Is rest of my system holding me back?

[PoPPeR]

I just ordered a 9800pro from BestBuy, so it should be here soon. In the meantime, I purchased the BFG Asylum 5700Ultra from BB, which I plan on returning when the 9800 arrives. My Radeon 9100 died, which is why i'm upgrading. The only real games I play are Counter-Strike and Final Fantasy XI. The only thing is, even with the 5700 ultra overclocked a little bit, I dont notice a huge difference between the 5700ultra and my 9100. I was able to play FFXI, most details compressed, at 800x600 with a little bit of jittering.

I can play FFXI now at 1024x768 with a little less jittering then my 9100 at 800x600. I was hoping for more of an increase in performance, and now I'm worried that the rest of my system is bottlenecking the potentials of the 5700ultra.

My system:
Epox 8RDA+
AMD XP2000+ @ 1.81ghz
512 generic PC2100 ram
WD 120 gig SE (8mb cache) HD

thanks in advance

 

[SneakyStuff]

There's really no reason to get the 9800 pro, with your rig the card you have now is prolly the best "fit" for your computer. Just do yourself a favor and save the 200 dollars extra you would pay at BB buying a 9800 pro, its a rip-off.

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

yeah, I'd say the 9800pro is a bit much for that system.

 

[PoPPeR]

well this will be the first high end card that I have, and I don't plan on upgrading for at least another 1.5 years. Wouldn't my CPU and Ram pretty much be the only thing I would need to upgrade in order to get sufficient output from the 9800 pro?

 

[Keysplayr]

No offense man, but it seems like your answering your own questions.

 

[Regs]

If anything, your CPU. In a game like Counter Strike, which I'm gambling you want 400 FPS, the CPU is going to hold you back.

My Barton at 175 x 12.5 w/ PC3200 was holding my 9800 back on a KT333. Overclocked my 9800 from 320/290 core to 415/315 and didn't notice a damn difference (as well as benchmarks). More than likely because of my KT333 mobo and its out dated bios. That's when you know you're limited.

 

[ScrewFace]

The 9700 Pro, 9800 Pro and the 9800 XT all benefit from faster and faster CPU's. Right now your 1.81GHz Athlon XP would be the bottleneck for both your GeForce FX 5700 Ultra and the 9800 Pro.:beer:

 

[LeoMael]

My question is, why order a 9800P from Best Buy? Couldn't you have found it cheaper?

 

[SneakyStuff]

Bestbuy is easily charging you over 100 dollars more man, order off of www.newegg.com or www.zipzoomfly.com, you'll save a bunch.

 

[Regs]

lol In-deed. Spent 300 dollars on a 9800 NP when I can now get a 9800 pro for 280. But I bought my 9800 over 6 months ago, so prices dropped.

 

[Corporate Thug]

there will be a bit of bottleneck but not all that much, it could be worse

 

[KillaKilla]

I'd wait for the FX-53 and Intel's next chipsets and CPUs, then upgrade to a A64-3000+.

Yes, your CPU-MB-RAM are holding you back right now, but when you get a new core(CPU/MB/RAM), you'll need atleasta 9800XT to max that core's speed out. Right now, I'd keep the 5700.

Also, I'd say that you got murdered at BB. How much did you pay for the 9800Pro and 5700U? My advice: get your parts from NewEgg. Just look at the greater than 98% rating from NewEgg customers. When you factor in that people generally don't post their ratings unless they get screwed, that is unbelievable.

 

[PoPPeR]

Oh, I should've clarified, I have a lot of BB gift certificates so I wont be paying that much for the 9800 pro. Normally I do order from Newegg/online vendors, but basically I'm getting a 9800 pro for about $130 of my own cash or so. By the time I need to upgrade again, I wont even have this computer.

Thanks for the help, sorry my posts lacked some detail heh