better upgrade for gaming, gpu or cpu?

[carpetedman]

i have some money burning a hole in my pocket and wondered if anyone could help me decide what to buy with it.

my (gaming) rig;
p2 400/asus p2b/196mb pc100 sdr/sb live!/13 gig matrox ata 33/3d prophet se (geforce 256 sdr)

i also have 256 megs of 2100 ddr ram collecting dust.

now what would be a better option..

buying a msi geforce 2 pro 64mb ddr ($320 CAN)
OR
grabbing a duron 800 and a asus a7m266 (i know it has no multipliers, but i'm not a big overclocker)

i'm favouring the former, as from what i've read the ddr mobos out now are still early & buggy

i've been putting off upgrading for awhile, but i really want to play tribes 2

any other suggestions are welcome, in total i have about $500-600 CAN (or about $300-400 US) to spend.

 

[Rand]

It really depends on what type of games you play as some games are much more concerned with video card performance and some are almost completely processor limited. Look at the specs you listed however I'm inclined to say a processor upgrade would benefit you SIGNIFICANTLY more.

You already have a semi-decent video card. Besides, with a GF2 Pro your video card would be held back from attaining maximum performance with only a 400MHz processor.

 

[BFG10K]

You definitely need a new CPU first.

 

[Davegod75]

get the cpu

 

[roc]

I would go with the cpu and motherboard -

 

[PHiuR]

umm dont get duron dood... get a Athlon 1ghz 266 from newegg... (if u can) then get an IWILL mobo its like less then 300$ US (since you got the ram alrdy)

 

[JimMc]

Your CPU, ahem, sucks . Time for a MB/CPU combo and fire up that DDR.

 

[duragezic]

Well even a Duron 800 and Geforce 1 SDR won't run Tribes 2 all that great. 640x480, maybe 800x600 if you turned details down. Actually I think 640x480.

Definitely the cpu first because it benefits other things but if you just want to play Tribes 2... well it's not gonna be the greatest since even with a Duron 800 I don't think it'd run all that well (that is, if you have some details turned up so it look's good).

 

[blackhawk]

Keep the mb and get an overclocked celeron at 900 to 1000 and an inexpensive Gforce MX. That way the mb, memory and costs are kept down after you sell the cpu and old vid card.