• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Upgrade CPU or GPU

R

Reorax

n00b
Joined
Jul 5, 2007
Messages
11
I'm currently looking at upgrades, mostly because of Fallout 3 coming out in a month.
Right now I have an E4300, 1.8 GHz and an 8800 GT, 512 MB, which could both use a boost.

I'm looking to spend about $200-250, so it looks like I'll only be able to get one upgrade, so which do you think it should be? My system is mostly used for gaming, but I sometimes use it for video encoding as well. I'm looking to run at 1920x1200 with decent settings and a usable framerate.
 
you are going to have to get both. The E4300 is bottlenecking your current 8800gt atm so if you get a new video card it will be even worse.

Sell your 8800gt and cpu. Then use the extra money to buy both. The 8800gt will just barely cut it at 1920x1200 with newer games...I used an 8800gt to play Crysis, COD4, TF2, HL2, and BF2142 @ 1920x1200, but wasn't bottlenecked

I'de start out with a new cpu and then buy a new video card when money allows
 
What power supply do you have?
What motherboard do you have?

Your current CPU is more than enough if you overclock it to 3Ghz or so. Should be doable on stock cooling IIRC. So if you overclock your CPU and assuming that your PSU is good, then you can spend all of that $250 on a new video card. I recommend this video card:
PNY VCGGTX260XPB GeForce GTX 260 896MB PCI-E Video Card - $250

I would recommend getting the HD4850 BUT it's not that big of a performance increase to justify the costs IMO.
 
Your 8800gt is fine for now. If you get Fallout 3 and it doesnt run well, get a 4850/70, 9800 gtx/260 etc.
I would start off with a e7200 100-120 bucks or a e8400 140-160 bucks.
Whats the rest of your computer like ? Monitor ?
 
Thanks for the responses.

My power supply is 520W: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001&Tpk=CMPSU-520HX

and my motherboard is http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128042

My monitor is a 24", 1920x1200 native res.


My E4300 is running at 2.4 Ghz right now (forgot to mention that in the first post), but it runs rather hot, so I'd need to look into better cooling to push it higher. The GPU runs pretty hot too (seems like a common problem for 8800 GT).

Upgrading to an E8400 wouldn't be so bad after selling my old chip, so I'll probably do that and see how it goes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top