cpu upgrades for gaming

[zendari]

I have an

Athlon 64 3000+ Venice core @ 268*9
1 GB Corsair valueram @ 201 mhz, 2.5/3/3/8 timings as I read on this forum
7900 GT (ive been RMAing these since May sadly and I really haven't been able to sit down and test it out with quake, but I'm getting a new sku model soon)

currently I'm running an x800, and I want to do 1680x1050 with AF and shader effects on (no AA is fine). I find the current performance of the x800 to be unacceptable at times, which is probably due to the graphics card.

I've been playing world of warcraft, but I recently quit that, so I picked up quake IV and will get Prey soon. Quake IV runs rather slow at my settings on my hardware.

I assume my graphics card upgrade will help me run quake fine at the settings above, but my question is:

Will I need a CPU upgrade now or soon to run some of these games? I looked at the dualcore 3800 model, but I don't know how much it will improve my performance.

I only game and do office stuff (word, excel, etc) 90% of the time so those are my areas of concern.

 

[imported_Com80787]

Get a 7900GT or similar card. Then even upgrading to a Core 2 Duo won't matter. Keep your current CPU you'll get about the same performance at full settings. Adding a 7900GT will let you play everything max smoothly on your current setup.

 

[deadseasquirrel]

You are correct, the GPU upgrade you're working on will definitely make the biggest difference in performance for you at your resolution (16x10). Keep in mind, however, that Quake4 is the flagship title for dual-core CPU performance. Even at your resolution, the x2 3800+ would provide some good benefits.

Not quite 1600x1000, but close enough.

That's a 30% increase at 1280x1024 with 4xAA. Granted, that'll shrink some at 16x10, but if you look at the bottom 16x12 chart, you'll see that they had to bring it up to 6xAA and 16xAF in order to get it GPU bottlenecked.

From the way it sounds, you won't be fully utilizing the power of a dual-core chip (i.e. not doing any encoding, or intensive cpu apps). Not sure how much you could get for your 3000+.... maybe $50-60?? So, it's basically a $100 upgrade for ya for what might end up being 10% increase at your settings. Might not be worth it to you. And, for giggles, throw the idea of getting another 7900gt for SLI in the mix... that'll give you a 60% increase! Granted, that's another $250 out-of-pocket, but, $250 for a 60% increase sounds better than $100 for 10%. (I'm not saying to do this, btw. I say hold on to that money for the next round of video cards.)

I myself am waiting until a game or two I'm interested in show a decent increase in performance at the settings I play at (16x12 AA/AF) before I upgrade to a dual-core. I do use my system for some other things that a dual-core chip would help with, but it's not worth the $100 to me just yet.

 

[JoeFahey]

You can definitely get by with that. The 7900 GT helps too once you get that on your rig.

Now, while you can get by, it might be somewhat slower than what you would like.

I do not think that you will see a HUGE improvement if you went to dual core with your games. This is obviously because games are mostly dependant on GPUs these days.

What I suggest you do is start saving up, and preparing for a CPU upgrade, especially if you decide to jump ship, and go to the C2D.

 

[zendari]

How worthwhile would 2 gigs of ram be? I'm considering that, but ram prices don't seem to be the cheapest, and I don't think I would be able to use DDR3200 on my next mobo platform, be it Conroe or whatever.

And why does using 4 dimms kill my overclock? I had 2 more 512 sticks that are capable at running at ~200 mhz (theyre technically rated at 166 but OC well), and I tried using 4 dimms to have 2 gigs of ram, but I found instead of 268 HTT I couldn't really go above 220 so I lost a ton of CPU speed.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I recommend adding another 1gb ram, I was playing HL2 with cinematic mod, and a couple of titles, with 1gb and experiencing chop, the extra ram fixed it.

Originally posted by: zendari
And why does using 4 dimms kill my overclock? I had 2 more 512 sticks that are capable at running at ~200 mhz (theyre technically rated at 166 but OC well), and I tried using 4 dimms to have 2 gigs of ram, but I found instead of 268 HTT I couldn't really go above 220.

With 4 sticks you often have to increase ram volatge and use 2T command rate.