Upgrade CPU or GPU?

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veritas7

Gawd
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Nov 7, 2007
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I was wondering which would be the best (and maybe also if I was to do this at the summer rather than now)

9800GX2 to a GTX 285

leaning towards, want more AA, don't like the 73c idle in my computer [another reason why Im also switching back to my old case, reverse ATX wouldn't have the hot ait from this feeding in to my CPU] compared the 285's nice 31c idle and loads almost matching my current idle

OR

E8400 @ 3.3GHz to a Q9550 @ at least 3.0GHz?

Also wanting to upgrade to quad because I might have to utilize the other two cores soon for film major, so probably going to have to render/encode things overnight, who knows.


For the sake of gaming, which is the better upgrade for FPS, and which is the better for the $$$?

Also, I'm locked in to a P35/775 because I honestly will probably start a new i7 rig when I finally get a stable job (~2 years from now) and I don't have the large lump sum of money.

edit: I game decently, about ~20 hours a week on my PC. My res is 1920x1200.
 
i think it really depends on what you are going to be doing more.. atleast for school.. the q9550 is a much better choice then upgrading the gfx card... but if you play games more then you plan to encode then the gtx285 is a better option.. though if temps really an issue.. id look into the gtx 260 216 core 55nm instead of the gtx 285.. you will get better AA then the 9800GX2 but atleast it wont hit you in your pocket as much.. and may leave room to upgrade to the q9550 a little later down the road as prices drop..
 
I disagree with sirmonkey. I don't think there's going to be much of a performance boost, if any, by changing that cpu. There are not a lot of quad supported games out there so a faster dual core is going to be a better choice. I'm not saying that the q9550 is a bad chip, it's great, but I think that going to a 2-3 series newer gpu would be a better upgrade than basically adding 2 more cores that may just sit there idle. Compare gaming benchmarks between a core 2 8400 and q9550. I bet they are almost non-existent in differences.
 
Thanks for the inputs guys.

I think with swapping back to the old case, I can eliminate my heating woes (I think this Cosmos 1000 wasn't simply designed with a dual PCB/SLI in mind, it's HOT inside!) and put off getting either until the summer, where hopefully prices drop.

I probably will get the 285 unless I run in to some projects that involve heavy processing where the Q9550 might help me out. I will eventually get the 9550 just so that I can get as much as I can out of the 775 socket, and build maybe a HTPC/LANbox out of my current parts when I upgrade to an i7.

Thanks guys!
 
enginurd said:
for a 300mhz difference? really? :confused: Now, when you say "down," you mean like a few fps?
Click to expand...

Yeah, you probably wouldn't notice. However the few games using 3+ threads run a lot faster on the quad (GTA4, Lost Planet). So more games should benefit from quads in the future.
 
I'm sure you can sell that GX2 to some of the folders here for the price of a 260 or 280, and then upgrade both.
Honestly, those things sell like hotcakes here on [H]
 
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