Do you think my computer will perform good until 2009?

LW07

Golden Member
Feb 16, 2006
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Because I can't upgrade until then and things like DX10 and multithreaded games and the Ageia physics card kinda have me worried that this thing won't perform good at these settings for 3 years.
 

A5

Diamond Member
Jun 9, 2000
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My guess would be yes, but it won't be very pretty near the end.
 

LW07

Golden Member
Feb 16, 2006
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Originally posted by: A5
My guess would be yes, but it won't be very pretty near the end.

What do you mean it won't be pretty near the end?
 

Shadow Conception

Golden Member
Mar 19, 2006
1,539
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With all the new types of technology coming out, you may want to upgrade that graphics card and RAM about every 2 years if you're into gaming. I once kept a computer for five consecutive years without buying a new one. Like he said, it wasn't very pretty in the fifth year.
 

Bobthelost

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2005
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What the hell are you going to do if/when we say no?

An utterly, utterly pointless thread.
 

A5

Diamond Member
Jun 9, 2000
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Originally posted by: LW07
Originally posted by: A5
My guess would be yes, but it won't be very pretty near the end.

What do you mean it won't be pretty near the end?

You'll be running on ultra-low settings for anything that comes out then.
 

Mavrick007

Diamond Member
Dec 19, 2001
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No one has any idea of what the requirements will be like a year down the road let alone 3 years. If trends follow, you might be able to get by but I would highly doubt it. By 2009 we will have much faster cpus, ram requirements will probably be higher and there will be like 3-5 new generations of video cards out.

If you want something that you don't have to worry about for at least 2 years or more and not suffer performance issues.. get an Xbox 360 cause that's cheaper and should be here for at least 2 years.
 

sitheris

Member
Dec 1, 2005
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Originally posted by: Bobthelost
What the hell are you going to do if/when we say no?

An utterly, utterly pointless thread.


An utterly, utterly pointless reply. Don't be a jackass.



I think your PC will be fine for the next 3 years - like others have said towards the end it's gonna be chugging along but you should still be able to do a lot with it.
 

kevinthenerd

Platinum Member
Jun 27, 2002
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Hardware upgrades are only required because of software "upgrades."

Stick with old software, and your old computer will do just fine.
 

alimoalem

Diamond Member
Sep 22, 2005
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you should definitely be fine through '08 and i'm guessing you'll barely make it with medium settings in 3 years but nonetheless, you'll make....so basically what everyone else said. maybe overclocking your 3500+ to 2.5 in a year or two would help a bit and overclocking your ram to 3200 speeds
 

AzNPinkTuv

Senior member
Nov 29, 2005
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well if trends continue.. a9800 pro can run most things at 10 by 7 fine now.... and that card is 3 years... a3 year old p4 can still hold its ground for respectable fps ands tuff... its all in the eye of the person using the system though if its exceptable
 

Mik3y

Banned
Mar 2, 2004
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no game will require a physx card. it's just an add-on for more realistic physics. it's kind of like a sound card, you dont need it and dont require it, but having it will be a plus.
 

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,604
15
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lol no sorry your computer wont do that by 2009. Im basing this on how the last 3 years have went. Even games where graphics are not paramoun, namely RTS games just didnt cut it with my 9800 PRO. CPU wise you might be allright. People overestimate the amount of difference a CPU makes in gaming, the GPU is far more important.

I could be wrong, and hope i am since my rig is similar to yours except its dual core. But it seems likely you will need a GPU upgrade along the way. Personally i think 2GB of ram will be enough by then. I had 1 gb 3 years ago, still have 1gb today, its fine.

 

LW07

Golden Member
Feb 16, 2006
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Originally posted by: Soviet
lol no sorry your computer wont do that by 2009. Im basing this on how the last 3 years have went. Even games where graphics are not paramoun, namely RTS games just didnt cut it with my 9800 PRO. CPU wise you might be allright. People overestimate the amount of difference a CPU makes in gaming, the GPU is far more important.

I could be wrong, and hope i am since my rig is similar to yours except its dual core. But it seems likely you will need a GPU upgrade along the way. Personally i think 2GB of ram will be enough by then. I had 1 gb 3 years ago, still have 1gb today, its fine.


I mainly like First Person shooters and Flight Simulators, if that helps. I don't play RTS games, if that helps. And my ram was PC3200 ram, but it proved too unstable with Memtest86 and Prime 95 so I had to run it at PC2700. And a 9700pro is 3 and a half years old and it still can do the minimal settings that I'd accept, which is listed in the topic summary. So do you think my X1900XT will follow in that card's footsteps and go 3 years? Also, having a single core processor won't be hurting my performance by then, right?
 

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,604
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Originally posted by: LW07
Originally posted by: Soviet
lol no sorry your computer wont do that by 2009. Im basing this on how the last 3 years have went. Even games where graphics are not paramoun, namely RTS games just didnt cut it with my 9800 PRO. CPU wise you might be allright. People overestimate the amount of difference a CPU makes in gaming, the GPU is far more important.

I could be wrong, and hope i am since my rig is similar to yours except its dual core. But it seems likely you will need a GPU upgrade along the way. Personally i think 2GB of ram will be enough by then. I had 1 gb 3 years ago, still have 1gb today, its fine.


I mainly like First Person shooters and Flight Simulators, if that helps. I don't play RTS games, if that helps. And my ram was PC3200 ram, but it proved too unstable with Memtest86 and Prime 95 so I had to run it at PC2700. And a 9700pro is 3 and a half years old and it still can do the minimal settings that I'd accept, which is listed in the topic summary. So do you think my X1900XT will follow in that card's footsteps and go 3 years? Also, having a single core processor won't be hurting my performance by then, right?


Well as i said, type of game dosent matter all that much as graphics are getting better in all genres. Since flight simulators only come out every now and then your probably gonna be fine on that front, but FPS's... well thats a different ballgame, FPS's like half life 2 have a really good engine, and still manages to look pretty on lower settings, so decently coded games should still be fine 3 years from now. But things like FEAR, nah, it wont do well at all. Your X1900XT is basically the 9800 PRO of 2006, so yes i would image itll follow its footsteps.

As for your CPU, should be fine, its a good architecture, efficient, can be overclocked if needed, but as i said its the GPU that counts in games. Somone with a P4 2.4C could still play todays games if they paired it with a X1900XT, it wouldnt get as high a fps as a dual core FX-60 but itll be playable on decent settings. No problems.
 

Sniper82

Lifer
Feb 6, 2000
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Well we are seeing some new engines with Oblivion and are gonna see some new ones like UT2007 on through this year and next year I am sure. If your card does well for this year and next I am betting you will be fine till 2009. It really depends on how fast developers pump out new engines. I think Farcry,Doom III,Half Life 2,Battlefield 2 and now Oblivion came out within the past 2-3 years. I think each of them have their own engine. Like someone else mention a 9800 pro will run all of these no problem and it's around a 2-3 year old card. Except Battlefield 2 and Oblivion need to be turned down a bit (low-medium) depending on how picky you are with FPS.

Like I said if your card does well through this year(most likely will) and next I think you will be fine. But thats just my opinon.

Why is it you have to wait so long to upgrade?
 

LW07

Golden Member
Feb 16, 2006
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Originally posted by: Sniper82
Well we are seeing some new engines with Oblivion and are gonna see some new ones like UT2007 on through this year and next year I am sure. If your card does well for this year and next I am betting you will be fine till 2009. It really depends on how fast developers pump out new engines. I think Farcry,Doom III,Half Life 2,Battlefield 2 and now Oblivion came out within the past 2-3 years. I think each of them have their own engine. Like someone else mention a 9800 pro will run all of these no problem and it's around a 2-3 year old card. Except Battlefield 2 and Oblivion need to be turned down a bit (low-medium) depending on how picky you are with FPS.

Like I said if your card does well through this year(most likely will) and next I think you will be fine. But thats just my opinon.

Why is it you have to wait so long to upgrade?

My pickyness about FPS is just so it's not stuttering and lagging all or most of the time(a slideshow type thing).

I have to wait so long because my parents don't want to upgrade my computer until 2009, when I graduate from high school. They are tired of upgrading this thing and made me promise I wouldn't want anything else for the computer until I graduated from high school.
I'm in my 9th grade year, BTW.
 

Boyne7

Golden Member
Nov 23, 2002
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heh, i cant tell you how many times ive upgraded my computer throughout highschool, its going to be really hard not to want to.im graduating this year. and ive upgraded my computer way too many times, hopefully my latest upgrade will make it through college but i really doubt it.
 

MrUniq

Senior member
Mar 26, 2006
307
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you have some good parents...that card should last. I'm sure it will become more pedestrian by late 2008 though. Gotta see what happens with direct x 10 though
 

Sniper82

Lifer
Feb 6, 2000
16,517
0
76
Maybe you can save up your money or something and sell some of that stuff off to upgrade when the time comes? Either way I wouldn't upgrade your video card till at least some DX10 cards come. It should def last you untill they start pumping out.
 

Mogadon

Senior member
Aug 30, 2004
739
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Originally posted by: Mik3y
no game will require a physx card. it's just an add-on for more realistic physics. it's kind of like a sound card, you dont need it and dont require it, but having it will be a plus.

Maybe we should modify this to 'you don't need it yet'.

 

LW07

Golden Member
Feb 16, 2006
1,537
2
81
Originally posted by: Mavrick007
No one has any idea of what the requirements will be like a year down the road let alone 3 years. If trends follow, you might be able to get by but I would highly doubt it. By 2009 we will have much faster cpus, ram requirements will probably be higher and there will be like 3-5 new generations of video cards out.

If you want something that you don't have to worry about for at least 2 years or more and not suffer performance issues.. get an Xbox 360 cause that's cheaper and should be here for at least 2 years.


Yeah, I've been thinking about getting an Xbox 360 for christmas to hold me over until 2009, because at least with consoles, you don't worry about resolutions or AA or switching stuff out every year or 2.