AGP Upgrade Path (pun not intended)

[Lateraliian]

My system is an old Socket A on nForce 2. A Barton 3000+ 400fsb to be exact. I'm also running single-channel 1024 DDR333 and a 6600GT (128).

My problem is this, I'm running Oblivion (slowly), and I would like to upgrade. I don't plan on doing another system build for another year at least as it's too muich cash. Would a 7800 GS be a good idea if it gets me another year?

Thanks to all who reply.

 

[Madwand1]

You should play with your video settings first. There are signficant architectural differences between Athlon XP and Athlon 64, and although a Barton 3000+ is a fast XP, you won't know for sure to what extent it's a bottleneck unless you've actually done some tests. It would be unpleasant to spend the money on a high-end AGP card and find that the CPU+MB need to be upgraded.

Fortunately, this is very easy to check, and will have the side-effect of perhaps letting you live with your current system.

Get the latest beta NVidia drivers. Set your video driver default settings to "max performance". Search around for tips on optimal performance settings for the game. Check the game site. Turn down unimportant IQ settings.

Then try the game again -- is it performing well enough? If so you're done.

If it isn't, try reducing the resolution (or perhaps image quality further). Don't worry about how it looks; it's a performance test. Does it perform a lot better? If so, you're probably right -- upgrading the video card will be a solution. (I'd guess that a 7800 GS would be like 1-2 steps of resolution; check resolution benchmarks for more on this.) If not, you need to consider upgrading your CPU.

 

[imported_Kiwi]

Hmmm? That Madwand sure had a good-looking Avatar, doesn't he?

Meanwhile, look here on AT and on the Bethesda forums for a lot of users with that 6600GT, and what they are doing to improve their performance in Oblivion. I am also a few months from the A64 platform, but I will be sticking with AGP a little longer, so I may get a 6800GS, if I can't stand the way the game looks/ runs (so far, I don't have my copy).

I also have an NF7 (plain, not the preferred "-S"), but my CPU is an XP-M 2600 running at faster than 3000 speeds, and my VGA is "only" a Radeon 9800XT (although I do have an XP 3000 in an Asus A7N8X-X board here next to this old Inet surfing box, that one has a puny FX 5900 GPU in it -- I do have a spare Radeon 9700 Pro, though). Perhaps by 4 PM today, I'll have my own Oblivion to play with . . wish me luck, if my convenient local outlet gets its shipment!

 

[BassBomb]

i had a 2500+ (1.8) barton w/ 512 MB DDR333 ... i was bottlenecked with my 6600GT
i moved up to my current rig and the bottleneck went back on my card

but id reccomend not to upgrade, a gpu upgrade would still be bottlenecked even mroe