• 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 or wait..or upgrade...or just wait?

K

khanis

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 2, 2009
Messages
481
My system has been aging and has been showing signs of doing so. At 1680x1050 the measly 320mb of vRAM on my 8800GTS and the weakness of my CPU makes me want to do some upgrades.
On a AM2+ socket, I have a few options.. one is to upgrade my GPU to a Phenom II. Yeah, the Phenom II's aren't the fastest CPU's on the block, but I figure it should last my a while after a decent OC, especially in terms of games. However, with AMD's imminent Bulldozer CPU coming out, it seems like a waste to invest on this dead socket.

On the GPU side, the GTX 460 and the 5770 have my attention. Both seem like excellent values and awesome additions to my system at 1680x1050, but there is certainly a rather large price gap. I think the 460 will last me for years to come, so I may go with that.

The CPU decision...eh, I just don't know what to do. Once I see how the next gen CPU's perform it will be really easy..but I want to play some games :p

What should I do?
 
Last edited:
My mobo supports even the Thubans after a BIOS update, so I'm okay in that department. My budget is not really defined since I could even go for a new build, but if I do that I'll wait til next year.
I don't want to spend much more than $300 for an upgrade. I was considering the 945 as well, seems like a pretty good value.

Thanks for the suggestion... looks like a good option.
 
As a budget gamer I can attest to the potency of the Athlon II line. The X3 line is the best line of processors on the market dollar for dollar. You buy a X3 445 for $85, crank it up to 3.5 GHz, slap in a EVGA GTX460 for $200 also with a mild overclock and youve got a system thatll max out any game at 1680x1040 for $285 shipped...AND one thatll probably use LESS power than the rig youve got now.
 
The Athlon II's look tempting....

One more question, if you could only upgrade one at a time, which would you upgrade first?
 
CPU... but I would look at getting x2 550/555 as your board can may unlock another 2 cores.
 
Depends. For gaming, youll notice a bigger improvement going with a meaner video card. If its for productivity, video or picture editing and stuff like that, a better processor would be the ticket.

Not big on the unlocking thing. You buy a dual core and plan to unlock it, if you cant, youre stuck with a dual core. If you want a quad core, buy a quad core.
 
Gym Rat said:
Depends. For gaming, youll notice a bigger improvement going with a meaner video card. If its for productivity, video or picture editing and stuff like that, a better processor would be the ticket.

Not big on the unlocking thing. You buy a dual core and plan to unlock it, if you cant, youre stuck with a dual core. If you want a quad core, buy a quad core.
Click to expand...

Indeed, I don't like to bank on the unlocking thing anyway. Tough choice...I'll probably scavenge the For Sale section to see if I can get something on the cheap.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top