Is a 6800GT worth upgrading on a 939 board?

[Mant]

Hey guys, I just wanted to get some opinions on how to proceed. I have an old Socket 939 board with a single core AMD processor, 4GB DDR, and a 6800GT vid card. I would like to be able to use it as a HTPC that I could game with. I don't need super high res, but I want to play FPS games with decent framerates.
I only have one PCIe slot and I was thinking about upgrading the card until I can afford a whole new rig. Any suggestions? I have not been following the new offerings as closely as I want to, but I am willing to spend up to $150 on the card.

 

[manimal]

A nice htpc card like a 4670 for 80ish or a 5750 on the higher end would be great for htpc when you do ugrade to a newer platform. Anything faster would be useless.

 

[happy medium]

A single core cpu just dosent cut it anymore. Sorry.

 

[borisvodofsky]

Hey guys, I just wanted to get some opinions on how to proceed. I have an old Socket 939 board with a single core AMD processor, 4GB DDR, and a 6800GT vid card. I would like to be able to use it as a HTPC that I could game with. I don't need super high res, but I want to play FPS games with decent framerates.
I only have one PCIe slot and I was thinking about upgrading the card until I can afford a whole new rig. Any suggestions? I have not been following the new offerings as closely as I want to, but I am willing to spend up to $150 on the card.

:hmm: Get either 4870 or 4890 or 5770 or even 5850. THEN get an opteron 165/170 (939) OVERCLOCK to 2.6-8, Ur set.

 

[borisvodofsky]

A single core cpu just dosent cut it anymore. Sorry.

It cuts just fine. On anything worth playing.

 

[happy medium]

:hmm: Get either 4870 or 4890 or 5770 or even 5850. THEN get an opteron 165/170 (939) OVERCLOCK to 2.6-8, Ur set.

Please dont listen to this guy.
Dont waste your money on a exspensive Opteron @ 2.6 (slower then a slow pentium core 2) and a single core cpu will not play any modern fps.

Save your money for a cheap Amd x4 620 (100$) and AMD motherboard (80$) ,ram (80$).

Then buy yourself a cheap 5750 for 130$.

400$ buys you a mid tier gaming system.

Slow ass Opteron @ 2.6 will cost you 150$ and a 5750 130$. Thats 280$ for a dead end,slow ass gaming system,that you cant upgrade.

 

[Blue Shift]

In short, yes. Switching video cards is a good idea. Mant, a dual-core may be needed in order to play this year's releases at reasonable settings, but it doesn't sound like you feel the need to do so. I'd recommend something uber-cheap, such as the HD3650, unless you plan on switching processors sometime soon.

 

[happy medium]

It cuts just fine. On anything worth playing.

If your playing games from 3 years ago,mabe

His 6800gt is allready bottlnecked by the cpu anyhow.

 

[Mant]

I reeeeealy want to upgrade the whole system right now, but I can't do it at the moment.

So if I could find a 939 X2 core on the 'for sale' forum, then get a 3600 or 4600 or 4800 series card right now, I could come in under my price range. I really just want to play BFBC2 and MW2, and watch some Netflix or Hulu content. What do you think?

The main thing keeping me from upgrading is that I want my next rig to have a decent size SSD and a DX11 capable card. Until those prices come down, I have to wait.
Interestingly, I have a setup just like Happy described in my Newegg cart right now, just to check the prices =(

 

[bryanW1995]

yeah, the upgrade bug is typically much more expensive to fix than even the dreaded flu bug.

I don't know what the current "bang for buck" kingpin is, but I wouldn't spend more than $40-$50 on a new vid card. just check out newegg and other sites, see what the best card is in that price range, and go for it. here's a gt220 for ~ $50, but there is also a nice 4650 (only get ddr3) on newegg, plus several other decent choices.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143210


edit: as mentioned earlier, you are going to be so cpu-bound anyway that a much faster card will be severely bottlenecked by a single core athlon. don't waste any money upgrading that cpu, trust me I went down that path and it is a bad bad road to follow. suffice to say that I spent many hundreds of dollars and fried my mobo 2 wks later...

 

[happy medium]

I reeeeealy want to upgrade the whole system right now, but I can't do it at the moment.

So if I could find a 939 X2 core on the 'for sale' forum, then get a 3600 or 4600 or 4800 series card right now, I could come in under my price range. I really just want to play BFBC2 and MW2, and watch some Netflix or Hulu content. What do you think?
The main thing keeping me from upgrading is that I want my next rig to have a decent size SSD and a DX11 capable card. Until those prices come down, I have to wait.
Interestingly, I have a setup just like Happy described in my Newegg cart right now, just to check the prices =(

With Mw2 yes a 939 x2 will work,but BFBC2 I don't think so.
MW2 is only like 6 hours of gameplay. But it's a good game.
Is it worth all that money? No

Edit: Shame too ,I just sold a e5200 cpu (that overclocked to 3.6),motherboard and 4gb ram combo for 150$

 

[happy medium]

Board.... 50$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128342
2gb Ram... 40$ (get another stick later)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231203
AM3 Cpu.... 58$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103688

I built this for my daughter. Overclocked easily to 3.4 for 140$ shipped.

Edit: ddr memory brings in good money right now. If you sell your 4gb of memory, I bet you could buy a hd4670 card for the above setup.

 

[Mant]

Yeah, I don't want to upgrade the CPU unless I find one for dirt on the forum.

I should mention that my MB had PCIe (not PCIe 2.x)... so I guess I won't even get full use out of the GT220 that you posted Bryan.

 

[happy medium]

Yeah, I don't want to upgrade the CPU unless I find one for dirt on the forum.

I should mention that my MB had PCIe (not PCIe 2.x)... so I guess I won't even get full use out of the GT220 that you posted Bryan.

There is no difference unless you use a highend card.

 

[Mant]

$140 minus the card isn't too bad. I hadn't considered what I might get for the old parts. My wallet hates this forum.

 

[Mant]

There is no difference unless you use a highend card.

Oh.

 

[manimal]

If you live in frys or Microcenter lands then look at their deals for a board +cpu.

 

[Blue Shift]

If you live in frys or Microcenter lands then look at their deals for a board +cpu.

...and if you live in Intrex territory (like I do), then don't bother giving them even a phone call.

 

[zerocool84]

Yeah, I don't want to upgrade the CPU unless I find one for dirt on the forum.

I should mention that my MB had PCIe (not PCIe 2.x)... so I guess I won't even get full use out of the GT220 that you posted Bryan.

I bet for the price you'll pay for a 939 cpu, you can get a more modern cpu/mobo for the same price.

 

[f4phantom2500]

i've seen an athlon 64 x2 3800, i believe 939, go for about $35 in the fs/ft forum, and i recently picked up a 4870 512mb for $85 shipped. just keep your eyes peeled for a bargain priced dual core chip and video card. obviously you can always use the video card in your new rig, so the only money you're "out" is for the cpu. but you might just wanna try a new video card first. if that's playable enough for you, then stick with that until you're ready to update the rest of your system.

 

[Mant]

i've seen an athlon 64 x2 3800, i believe 939, go for about $35 in the fs/ft forum, and i recently picked up a 4870 512mb for $85 shipped. just keep your eyes peeled for a bargain priced dual core chip and video card. obviously you can always use the video card in your new rig, so the only money you're "out" is for the cpu. but you might just wanna try a new video card first. if that's playable enough for you, then stick with that until you're ready to update the rest of your system.

This is what I'm leaning towards. Let me know if you get some bites on your WTB thread.

 

[v8envy]

It cuts just fine. On anything worth playing.

One more vote for not listening to this guy. You can find his posts on the gaming forums re: how terrible it is that starcraft2 isn't flawless on an equivalent CPU that's got less than 1/3 the firepower of a $67 E2180 (which is what I paid for one *two years* ago.)

Single core is not sufficient for Oblivion or newer. Especially if you run a virus checker and all the other accumulating Windows barnacles in the background.

At the risk of sounding like toyota, a $50 GT240 DDR5 and even 4670 is more than plenty for that box. You're not going to run many games made past 2006 enjoyably on that, so no need for a high end video card. And spending top dollar on an opteron at this point is simply wasteful.

 

[TemjinGold]

I reeeeealy want to upgrade the whole system right now, but I can't do it at the moment.

So if I could find a 939 X2 core on the 'for sale' forum, then get a 3600 or 4600 or 4800 series card right now, I could come in under my price range. I really just want to play BFBC2 and MW2, and watch some Netflix or Hulu content. What do you think?

The main thing keeping me from upgrading is that I want my next rig to have a decent size SSD and a DX11 capable card. Until those prices come down, I have to wait.
Interestingly, I have a setup just like Happy described in my Newegg cart right now, just to check the prices =(

I think you should consider a PS3...

 

[StrangerGuy]

If you are talking about recent games even a S939 X2 is still too slow let alone a single core, unless u got a 3GHz+ DC Opteron or something. Plus, since S939 is discontinued for at least 4 years, your motherboard prolly won't have much life left and a replacement can be pretty hard to get. (read: expensive)

I still have a X2 3800+ PC so I know how slow S939 is.

 

[Rezist]

If you buy a video card I recommend a 4850 1GB. It will be insanely bottlenecked by your system but it's the best bang for you buck card out there.