Should I Bother Upgrading?

[ToddMcF2002]

I'm a bit short on cash but I could afford an AGP ATI x1950 Pro 512MB (~$300).

Should I bother though? Here are my current specs:

2.8 Northwood socket 478 @ 3.3 GHz (960 FSB)
1 Gig DDR533.
x850XT PE 256MB
Gateway 22" widescreen 1680x1050

I'd love to add another gig of RAM but I'll probably lose my OC, and pairing the x1950 with a 2.8 GHz CPU might not make sense? So the question is - should I spend ~$300 now or just wait a year and build a complete machine?

Thanks for any advise!

 

[umbolo]

I don't think it's good idea to upgrade to 300$ AGP card. It won't fit into your next configuration, you'll need PCI-E card, so it's basicaly a waste of money. Either buy a new rig, or wait a year, and then buy killer Quad rig with DX10 card (in a year there will be much more Dx10 cards too choose from, both from ATI and nVidia, plus games will start to implement DX10).

 

[ToddMcF2002]

Damn the voice of reason! LOL

 

[ToddMcF2002]

Assuming I defied reason and bought the card - with future EBay in mind of course - what gains could I expect? NWN2 at decent levels? Improvements in Oblivion? Assuming I did NOT add RAM (and stayed at ~3.3 GHz) would I be CPU bound running native rez of my monitor (1680x1050)?