$300 to upgrade an Athlon64 w/7800GTX

[Toastman]

Okay, I have been seriously agonizing over my decision here. Hopefully some of you can help me out! Grab your thinking caps!

The task:
Get both my PCs up-to-par for running current-gen games (such as Borderlands in particular).

The budget:
$300

The specs:
PC1:
Intel Core2Duo 3ghz
650w PS
4 gigs RAM
XFX Geforce 9800GX2 KO (factory over-clocked)
This is my primary gaming rig, and currently can run anything maxed with no problem.

PC2:
AMD Athlon64 4000+
550w PS (I believe, need to confirm)
2 gigs RAM
Geforce 7800GTX
This is the problem child. It currently only averages 24fps in Borderlands with all settings at low. I don't need this PC to be super-fast, just playable (and 24fps at lowest detail settings doesn't count as "playable").

The plan:
Use the $300 to get a new video card and either install it in the old PC2, or install it PC1 and move the 9800GX2 to PC2.

The problems:
Problem 1:
The 5850 certainly seems to offer the most bang, and supposedly should be in my price range, however, due to high demand and low yields, prices on the 5850s have been jacked up over the $300 mark. The only 5850 I can still find for under $300 at any of my usual shopping grounds (Newegg, mwave, and buy.com) is Sapphire, who has a bad rep for quality control (shudder). The 4890 seems to have both a price and performance advantage over the GTX275, which means I will most likely go with a 4890, unless someone can convince me that Sapphire is acceptable, or point me to another sub-$300 5850 from a reputable source.

Problem 2:
Which PC do I put the new card in? If memory serves, the 9800 is dx10, and both the 4890 and 275 are dx10.1, however, from what I have seen, the 9800GX2 is still faster than both the 4890 and 275 in many games.

Problem 3:
Is the old Athlon64 4000+ going to be able meet acceptable performance even with a new card? Anyone still game on something that old-school that can provide some input?

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to present all of the relevent variables. Thanks for whatever help you can provide!

 

[crisium]

Problem 3:
Is the old Athlon64 4000+ going to be able meet acceptable performance even with a new card?

No, probably not. A GX2 would be a waste in there. You might just want to buy a 9800GT for ~$100 and throw it in there. No need for anything better.

 

[Arkaign]

No, probably not. A GX2 would be a waste in there. You might just want to buy a 9800GT for ~$100 and throw it in there. No need for anything better.

If OP can wait for 5670, which should be out imminently, that would save $, heat, and power DX11 might be a minor bonus as well, but DX11 games on a 5670 would probably only work at low res.

 

[RussianSensation]

Since you already have the 2 PCs, you can already put the 9800GX2 into the A64 4000+ rig and see if it improves your performance in borderlands. Your CPU is also holding you back though. But at least you'll be able to isolate immediately if moving your 9800GX2 in the other rig for that game makes any sense or not.

 

[Farfrumhumpn]

What motherboard are you using on each system and whats the brand/model of your PSU's.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Since you already have the 2 PCs, you can already put the 9800GX2 into the A64 4000+ rig and see if it improves your performance in borderlands. Your CPU is also holding you back though. But at least you'll be able to isolate immediately if moving your 9800GX2 in the other rig for that game makes any sense or not.

Good idea. If the CPU is holding you back then a video card upgrade won't help.

Is that a single-core Athlon or X2? Socket AM2?

 

[Allio]

That A64 platform is going to be a problem no matter which way you slice it. My old rig had an A64 @ 2.5GHz + 8800GT, and got around 20-50 fps in TF2. I got a new Phenom II 550 + DDR3 and framerates shot up to a constant 80-90. Same video card.

Edit: didn't realise there was an X2 4000+ - if that's the case you're not SO badly off. But it's still going to bottleneck any modern $75+ GPU.

If it's 939/single core, rather than trying to eke any extra life out of that thing I'd definitely save a bit of extra cash and do a basic platform upgrade to an Athlon X2 240 + 5750/5770.

Also Sapphire video cards are absolutely fine. I don't think a 5850 is going to improve your overall gaming experience very much, though.

 

[Toastman]

PC1:
PS: Antec NeoPower 650 Blue 650w
Mobo: ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA intel x48

PC2:
PS: CoolerMaster Extreme Power Duo 600w
Mobo: DFI LanParty UT NF4 ULTRA-D

The CPU in PC2 is a first-gen Athlon64, not the X2, and not an AM2.

I already thought of temporarily moving the 9800GX2 to PC2 to test the performance gain, unfortunately, I will need an adapter to do so. The 9800GX2 requires one 8-pin PCIe power connector, and one 6-pin PCIe power connector, which is an EXTREMELY rare combination to be found in a PS. Most main stream power supplies have either 8-pin or 6-pin PCIe power connectors, but not both (and 6-pin has now become the defacto standard).

At any rate, I'm sensing the general concensus is that the CPU will be a bottleneck, and spending $300 on a video card for PC2 would be a waste of cash. :-(

 

[CurseTheSky]

Assuming the A64's system has a decent (not a no-name) power supply, like Corsair, Seasonic, PC Power & Cooling, etc., AND it has the necessary PCI-E power connectors:

Athlon II X2 2.8GHz ($59) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103688
ASUS 785G ($92) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131398
Patriot 2GB DDR3 1333 ($46) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220453
Powercolor HD 5770 1GB ($150) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131326
Total: $347

That's a bit over your budget, but you can always buy a cheaper motherboard to get the price down a bit.

Then, you can always throw another 2GB of DDR3 in when you have more cash, and upgrade to an Athlon II X4 if you need more processing power. You may even be able to unlock a core or two on the Athlon II X2, and overclock it to keep it up to speed with the other system.

 

[nitromullet]

IMO, the easiest choice would be to go with the 5850, put the GX2 in the A64 rig, and don't worry about the cpu bottleneck in either system. There are a few 5850s at newegg from various different manufacturers between $308-320 shipped. Newegg will refund or replace almost all video cards for 30 days (pay attention to each card's return policy). If you're really worried, pay the extra for the XFX.

A more interesting approach would be to leave the C2D rig alone, sell as much as you can from the A64 rig, and put whatever funds you have towards an Core i5 rig with a 5850. What I wouldn't do is invest any money into either upgrading the A64 rig or building a cheap interim system. You seem to have fairly higher end rigs from their respective eras, and I don't think you'll be happy with a budget system as it is not what you are accustomed to.

 

[Dacalo]

see if this deal is still valid

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1799167

$250 for 5850

 

[happy medium]

Buy a 5830 for rig #1 and a 5670 for rig #2 for about 300$.
Sell the 9800gx2 and 7800gtx on Ebay for about $180.

Spend the money for sold cards on a athlon II 240, motherboard, and ram for rig 2 and overclock it to 3.4.

 

[Lonyo]

As many have said, you need a system overhaul, GPU only won't cut the mustard.

I had an X2 4200+ with 7800GT, and upgraded to an HD4850.
Bioshock was 100x better, but Fallout 3 didn't really improve at all due to CPU bottleneck.
Getting an E5200 (overclocked) to go with the HD4850 made basically everything playable.
A single core Athlon 64 is going to kill your performance in most modern games, even if you upgrade the GPU.

It's an all-or-nothing really.

 

[Toastman]

Thanks for all the feedback. I think you guys just saved me from spending $300 on a card that probably wouldn't have made much of a difference.

I also appreciate the links and suggestions on cost-concious ways to do a full system upgrade.

Here's what I am now batting around in my head:
Something along the lines of an Intel Core2Duo E6500 (2.93ghz, 2mb cache, 1066mhz FSB)
ASUS P5G41-M LE/CSM LGA 775 Intel G41 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
2 gigs of PC800 DDR2 RAM (Mushkin CAS 5)
All that can be had from Newegg for about $200, which still leaves me $100 to start saving towards a new graphics card.
I noticed there are some even lower prices on some newegg cpu/mobo bundles with AMD processors, however, I have been out-of-the-loop on AMD for long enough I would need to do some research to determine what would be a decent AMD CPU. My "good" PC still runs an e8400 C2D and still runs great.