Question regarding my specific upgrade situation.

[HJustin]

This is my current system.

AMD Barton 2800+
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB

Asus A7N8X Deluxe (rev 1.02)
1GB RAM (Corsair XMS CMX512-3200C2 x2)
Creative Audigy 2
Antec case with 350W Smartpower PSU
Combined 240GB hard drive capacity in two 7200RPM, 8MB cache PATA drives
LiteOn 52/32/52 CD-RW
Toshiba 16x DVD

The system still does most everything I need it to do well, however in some of the newer games like Doom3, HL2, and World of Warcraft, I have to scale back on the graphics settings to avoid stuttering and chunking. I could stand some more horsepower for digital photo manipulation with Photoshop CS as well.

No doubt most of the patrons in these forums are aware of the current market's choices for new hardware. Socket 754, Socket 939, AGP, PCI-e. And there are still more new technologies looming like BTX, DDR2, etc.

I'm attempting to determine the best course of action for me pertaining to upgrades. My budget is modest--somewhere between $350-$500. On what hardware is this money best spent?

Do I sell the 9800 Pro and move into a 6600GT?

Do I stick with my card, putting more money into a better CPU? If I do this, then I'm stuck with AGP unless I want to buy another motherboard.

Usually I like to get the best board I can and keep it for a 18-24 months, while upgrading the CPU and video card at 12 months. If I know I'll be able to purchase a next-gen Nvidia or ATI card in 2006 in AGP format, sticking with AGP would work for now. If upgrading to a new video card is my best bet now for significantly improved performance, I may as well jump to PCI-e now.

My God...does any of this make sense? I'm so tired of looking at reviews and benchmarks I can't see straight. Any thoughts or comments?

Thanks,

J

 

[DaveSimmons]

Your CPU and graphics card are a pretty good match.

What resolution do you feel you need to run at? The 9800 Pro should be running at 1024x768 smoothly in HL2 and (with settings tweaks) in Doom3.

To go above that you may need to spend more than you've budgeted, so you can upgrade both the CPU and videocard.

 

[HJustin]

Not sure on the res...no less than 1024. I'm going purchase a 19" LCD in a few months. My 21" Samsung has never been a particularly good monitor and on any res other than 1024 or 1280 it emits a high-pitch squeal that gives me a headache.

J

 

[DaveSimmons]

The 19" LCD will be 1280x1024, though for games it might not look bad at 1024.

Unfortunately, the card you need for future-proof 1280x1024 is a 6800GT which isn't very affordable in the PCI-E version yet.

So, your best choices right now might be:

(a) get an AGP nv 6800GT video card upgrade now for $350-400, and a new, AGP-based A64 motherboard & CPU when you can afford the $300-400. Drawback: possibly no good AGP video cards in 2006.

(b) wait, save up money, and get an A64 PCI-E mobo, CPU, PCI-E videocard when you can afford to. You could possibly just get a PCI-E 6600GT then, and upgrade it later when games start to bog down at 1280. Drawback: no upgrade right away, must replace video card again sooner if you get the 6600GT.