its been 2 years, what now

0

0ctinium

Weaksauce
Joined
Sep 10, 2002
Messages
106
the computer i am on right now is going on 2 years old and i want to give it a little bit of a boost before i go full on and build a brand new system

here are my current specs as futuremark tells it:

4926 3DMarks

General Information
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP

DirectX Version 9.0c

Mobo Manufacturer MSI

Mobo Model MS-6712

AGP Rates (Current/Available) 8x / 4x, 8x

CPU AMD Athlon(tm) XP/MP/4 1985 MHz

FSB 133 MHz

Memory 512 MB



Display Information
Graphics Chipset ATI RADEON 9700 PRO

Driver Name RADEON 9700 PRO

Driver Version 6.14.10.6467

Driver Status WHQL - FM Approved

Video Memory 128 MB

Core Clock 349 MHz

Memory Clock 290 MHz
Click to expand...

things not listed:

the memory is corsair xms pc3200, processor 2400+ and i have an audigy 2. i'm very much a gamer and play bf1942 mostly....though i would like to see a performance increase in games like farcry/doom3 (even though i can run doom3 in 1024x768 with med quality and its not that bad). i considered overclocking but im pretty convinced that the cost of a high quality water cooling setup wouldn't be worth the performance trade off from buying say a new graphics card.

thanks in advance for any suggestions, im gonna go hit the sack :D
 
Do you have an nf2 mobo? If so, in addition to a 6800nu or gt, you could also pick up a mobile XP for cheap and oc the hell out of it with your xms. How much of that do you have? What kind of air cooling do you have right now?
 
IMO, the only two things to consider are new video card, and 512MB more RAM. If you're going to be building a new rig, there really isn't any point in upgrading your CPU/mobo now. I would save all the money and put it towards the new rig though. Everything is pretty balanced, and pretty up-to-date.

You wanted my opinion, you got it ;)
 
It's not truly outdated till you see your parents looking at comps with equivalent hardware, in the budget category.

More RAM would be nice.

Your 9700PRO will still work in games for a while so don't worry.
 
Before anything else, get yourself up to a gig of RAM- I made said jump a year ago, and its the best upgrade i've ever done (512->1024). Then, consider a new gfx card.. but not until you have a gig...
 
i have $150. like i said i just want to know what i should go for to get the most oomph for my $. i kind of figured the move from 512 to 1024 would be the next step for me....especially in games like doom3. all cooling is stock, the core on the 9700 pro is slightly over clocked (from 325 mhz core). if i go from 512 to 1024 what kind of performance boost would i see in games? im aware that every game is different as far as its needs but just in general.
 
The biggest difference I noticed from 512-1gig (yes, I need to update my sig to reflect this) is load times. Levels and the like load much more quickly for me. Also, entering large areas in games doesn't give me so much of a framerate hit anymore.
 
Just as a note... I've never found that adding more ram will really help 3DMark scores.

In gaming though... ram is a really nice thing to have. A gig is about perfect these days. Some of the newer games are real memory hogs. Especially games such as Planetside which are huge MMOFPS.
 
I would get 2 800xt PE nad hook both comps up to make a small super computer and than put 4 hard drives and 4 dvd burners in each one for burning dvd from netflix
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top