Upgrade which component

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precator

n00b
Joined
Mar 23, 2005
Messages
13
I have a 3500, 1 gig mem, and a bfg 7800 gt.

Also have a 24 inch monitor.

I have about 400 in xtra cash to blow. What do you think would be a better purchase for gaming..

Should i get a 2nd bfg 7800gt or..

should i get a nice 4400 x2 processer?

I am thinking about getting the second video card and running it in sli. But would my processor be a bottleneck?
 
The order I would go in is as follows:

1. Processor (Though yours is quite nice already)
2. 2nd Stick of RAM
3. 2nd GPU
 
TranquilRed said:
The order I would go in is as follows:

1. Processor (Though yours is quite nice already)
2. 2nd Stick of RAM
3. 2nd GPU
Click to expand...

QFT.
 
I would go
Video Card
RAM
CPU

I say this because you got that 24" monitor, and I'm assuming you must be running at a pretty hefty resolution, so that 2nd 7800gt would help you out.

also does the processoer really effect games all that much theres days? I never really notice a bg difference in games between my 3000+ running at 2ghz vs. 2.5/2.6.
 
Naldo said:
also does the processoer really effect games all that much theres days? I never really notice a bg difference in games between my 3000+ running at 2ghz vs. 2.5/2.6.
Click to expand...
That's true.
 
Start with another gig of RAM.

You might be able to get both the RAM and a 2nd 7800gt... Shop around. Hell, check the For Sale/Trady forum. Take advantage of one of us that suffers from severe upgraditis... (which is most of us :D )

-dB
 
nothing.

WAIT for nextgen cards, then when nvidia 7900/8000 comes out, sell ur processor and get get another 7800, and more ram and dual core
 
I'd recommend going for another GB of RAM for now, and wait for prices to drop on the video card and processor.
 
Video card if it is only a gaming rig, a dual-core processor if it is general purpose. Dual core doesn't do a whole lot for gaming at the moment, but it makes a world of difference for everything else.
 
Weazmeister said:
Not quite if you're running SLI and high res at which point your CPU becomes bottleneck again.
Click to expand...


No, the CPU is the bottleneck at lower resolutions, not higher.



You will will see the most performance increase from adding another card. Period.

Depending on the games you play and extra Gig of RAM will eliminate hitching, which will make higher texture setting playable, so that might give you the most bang for your buck. Of course you could get both with the money you have.

You won't see any performance increase at all from adding another CPU right now. Duel core is not being taken advantage right now in games, though it will. But, by the time it does, that CPU will much much cheaper and there will be better ones on the market. OC your current one, if you want mroe CPU speed.
 
I would go processor and ram. Get a 3800 X2 processor, take that extra money that you would of spent on the 4400 X2 and buy another gig of ram. Video card is fine of right now. You will benefit from the processor and ram more IMO.

Obi_Kwiet said:
No, the CPU is the bottleneck at lower resolutions, not higher.



You will will see the most performance increase from adding another card. Period.

Depending on the games you play and extra Gig of RAM will eliminate hitching, which will make higher texture setting playable, so that might give you the most bang for your buck. Of course you could get both with the money you have.

You won't see any performance increase at all from adding another CPU right now. Duel core is not being taken advantage right now in games, though it will. But, by the time it does, that CPU will much much cheaper and there will be better ones on the market. OC your current one, if you want mroe CPU speed.
Click to expand...

Can someone care to explain how a CPU becomes a bottleneck at lower resolutions and not higher resolutions? Im not doubting it, I just never understood why it does. The way I looked at, with a system like his, at lower resolutions, you can turn up all eye candy. But then people say the CPU will bottleneck it. How is this so?
 
Obi_Kwiet said:
No, the CPU is the bottleneck at lower resolutions, not higher.
Click to expand...

You missed what I said I guess. With SLI (<--see this part?) [H] did a review of 7800GTX 512 in SLI and it showed that if you didn't have a powerful enough CPU you were just wasting money. At the higher res the CPUs were the bottleneck where they recommended that if you didn't run a FX55 or higher you were wasting your money. Get it now?
 
Lazy_Moron said:
I would go processor and ram. Get a 3800 X2 processor, take that extra money that you would of spent on the 4400 X2 and buy another gig of ram. Video card is fine of right now. You will benefit from the processor and ram more IMO.



Can someone care to explain how a CPU becomes a bottleneck at lower resolutions and not higher resolutions? Im not doubting it, I just never understood why it does. The way I looked at, with a system like his, at lower resolutions, you can turn up all eye candy. But then people say the CPU will bottleneck it. How is this so?
Click to expand...

The GPU isn't stressed by low resolutions with normal setups, however the CPU is because it has to provide an insane amount of information.

Let's say you're running 640x480 with all of the gfx candy turned off. Your GPU isn't going to break a sweat on that, but your CPU will be pushing an insane amount of data to keep up with the FPS that are being generated by the GPU. The reverse is true when running high res, unless you're running a SLI rig with an underpowered CPU. Which is what my post earlier was about. If your CPU isn't powerful enough to get the data to the dual GPUs you're wasting money.
 
precator said:
I have a 3500, 1 gig mem, and a bfg 7800 gt.

Also have a 24 inch monitor.

I have about 400 in xtra cash to blow. What do you think would be a better purchase for gaming..

Should i get a 2nd bfg 7800gt or..

should i get a nice 4400 x2 processer?

I am thinking about getting the second video card and running it in sli. But would my processor be a bottleneck?
Click to expand...

For the time being, i'd recommend going with an extra gig of memory as it will really start to help with these newer games as there are some right now that run better with the memory. I havn't gamed on my PC since November 22nd, but I remembered numerous games like Quake 4, Battlefield 2, Vampires, and I think one other title running smoother with virtually no more harddrive thrashing. If you have money left over, i'd save it for a newer cpu as these dual cores will really start to drop in price when the new AMD socket M2 based cpu's hit the market. While your cpu looks fine for now, more and more games are now taking advantage of dual core.
 
Get more RAM. You have a very decent rig already. But if it was me, i'd go for RAM next. Honestly, you have a 7800GT and only 1 Gig RAM?! :rolleyes: :D

Lazy_Moron said:
Can someone care to explain how a CPU becomes a bottleneck at lower resolutions and not higher resolutions? Im not doubting it, I just never understood why it does. The way I looked at, with a system like his, at lower resolutions, you can turn up all eye candy. But then people say the CPU will bottleneck it. How is this so?
Click to expand...

Like the guy above me said, it's just how the video card is stressed.

At 640x480 at low video quality, the card can go at 500fps. But the CPU can only handle all the data (physics, sound, memory management, database, etc.) at around 100fps.

Put it at 2000x1600 with everything max. CPU still can only go at 100fps max. But the card will be plodding along at 30fps.

It really depends on how you balance your settings. In the first example, the CPU was the bottleneck. In the second, it's the video card.

For me, as long as the frame rate doesn't go below the monitors refresh rate, go nuts :D

In precator's case, the only thing that's probably the weakest in his rig is his memory. You're going at 100fps, then it stutters for half a second because windows suddenly had the urge to mess with the cache. Get another gig and get rid of that swap file reading for good.


@precator
Ignore what everyone above me said. Your rig sucks. Give it to me :D
 
Lazy_Moron said:
I would go processor and ram. Get a 3800 X2 processor, take that extra money that you would of spent on the 4400 X2 and buy another gig of ram. Video card is fine of right now. You will benefit from the processor and ram more IMO.



Can someone care to explain how a CPU becomes a bottleneck at lower resolutions and not higher resolutions? Im not doubting it, I just never understood why it does. The way I looked at, with a system like his, at lower resolutions, you can turn up all eye candy. But then people say the CPU will bottleneck it. How is this so?
Click to expand...


Well, at higher resolutions the GPU is strained more the the CPU. The CPU is doing the same amount of work at any resolution, calculating physics and the AI, and stuff but the GPU is doing more, because it has more pixels to put on the screen. The GPU's work load is increased, but the CPU's remains the same, because it has very litttle to do with the graphics portion of the game. The CPU may be able to do enough physics, AI and other calculations for 200fps, but at the higher resolution the GPU is suddenly saddled with so much work it can only put out 75fps, even though the CPU would be fine with more frames. So the lowest number must be the limiting factor. As you lower the GPU intensive settings, the exact opposite happens, and the GPU outstrips the CPU, because, while the GPU might be able to put out 300fps worth of work, the CPU's portion of the work is still only happening at 200 fps, just like it was at the higher resolution.

AA/AF, higher resolutions, heavier shader effects and other things, put more strain on the GPU.

Physics, AI and sometimes sound settings put a higher strain on the CPU.

Also, he won't notice any improvement in getting a duel core CPU right now. He current one is fine for now. Antoher GT could come in handy though, for FEAR.
 
Comte said:
Ram., and save your money for later improvements.
Click to expand...
Indeed. Games are fast requiring 1gb of RAM for smooth play at higher graphical settings, whereas processor speed is rarely a limitation on framerate anymore. The same is quite true for the 7800. It's a great video card right now, and will more than hold it's own in the coming months. Fork out for either another GB stick of RAM if you already have one, or if you're running 2x512MB, sell that off and buy yourself the cheapest 2x1GB set you can, which I think at the moment is the G.Skill value.
 
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