X2 3800+ & New GPU

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VrtGG

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Hey all, first post on here. Had a little bit of a question for anyone willing/capable to answer.

I've acquired a Vista system that has a X2 3800+ at stock speeds and 3Gb of RAM, with a generic 7 series Nvidia in it I believe, 7300 or the like. Now not to sound completely incompetent, I did my fair share of reading on the web about various bottlenecks for the CPU, and that OC'ing it to clock speeds such as 2.6Ghz and higher etc. would minimize the bottlenecks to a degree.

The cards that I read that would bottleneck for instance the stock speed of the 3800+, more significantly anyway, were the 8 series of cards, mostly the 8800GT and GTS/GTX versions of the cards. Most issues could be solved by playing at higher resolutions and such, but I'd like a more balanced GPU, if there is one that would fit in. I may consider OC'ing to accomodate a different GPU, or one of the 8 series if needed, but I'd like to stick to something more balanced like I said. Now the x1900 seems to me that it would bottleneck as well, but what about cards equal in power, or maybe slightly less? I've been out of the loop for a while, how do the say new Nvidia and ATI cards fare with this CPU? Perhaps a 7900 would be more ideal even? I'm at an impasse to be honest, quite lost.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance. :cool:
 
First give us your budget, I would say just get a nvidia 9800gt/ ati 4830/ ati 4850 and overclock your cpu. Dont worry too much about cpu bottle neck.
 
For your current system:
9600GSO
9600GT
9800GT

They will give you nearly the same result as you are CPU bottlenecked and even overclocking won't significantly change that.

Anything faster will be a waste of $ unless you plan to upgrade CPU/mobo soon.
 
8800/9800gt or 4830/4850 would be good choices for a system like that.

Don't worry too much about the "cpu bottleneck" people go on and on about; unless you're planning on playing GTA4, it's not that big of a deal.
 
Alright, an update. I feel like a huge idiot at this very moment, upon further investigation, the PC is indeed not equipped with a 3800+, but a 4800+, I need to first learn to read/check things, my bad for the mistake.

http://www.buy.com/prod/hp-pavilion...-2-5-ghz-65w-geforce/q/loc/101/208429994.html here are the full specs to be sure, just googled the desktop brand.

I may have to open it downstairs to check, but I believe it only has a 300watt power supply, I'm thinking that I need a 400+ to power that 9800GT. Would I be able to support an even stronger card than a 9800GT now with the better CPU, or is the 9800GT still the best buy.

A link to a reliable PSU from say newegg.com would be appreciated as well, I'm not too 'pro' when it comes to Power Supplies, the connectors and all that jazz. Again, my apologies, thanks in advance again for any help.


P.S. My budge would be somewhere around maybe 200-250 total for the PSU and GPU, somewhere around there, if it can be bought for even less, that'd be even more great.
 
Thanks for the reply, that PSU looks pretty good, would like to get a few more responses and weigh it all out though, not saying that your suggestions aren't good though by any means!


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...CODE=YAHOODF&cm_mmc_o=QztBBCjCVRqCjCVRqCjCVRq

Is what I found, the case isn't exactly top of the line huge either, so I was trying to accomodate for heat and such, I hear the 9800GT runs fairly cooler than say the 4850. I don't plan to do much GPU OC'ing either.

Thoughts on the above link would be much appreciated. Thanks again all.

P.S. Would 400 watts really be enough to power a 9800GT and everything else?!
 
Don't worry too much about the "cpu bottleneck" people go on and on about; unless you're planning on playing GTA4, it's not that big of a deal.
Click to expand...
:rolleyes:

Not that you should worry... but be aware that you wouldn't be able to take full advantage of faster graphics cards while running a 3800+. The fact that you have a 4800+ alters that picture slightly, but your choice should still be 9800GT or so (whater ATI is equiv).

This supply is about what you need, look for something similar in specs... link

Good luck.
 
Staypuft said:
:rolleyes:

Not that you should worry... but be aware that you wouldn't be able to take full advantage of faster graphics cards while running a 3800+. The fact that you have a 4800+ alters that picture slightly, but your choice should still be 9800GT or so (whater ATI is equiv). Good luck.
Click to expand...

Ah, I see, thanks for the reply puft. Yep, I figured as much that the 9800GT would be the best buy all around for the specs that I have. Now about Vista overall, would the 3Gb be enough to be able to play games such as CoD4 and WoW on comfortably? I'm migrating from a XP system that's served me well with 2Gb, and I'm a bit hesitant to be honest.

Edit: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371019 how about this power supply, does that fit the bill?
 
The memory is more than enough, enjoy your system.

That PSU will work, even though it's a bit basiq.
 
9600GSO + 3800+ works wonders. I have the same setup in my media PC and everything is totally fine at 720p.
 
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