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upgrade time!

S

Silen7

n00b
Joined
Oct 25, 2006
Messages
15
Looking for suggestions for upgrading my pc. I have:

fx-55 @ 3.0
4x512mb corsair twinx512-3200xlpro
asus a8n sli-premium s939
7800gtx 256mb
corsair hx620w

I plan on waiting about another year for nehalem to come out to get a new processor. All the older dualcore amd processors are pretty much a no go because the 4x512mb can't overclock for shit. And getting an intel cpu means new ram/mobo which doesn't seem worth it for only a year. The only logical upgrade i can see getting is another gfx card. I know i can't get one that is too powerful because it will bottleneck my cpu big time. I'm looking at spending under $300 for one. the 8800gt seems like the best choice, but i'm not sure if i will see the true power of it with my cpu. I play mostly fps (crysis, cod4, gow, unreal tournament 3, cs...) at 1680x1050 res. Sure the games are playable, but i can't stand watching videos of how they are supposed to look, and then going back to my pc and playing them at 1024x768 because i get crapy frames at native res. I know many good games are coming out in 08 (far cry 2, alan wake?, starcraft 2...) and want to be able to play them.

So i guess my question is, what gfx (if any) will help me play games at a respectable quality (excluding crysis) for about a year until i completely upgrade to nehalem? Or maybe there is none (b/c cpu bottleneck is too bad), and i should just wait until i upgrade to buy a better gfx. Thanks in advance guys. :)
 
Why wouldn't a top-of-line graphics card, that you say would be bottlenecked by your cpu, fit a new motherboard a year from now ? If you bought a 8800GT and later bought a new mobo/cpu/ram, why wouldn't it fit that board too? Are you expecting a move from PCI-E ???
 
What Jpangelo said, plus what I recently wrote in a previous post;

Well, you have to options. Price vs Performance, you are better off going with the ATI 3870. I would not consider the 3850 as 256MB simply isn't cutting it anymore and the 3870's are not as pricey (if you find them at a respectable price). For raw performance under $300.00, then the 8800GT 512MB is the sweet spot, but the demand for this card has raised the prices from the suggested price of $250.00 to upwards of $300.00+. But you can still find them under $300.00 suggest holding out for a month or so if you want one cheaper. If price is not issue then the 8800GTX / 8800 Ultra are the cards for you.

So price wise -> 3850 -> 3870 -> 8800GT -> 8800GTX -> 8800 Ultra
Price vs Performance -> 3870 - > 8800GT

Also since nvidia has upgraded the 8800GTS and it will be widely available (is it available now?) the 8800GT price should drop as it would no longer be above the 8800GTS.
 
I also have a 7800gtx, what would be the performance gains of upgrading? Considering you are going from high end last gen to mid range this gen? Just curious as I'm on the fence about getting just a 3850 to hold me over till 9xxx series (or equal ATI) come out in March-Aprilish.
 
@ Jpangelo - a top of the line gfx would fit a new mobo a year from now (i don't see why it shouldn't) the only thing is, if i got say an 8800ultra instead of 8800gt, i would spend $300 more, and probably wouldn't see that much more performance (b/c of my cpu). When i upgrade to nehalem, the geforce 9 series will be out, and i will probably upgrade to that and sell the gfx i get now.

@ Shadowhaxor - you have an excellent point, i'm more of a nvidia guy, but getting a hold of the 8800gt is nearly impossible, while the 3870s are almost everywhere. If you really think about it though, you can get the 3870 for 249.99, and a 8800gt for 259.99 (the recent overclocked gigabyte HP one) at newegg. For an extra $10 it seems worth it, and yes, it is out of stock, but what's a couple of weeks compared to a year of better performance, if you know what i mean.

I guess what i really want to know (i know no one probably knows, but just from general experience/knowledge i'm asking), is if i get either the 3870 or the 8800gt, will my cpu really impose a major bottleneck that won't allow me to see the full potential of those cards? Thanks again.
 
Silen7 said:
@ Jpangelo - a top of the line gfx would fit a new mobo a year from now (i don't see why it shouldn't) the only thing is, if i got say an 8800ultra instead of 8800gt, i would spend $300 more, and probably wouldn't see that much more performance (b/c of my cpu). When i upgrade to nehalem, the geforce 9 series will be out, and i will probably upgrade to that and sell the gfx i get now.

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Click to expand...

First off, you're not looking at that much of a bottleneck. Would a 4 core Intel do better with a GTX than your CPU? Absolutely! Will you still see gains keeping your current CPU ? Absolutely! And when you upgrade to Nehalem, you'll already have the gfx card- why buy it twice?
IMHO, buy the Ultra (or GT) now, upgrade cpu/mobo/ram later...
 
Well i guess the only thing that would stop me from buying an ultra would be, don't you think they will have at least the first round of geforce 9 out by the time nehalem comes out (a little under a year from now, probably)? Also, do you really think spending $300 more for an ultra wouldn't give me $300 more performance over a 8800gt right now, especially at 1680x1050? Since i will probably get a new gfx a couple months after i upgrade to nehalem, i'm looking at the 8800gt just to hold me over for slightly more than a year.
 
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