Limited Cash -- Video Card vs. Processor upgrade question - Please help

[JJordan]

I am currently running a celeron 300a at 450 on an Asus P2B-F MB with a Creative Blaster TNT card (Yea, the plain old TNT). I am going to uprade and cannot afford a processor and video card righ tnow (not at the levels I want). So here is the point:

I can buy either a P3 800 or a GeForce 2 GTS card for about the same $280-$300. Will the GeForce help me with my old 300a at 400 Mhz ??? I assume right now a p3 800 will NOT help much if I don't have the upgraded video card becuase my TNT card seems taxed to the max at Quake 3 and won't run Unreal Tournament well enough to even play it on the net.

Any thoughts on how I should upgrade to get the most bang for the bucks ?

 

[SUOrangeman]

GeForce MX + C566@850 = $250

-SUO

 

[403Forbidden]

geforce mx not widely available yet

 

[Coki]

Get the P3 700e cB0 stepping from onva.com and get 10% off pointclick.

That's the best bargain around. Overclock that thing to 933 easy. The TNT will work fine.

If you get the GeForce GTS you will not see any performance gains if you have the Celeron 450. I know this for a fact because I had a PII 450 with a TNT and later got a GTS and no visible performance increase except in Quake III.

You will benefit from a faster cpu.

 

[Jethro Bodine]

This is a "no win" situation. If you buy that P3-800, your TNT will be the bottleneck. I'd take the GTS over the cpu, and believe you will see much better framerates, but still be limited by your cpu. I had a Cel466/SDR combo not that long ago, and know the SDR was a lot faster than my TNT2.

I like the Cel566/MX solution.

 

[sandorski]

Yea, definetly go vidcard! Your TNT is just about maxxed already.

 

[acebathound]

I'd try to do a combination if I were you. Otherwise one or the other's going to be holding you back and you'll have to lay out more money. If it were me, I'd do as someone stated above with getting a 566 and overclocking it to 850 (prob for $110 or so) and then spending the other $130+ on a video card such as a Geforce MX or whatever (although you might have to wait till that's available).

I'm not saying the 300a @ 450 is worthless, but it seems like it would be holding you back quite a bit from releasing the potential of the card. As far as upgrading the processor, and not the TNT, I think the same would go..but, in the end, it's really up to you.

Good luck, whatever you decide!

 

[Jhhnn]

You could split the difference for a balanced approach, like a voodoo3 3000(<$100) OR GeForce SDR(<$135) AND a new retail p3e550($160)+ slotket(<$20). Any of these should do a mild overclock on your board without new memory, maybe 133fsb when you are ready to spring for memory. Compared to what you have been running, You'll think your box is on crystal meth with any combo of the above.

Check Pricewatch

 

[Sunner]

Id go for the vid card.
You'll definately see an increase in performance.
I've upgraded from a TNT->V3-3000->TNT2-Ultra->GF-DDR with the same Celeron450, and every step has been an improvement(though the V3->TNT2 was mostly a visual improvement, as well as a huge driver support improvement).
A TNT->GTS should be one huge mutha of an improvement though not at 640x480x16.

 

[SUOrangeman]

Both of my items are listed on Onvia.

-SUO

 

[sandorski]

The problem with settling for a vidcard/cpu combo upgrade is that one ends up with 2 secondrate components. If JJ sticks with his current choices and chooses the vidcard, he'll end up with a definite performance improvement and a kickass vidcard.

 

[Jhhnn]

Six months ago, the GeForce SDR and the p3e550 were the hottest things available, and six months from now the GeForce GTS will be passe', second rate, as well.

Clearly, anybody who is running an original TNT vid card is either disinterested or unable to participate in the $300 six month vidcard upgrade merry-go-round. The GTS does not yield twice the performance of its distinguished predecessor, but currently brings twice the price, therefore does not give the &quot;best bang for the bucks.&quot; That was the original question, right?

The processor situation is pretty much the same, except that the o/c potential of the 550e is far superior, in that 133fsb is highly likely. 133fsbX8.0 multiplier? Only in our dreams.

So what is more important, owning bragging rights to one first rate component,(soon to be second rate) or obtaining highly competitive gaming performance today, with upgrade options in the future?

 

[Soccer55]

I would definitely go with the GeForce2, I have a P2 400 right now (soon to be P3 700e @ 933+) and with all settings maxed at 800x600, my Prophet 2 64 MB, P2 400, and 128 ram average 40 fps. IMHO, the vid card is the way to go

-Tom

btw- nice name SUOrangemen.....Go Cuse!

 

[acebathound]

The thing is, if you upgrade ONLY the video card or the processor, one will be holding the other back. I have a Voodoo 3 2000 and at 1024x768 res w/ settings on normal I'm getting on average about 40fps..that Geforce 2 should be doing better in my opinion..I've heard people who have the Geforce and get around 60fps in 1024x768 pretty constant.

Anyway, I think if you were to upgrade both and get the best of each for what your money situation is, you'll have the best of both worlds. You'll have a machine that'll perform just as well as if you'd bought a very expensive graphic card and left your processor the same speed (maybe even better), plus your system will run much faster as a whole since you'd be upgrading the processor.

This is just my opinion. I can see why other people might want &quot;the Best&quot; videocard b/c they'd rather not settle for less than the best and would rather have that with the option of upgrading the other part eventually. But, as someone else said, is it really worth getting the best when it's only going to be mediocre in a few months anyway?

Yes, upgrading just the video card will give better performance than you have now. Heck, it's a TNT 1 you're working with now..better performance is a given. But you might want to think about overall system performance and what's really going to be most beneficial.

 

[ET]

I'd also recommend the combo. If you can wait, go for the GeForce2 MX, IMO.

 

[JJordan]

I just went balistic and bought an ASUS V770 GeForce2 and a P3 700 -- used point click and spent about $150 more than I planned, but what the heck. I hope that combo will be sufficient for a while. Thanks for all your comments.

 

[Eug]

&quot;I would definitely go with the GeForce2, I have a P2 400 right now (soon to be P3 700e @ 933+) and with all settings maxed at 800x600, my Prophet 2 64 MB, P2 400, and 128 ram average 40 fps. IMHO, the vid card is the way to go&quot;

If you're talking demo001 in Quake 3, those are not very good numbers.

With a $75 V3 I'm getting 67 fps, but I have a Celeron running at 897. I got both together for less than a Geforce 2.

 

[kcbaltz]

One idea to try is running 3DMark2000 ( I know, boo hiss ) and then use the online compare features. It will let you compare against others with the same set up and also let you do what-if scenarios where you upgrade just one component. When I did it ( I have a Celery 433 and a TNT ) I found that there was a better jump in performance from the video card ( especially an o/c'd MX ) than a 700Mhz processor.

Just an idea.