Second opinions about upgrading

[mdowlin2]

I have been asking around forums looking for an answer for what I should upgrade, and when I should upgrade. I use my computer for multi media, gaming and multitasking. I have a 19" lcd monitor with a max res of 1280*1024, however I might be getting a good deal 24" widescreen monitor from someone I know. About half the people have said to upgrade my graphics card to a 4850 or a 4870 allowing me to max out games at that res, even with a cpu bottleneck. The other half say damn the graphics card and go intel quad core. I hav enough money for one, but not the other right now.

The games I am interested in playing at higher settings include Stalker Clear Sky, GTA 4, Spore, Diablo 3 and other games coming out this fall. I really like to crank up textures and AA. I am looking for the best possible performance increase for games this fall with this upgrade, and will probably upgrade other components in the spring (eg If I buy a GPU now, I will get a cpu in the spring) my budget is ~$300.

What do you guys think?


Asus M2n-32 sli deluxe 570
Am2 x2 5200+ windsor w/ 92mm zalman
Geforce 8800gts 320mb
2 gb Geil ddr2
1 500gb WD
1 250gb WD
Onboard sound
EVGA Indtube tv tuner


Thank you for any help.

 

[Roguestar]

What you want to upgrade when it comes to gaming is GPU > CPU > RAM, so get yourself a 4870. You'll probably not be CPU bottlenecked in any major way. Quad core is a nice concept and it's a great placebo performance booster but will do very little for your games and probably not much for your "multitasking" if you've already got a dual core, unless you perform major things like transcoding while doing a render and a bunch of other stuff.

 

[DSF]

With $300 you should be able to pick up both a 4870 and 2 more GB of DDR2. That's what I'd do in anticipation of a 24" screen. Just make sure that your case fits a large card like a 4870.

 

[mdowlin2]

Thank you both for such quick answers that also were very direct. Everywhere else I was reading that the 5200 am2 would be a bottleneck (which I knew) that would be such a huge bottleneck on a 4870 that games would hardly play at all, and I would be better off with a q6600+ and a 320mb gts.

I think I will start looking for some good deals on 4870s!

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: mdowlin2
Thank you both for such quick answers that also were very direct. Everywhere else I was reading that the 5200 am2 would be a bottleneck (which I knew) that would be such a huge bottleneck on a 4870 that games would hardly play at all, and I would be better off with a q6600+ and a 320mb gts.

I think I will start looking for some good deals on 4870s!

I think someone has been exaggerating the CPU's role in graphically demanding applications like gaming. I daresay a 4870 and 5200 AM2 would outperform the Q6600 and 8800GTS 320MB in single-threaded games (ie: pretty much everything except supreme commander).

 

[betasub]

Originally posted by: mdowlin2
Everywhere else I was reading that the 5200 am2 would be a bottleneck (which I knew) that would be such a huge bottleneck on a 4870 that games would hardly play at all, and I would be better off with a q6600+ and a 320mb gts.

Ugh, the "bottleneck" bugbear again. Games will play just fine, and if you stay at your low res of 1280x1024, in a game where the GPU has ability to churn out a hundred plus frames-per-second, you might be limited to ninety-odd fps by the CPU.