Upgrade Path: CPU vs Video Card?

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donjn

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 19, 2006
Messages
97
I am thinking about an upgrade.

Right now, I feel my system is pretty good, but I just have never been happy with my Windsor AMD x2 6000 3.0Ghz processor. I play Age of Conan, and will most likely dabble in DX10 once it has been added to that game. I have XP now, and will get Vista soon.

The question is, where do I need to upgrade?

Here are my specs:

Athlon x2 Windsor 6000 3.0Ghz Processor
3 gb of DDR2 800 Dual Channel RAM (4 slots, 2 x 1gb, then 2x 512mb)
Ati Radeon 4870 Video Card
Two IDE Hard Drives 160gb


Processor
My instincts tell me that it is time to go with Intel. But if I want to do this cheaply, which Intel chip starts beating the Windosr? I mean, is an E7300 Wolfdale 2.66GHz faster for gaming than the Windosr AMD 3000 3.0Ghz? I am too hung up on GHz speed. Even though I have some pretty good knowledge of PC parts, do I need to get over this and understand that a 2.5Ghz can be faster than a 3.0Ghz? Cost is one of my issues. Maybe I need to go with Phenom, so I can keep my same motherboard? Also I just noticed this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103300


RAM
My RAM looks okay. Yes, it is 3gb dual channel. DDR3 may be tempting later, but I think that the speed difference may not be that great. If I move to Vista, would it be worth it to increase memory to 4gb or is that a waste unless I get Visat 64 bit so that the OS sees all of the 4gb?

Video Card
As usual, the video card upgrade is always the one I do. It is always the easiest path. My board is not SLI and I have myself for years I will never do SLI. The Geforce 280 is tempting but I am not sure if the $100 price difference is justified by 10% framerate increases. But good lord, I would love to dump ATi. Every card I have ever had from them has always been a pain. This time it was the default fan speed being too slow. I changed it in the profile but between that and the infamous CCC I would really love to say goodbye to ATi at some point. Still though, the 4870 has been delicious both with speed and image quality.

Hard Drives
No SATA for me still. It has just never happened. No RAID, nothing. I have two IDE drives at 7200RPM. I keep them defragmented and running fine. COuld this be holding me back?


Conclusion
I have a feeling that my processor is not feeding my video card fast enough.

Upgrade me for cheap! Thanks..
 
donjn said:

Processor
My instincts tell me that it is time to go with Intel. But if I want to do this cheaply, which Intel chip starts beating the Windosr? I mean, is an E7300 Wolfdale 2.66GHz faster for gaming than the Windosr AMD 3000 3.0Ghz? I am too hung up on GHz speed. Even though I have some pretty good knowledge of PC parts, do I need to get over this and understand that a 2.5Ghz can be faster than a 3.0Ghz? Cost is one of my issues. Maybe I need to go with Phenom, so I can keep my same motherboard? Also I just noticed this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103300
Click to expand...

The $75 E5200 actually beats the X2 6000+. And yes the $120 E7300 is faster than the AMD X2 6000+. And yes you definitely need to get over your reliance on clock speede.. That's just an extremely old way of thinking. Clock speed is not the end all when it comes to choosing a CPU. You have to take in account the core, the design, efficiency, etc of the CPU.

The X2 7750 is a good choice. In fact, it outpaces the E5200 in a few tests and it's a decent overclocker. Granted the E5200 can overclock higher and will outperform the X2 7750 clock for clock once OC'd, it will cost you an additional $80 for a new mobo for the Intel CPU. So if your motherboard supports the X2 7750, that would be good and cost effective upgrade for you.

donjn said:

RAM
If I move to Vista, would it be worth it to increase memory to 4gb or is that a waste unless I get Visat 64 bit so that the OS sees all of the 4gb?
Click to expand...
3GB of RAM is more than enough for gaming, regardless of OS. We typically recommend 4GB RAM sets since they're usually cheaper than getting a 2x1 and 2x512MB set for 3GB of RAM.

If you want 4GB of RAM, then yes it would be an extremely good idea to get Vista 64bit in order to use all 4GB of RAM.

donjn said:
Hard Drives
No SATA for me still. It has just never happened. No RAID, nothing. I have two IDE drives at 7200RPM. I keep them defragmented and running fine. COuld this be holding me back?
Click to expand...

Depends on how old and what those IDE drives are.

Anyway, your most cost effective upgrade would be a new CPU. The $78 X2 7750 or the $195 Phenom II X4 920 if your mobo supports them would be a good choice
 
I think I am going to go with the X2 7750 Black Edition and OC'd it to about 3.1GHz. This will certainly make a difference over my X2 6000. I am not expecting miracles, but I should see a 5 to 10% difference.

Thanks for your help!
 
Just make sure your mobo actually supports that CPU.
 
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