottlenecks on the CPU side, so you just have to worry about if your graphics card, ram, or motherboard is the one holding your performance back or not. that MSI board is probably one of the fastest 975X chipset motherboards out there. they've got crazy northbridge timings, and the team xtreme uses the same IC's as the Corsair PC2 8500 sticks. wait for a G80/R600, and I think you'd be set for one gaming computer that'll last you a good amount of time.
Click to expand...
So you suggest he spend $500 on a CPU/ mobo/ ram upgrade now, for what will be less than 10% improvement on the maximum fps? Based on the assumption that DX10 cards will be CPU limited? In the end, if that is the case, the smart thing would be to upgrade at that point and get a DX10 GPU and a CPU instead of having idle assets sitting around in the meantime.

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTEwOCw3LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
http://firingsquad.com/hardware/intel_core_2_sli_performance/
 
Dunan said:
And don't forget the chance of directX 10 games being available when vista ships is about ZERO.
I took almost 5 years for games to come out that were fully DX9 complient.

Gun Metal was the first one.
Click to expand...

Wrong - They're already a slew of games coming out within the next few months that will utilize DirectX 10.The newest Flight Sim is coming out in Nov. Flight Sim will support both Direct X 9 and Direct X 10 (DX10 will be enabled when vista is released.)
 
i agree with what they're saying above.....DX10 cards are right around the corner, and generally speaking the new generation cards, not refreshes, are immensely more powerful than what's out now. I'd at least wait until official specs are released and see then. They're going to whip the 7900 GTX and 7950 GX2 in terms of overall performance! Wait for a new SLI setup until then.

This is my assumption of course, seeing the jump in performance from the nVidia 5000,6000, and current 7000 series. I think (hope) the new cards coming out soon will surpass even two 7900 GTX's in SLI! That's what I'm waiting on.... ;) But if you need it NOW by all means go for it if the money's burnin' a hole in your wallet! We've all been there...
 
Your rig is fine. You won't see any tangible benefit from upgrading. If money's burning a hole in your pocket, try upgrading your sound system or monitor. That's always fun.
 
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