Video card vs. Processor Question

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Revlt Coranier

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I'm thinking about upgrading my computer soon, and I was wondering whether I should get a middle-of-the-line video card and a faster processor, or a better video card and a slower processor. Which do you guys think would perform better?

eVGA 6800 GS and AMD Athlon 64 3500+

or

eVGA 7800 GT and AMD Athlon 64 3200+

Thanks in advance,
Jonathan
 
you coulda made this a pole :D

anywho i vote the seccond option, for gaming at least. i mean if your doing encoding, or w/e yea sure you want more of a processer, but the 3200 is plenty fast, go with that.

your remembering of course, am2s almost here, along with NF5, and the 7900 is staring us in the face (speculated to be realeased march 11)

so if iw as you, wait
 
Cool, thanks. Yeah it would mainly be for gaming.

What is am2?

And I am assuming NF5 means nForce 5?

I am planning on asking for these things for my birthday, which isn't until May 17, so things will probably have changed by then (like the 7900 as you said).
 
yea am2 is like sockey 940.... +1? its just designed slightly differently, i really dont know what its deal is. i mean i was hoping am2 was gonna break 1000 pins. thad be cool. but noooo. 940. w/e still more the 775. anywho long story short its a new socket from amd, not yet released, but soon to be.

and yea NF5 = Nforce five. but its a chunk down the road. dont quote me. dont repeat me. dont sue me, but its RUMERED to support quad sli, but i dont know how nvidia wants to present quad sli, as 2 northbridges and two south bridges (which for some reason presents a problem for AMD donno why) or with some other configuration.

but giga-byte released this (and iv posted this link like 10 times now)
 
Ahh.. interesting.

Well thanks =) I guess I'll just wait and see how things develop over the next two months.
 
yea my bdays march 22, gonna ask for 7900, unforutnalty that means ether im gonna get an iou for a month (until am2) or its gonna have to sit in a box for a while.
 
The second one would definately be better for gaming purposes.............and for stuff like encoding or ripping the first one would be better IMO. It just depends upon for what purpose are you planning to use it for.
 
Second option is definitely better, especially since you can probably overclock that 3200+ to beyond 3500+ speeds easily. The 6800 and 7800 are different architectures so, overclocking a 6800 won't give it the same performance/features as a 7800.
 
Second one no question, I would even bet that if you overclocked both they would top out at around the same frequency. As for am2, I would only go that route if I was needing a new system or new memory. Cause dumping ddr for ddr2 doesnt seem that worthwhile to me just yet.
 
Unless your gaming is limited to flight/driving sims, which tend to be very CPU bound, the faster video card (option 2) would provide better performance for the money invested.
 
I agree. Second option is your best choice. And you can always overclock that 3200+ easily.
 
I'd say option 2. I bet you can easily get the 3200+ 200mhz overclocked on stock cooling and voltage.
 
Cereal Killer said:
I would go with the 3200+ and wait a week for the 7900GT :)
Click to expand...

What he said, although since you aren't getting it untill may all cards might drop some since then, but a 3200+/7800GT is definitly better then a 3500+/6800GS, the cpus only have like a 10% performance difference but the 7800GT almost doubles the 6800GS performance.
 
MrWizard6600 said:
your remembering of course, am2s almost here, along with NF5, and the 7900 is staring us in the face (speculated to be realeased march 11)
Click to expand...

Well sure it is, but given the reason for the OP's two options, am2 is .... not a realistic optoin ( think $$$ )


Absolutely go with option 2. Difference in cpu's is paltry performance-wise. And you can EASILY gain that back in a small overclock. With the vid, yeah no question about it, for gaming the 7800 will be the much better choice.
 
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