Is this video card my bottleneck?

[kassad]

My system consists of the following specs, i know its a few years old so dont make fun of me!

Athlon 64 3000+
2 gigs Corsair PC3200
Nforce4 MSI mobo
Nvidia Gainward 6600 GT
Antec Truepower 380
160 gig Western Digital SATA drive
DVD/CD writer combo drive
1680x1050 native res monitor

I mostly play WoW in 1680x1050 with medium graphic levels, and get about 10 fps in raids. I'm thinking about getting an EVGA 8800 GTS 512 (with crysis ) and was curious on two things:

1) is my current 6600 GT the bottleneck of the system? Or in other words, am i going to see large fps gains by only upgrading to the new graphics card?

2) In my system, is the 380 watt power supply enough given the non-dual core processor? Supposedly the power supply has two 12v lines with 16 amps each.

Thanks in advance for youre comments!

 

[sonoma1993]

Originally posted by: kassad
My system consists of the following specs, i know its a few years old so dont make fun of me!

Athlon 64 3000+
2 gigs Corsair PC3200
Nforce4 MSI mobo
Nvidia Gainward 6600 GT
Antec Truepower 380
160 gig Western Digital SATA drive
DVD/CD writer combo drive
1680x1050 native res monitor

I mostly play WoW in 1680x1050 with medium graphic levels, and get about 10 fps in raids. I'm thinking about getting an EVGA 8800 GTS 512 (with crysis ) and was curious on two things:

1) is my current 6600 GT the bottleneck of the system? Or in other words, am i going to see large fps gains by only upgrading to the new graphics card?

2) In my system, is the 380 watt power supply enough given the non-dual core processor? Supposedly the power supply has two 12v lines with 16 amps each.

Thanks in advance for youre comments!

I would say the bottleneck is most likely your videocard. I believe the 6600gt use a 128bit memory bus, which hurts performace at higher resoultions.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: kassad
My system consists of the following specs, i know its a few years old so dont make fun of me!

Athlon 64 3000+
2 gigs Corsair PC3200
Nforce4 MSI mobo
Nvidia Gainward 6600 GT
Antec Truepower 380
160 gig Western Digital SATA drive
DVD/CD writer combo drive
1680x1050 native res monitor

I mostly play WoW in 1680x1050 with medium graphic levels, and get about 10 fps in raids. I'm thinking about getting an EVGA 8800 GTS 512 (with crysis ) and was curious on two things:

1) is my current 6600 GT the bottleneck of the system? Or in other words, am i going to see large fps gains by only upgrading to the new graphics card?

2) In my system, is the 380 watt power supply enough given the non-dual core processor? Supposedly the power supply has two 12v lines with 16 amps each.

Thanks in advance for youre comments!

Yes the video card is a large bottleneck. With your current power supply you should be good with a 3850. Mabe wait for the new 8800gs comming soon.

Either card should more than triple your games fps.

For a cheap upgrade find a used 7900gs. (80.00 $$) Still will double your fps.

 

[MarcVenice]

I think WoW also gains from a better CPU. My athlon 3000+ venice used to overclocked to 2.6ghz fairly easy. Give that a shot too, or buy a x2 3800+ and overclock it to 2.6ghz.

 

[kassad]

So will a power supply with two 12v @ 16 amp lines be ok for a 8800gts?

I will probably upgrade the rest of my computer this year, hence the reason i want to get a top notch card now (vs a 7900 or 3850)

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: kassad
So will a power supply with two 12v @ 16 amp lines be ok for a 8800gts?

I will probably upgrade the rest of my computer this year, hence the reason i want to get a top notch card now (vs a 7900 or 3850)

I think it's a little much for a 380 watt psu.

 

[superbooga]

Originally posted by: sonoma1993
I would say the bottleneck is most likely your videocard. I believe the 6600gt use a 128bit memory bus, which hurts performace at higher resoultions.

Actually, for a game like WOW, the raw power of the GPU becomes a limitation far before the memory bandwidth on the 6600GT.

 

[kassad]

Well i ordered my EVGA 8800 gts 512 with Crysis today from Mwave as well as an Antec 550 watt NEOHE power supply from the egg. Time for the tracking/waiting game!