HW upgrade for BF2

[Figueira]

My current PC is:

CPU: Athlon XP 2500+
Memory: 1Gbyte DDR400 OCZ Value
Video card: ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Mother board: ABIT NF7-S 2.0

I want to upgrade my machine as to allow me to play BF2 on at least 1024x768 high-medium settings. Currently I play at 1024x768 Medium-Low settings.

I was thinking of getting a geforce 6800 gt or ati x800 xl. I do not wish to spend a lot of cash so changing the whole motherboard, cpu and video card is out of the question. Anyone have any advice? Will I get a good upgrade by changing just the video card or will my cpu become the bottleneck?

Thanks

 

[Sqube]

I don't know how GPU/CPU dependent BF2 is, but I imagine your XP 2500+ will become a bottleneck once you pick up that card.

If it's more GPU dependent, your CPU shouldn't bottleneck as badly, but it won't be smooth with that either.

 

[Celeryman]

My suggestion would be to get a 6600GT and then pick up another 512MB of ram. This would give you a really smooth gaming experience at 1024x768 on high settings. I loved running a gig and a half in my NF7-S when I had it.

If you want a little bit more bang, get a 6800NU and see if you can unlock the extra pipes and vertex unit with Rivatuner.

 

[jdogg707]

I would say popping an AGP 6600GT in there would give you enough juice to play at that res. Do you overclock at all? 2500+ chips used to be very easily turned into 3200+ chips...1.83GHZ to 2.2 would be a healthy increase!

 

[govtcheez75]

Originally posted by: Celeryman
My suggestion would be to get a 6600GT and then pick up another 512MB of ram. This would give you a really smooth gaming experience at 1024x768 on high settings. I loved running a gig and a half in my NF7-S when I had it.

If you want a little bit more bang, get a 6800NU and see if you can unlock the extra pipes and vertex unit with Rivatuner.

wouldn't that make the sytem non-dual channel?

 

[pelikan]

I like your idea of a 6800GT or X800XL. A good video card will easily get you what you want .

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: jdogg707
I would say popping an AGP 6600GT in there would give you enough juice to play at that res. Do you overclock at all? 2500+ chips used to be very easily turned into 3200+ chips...1.83GHZ to 2.2 would be a healthy increase!

an AGP 6600GT would be about the worst "upgrade" possible. if anything, thats just a sidegrade. what i would recommend is simply overclocking your 2500 to 3200 speeds. you should be able to easily play on medium quality if you do that

 

[Figueira]

Originally posted by: Celeryman
My suggestion would be to get a 6600GT and then pick up another 512MB of ram. This would give you a really smooth gaming experience at 1024x768 on high settings. I loved running a gig and a half in my NF7-S when I had it.

If you want a little bit more bang, get a 6800NU and see if you can unlock the extra pipes and vertex unit with Rivatuner.

I have the 1gig in dual channel mode (2x512). If I get another 512 I'll loose dual channel wont I?

 

[Figueira]

According to gamespot's BF2 Performance Guide, BF2 is very GPU intensive...
http://hardware.gamespot.com/Story-ST-x-2147-x-x-x

 

[Figueira]

Originally posted by: jdogg707
I would say popping an AGP 6600GT in there would give you enough juice to play at that res. Do you overclock at all? 2500+ chips used to be very easily turned into 3200+ chips...1.83GHZ to 2.2 would be a healthy increase!

Could I get some pointers as to how to do this? Ive done a bit of overclocking on my old thunderbird amd cpu (the one you have to use pencil to close the contacts). My temp's seem kind of high (50 during summer)... I might need some more cooling.

 

[d2arcturus]

Look at my sig, got the OC very easily and at low temps, runs good.
Not much need to spend money till you're ready for a big upgrade, save up.

As for losing dual-channel, I don't know how the ABIT mobos work but my ASUS has 3 DIMM slots and it's dual-channel. The two sticks in slots 1 & 2 must equal the size of the stick in slot 3, and walla - dual-channel. I've got two 256s and a 512, I don't know how yours work but maybe it's similar.

 

[jdogg707]

Originally posted by: nick1985

Originally posted by: jdogg707
I would say popping an AGP 6600GT in there would give you enough juice to play at that res. Do you overclock at all? 2500+ chips used to be very easily turned into 3200+ chips...1.83GHZ to 2.2 would be a healthy increase!

an AGP 6600GT would be about the worst "upgrade" possible. if anything, thats just a sidegrade. what i would recommend is simply overclocking your 2500 to 3200 speeds. you should be able to easily play on medium quality if you do that

Do you have any idea what you are talking about? In BF2 it should easily give him a 30-40% increase in FPS, not to mention if he upped his CPU to 3200+ levels. A 6600GT is also the most economical upgrade to get a current generation graphics card. Otherwise, I would look at finsing a deal on an AGP 6800GT, because they seem to be quite common for under 250 in the FS/FT area.

Performance Links

12FPS difference, and that is in HL2, where ATi is king!

 

[jdogg707]

Originally posted by: Figueira

Originally posted by: jdogg707
I would say popping an AGP 6600GT in there would give you enough juice to play at that res. Do you overclock at all? 2500+ chips used to be very easily turned into 3200+ chips...1.83GHZ to 2.2 would be a healthy increase!

Could I get some pointers as to how to do this? Ive done a bit of overclocking on my old thunderbird amd cpu (the one you have to use pencil to close the contacts). My temp's seem kind of high (50 during summer)... I might need some more cooling.

I would recommend a better HSF unit, maybe something like the CNPS7000A-Cu from Zalman. If it will fit on your motherboard. It is a great cooler, and very quiet.

 

[d2arcturus]

Originally posted by: Figueira
Could I get some pointers as to how to do this? Ive done a bit of overclocking on my old thunderbird amd cpu (the one you have to use pencil to close the contacts). My temp's seem kind of high (50 during summer)... I might need some more cooling.

Really simple, though you may want to get a better heasink/fan for this. I use a Thermaltake Volcano 12. Just go into your BIOS and set the CPU frequency to 200MHz, then go down and up the VCORE to about 1.7V. Mine has been running at these settings for about a good year now.

 

[Figueira]

The 6600GT seems like a good idea. Doesn't cost much and will get me through until I switch to an AMD64 with PCI Express (although I've read PCI Express is like SATA, new technology that currently does not make a difference)

 

[xTYBALTx]

Hmmm. . .I am going to have to side with *not* upgrading your video card in this one. A CPU upgrade - or overclock - would suit you better, seems to me.

 

[Figueira]

*If* I decide to upgrade to a 6800GT. Will this be way too much for my athlon xp barton 2500+? Im probably switching to an Athlon 64 in a year or so.