Should I sit tight with my current rig?

[pugh]

I'm interested in playing GTA4 and I have seen a few bench marks of the game on another site which indicate that quad core's run it a bit better.

What I'm using now is a AMD x2 2.6ghz w 1mb cache , 4 gb ram, 8800GT 512mb, Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 Rev 2.0

I have no prob playing L4D,Bioshock, GTA:SA, TF2, Fallout3,CoH,WiC(decent settings), Warhammer,WoW, CoD4, MoH:airborne.

What I was hoping to do is upgrade my current cpu to the 9950 x4 .

You think I would have a decent time in GTA4 ? One thing I will be doing is upgrading to a Intel Quad sometime in February 2009.

I just figured I get some opinions before I make a move. I normally don't ask for help on these upgrade matters but what could it hurt ?

 

[FalseChristian]

Well, since you're taking the right road by skipping i7 and going with a core2quad in February there's no point in upgrading to an AMD X4 at this point. If your games run fine then why worry? Most games don't take advantage OF 4 cores-yet!

 

[MarcVenice]

You're better of with a new videocard ( or sli-ed 8800gt's ) then a new CPU. Try oc-ing your CPU as well. 3.0ghz should be doable ?

 

[FalseChristian]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
You're better of with a new videocard ( or sli-ed 8800gt's ) then a new CPU. Try oc-ing your CPU as well. 3.0ghz should be doable ?

I'm sorry but I have to disagree. That 2.6GHz X2 (4800+?) is a real show-stopper when you consider SLI or a higher-end GPU like a GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 of Radeon HD 4870 1GB. I have SLI 8800GTs and even with a much, much better and faster Core2Duo E8400 at 3.825GHz and 6MB of L2 cache my SLI'ed 8800GTs still have room to grow!

 

[pugh]

I had been considering the option of adding a 2nd 8800gt. That would also give me a boost. I'll try the Oc route with a additional card to see how things go. Only thing that concerned me was I have my Areca Raid card in the other pci-x slot and I was worried about a performance hit if I moved it to a reg pci slot ?

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: FalseChristian

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
You're better of with a new videocard ( or sli-ed 8800gt's ) then a new CPU. Try oc-ing your CPU as well. 3.0ghz should be doable ?

I'm sorry but I have to disagree. That 2.6GHz X2 (4800+?) is a real show-stopper when you consider SLI or a higher-end GPU like a GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 of Radeon HD 4870 1GB. I have SLI 8800GTs and even with a much, much better and faster Core2Duo E8400 at 3.825GHz and 6MB of L2 cache my SLI'ed 8800GTs still have room to grow!

My brother had a X2 4200+ @ 2.7 Ghz, and noticed an improvement in gaming performance when he went from 1 8800gt to 2 of them.

Just because the CPU cannot max out the graphics system performance does not mean there will not be a measurable benefit to upgrading the video card.

 

[MarcVenice]

Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle

Originally posted by: FalseChristian

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
You're better of with a new videocard ( or sli-ed 8800gt's ) then a new CPU. Try oc-ing your CPU as well. 3.0ghz should be doable ?

I'm sorry but I have to disagree. That 2.6GHz X2 (4800+?) is a real show-stopper when you consider SLI or a higher-end GPU like a GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 of Radeon HD 4870 1GB. I have SLI 8800GTs and even with a much, much better and faster Core2Duo E8400 at 3.825GHz and 6MB of L2 cache my SLI'ed 8800GTs still have room to grow!

My brother had a X2 4200+ @ 2.7 Ghz, and noticed an improvement in gaming performance when he went from 1 8800gt to 2 of them.

Just because the CPU cannot max out the graphics system performance does not mean there will not be a measurable benefit to upgrading the video card.

+1

Sure, you might get more FPS with a faster CPU, but 70 vs 80fps is not nearly as important as going from 20fps to 35fps. Or, with sli-ed 8800gt's he might get 35fps minimum, with his X2 oc-ed to 2.8-3.0ghz, and he might get 40fps with a e8400 at 3.6ghz. I'd have to say the money is better spend on a second 8800gt.

 

[pugh]

I followed your advice and got a 2nd 8800gt shipped to me. Never SLI'ed before. Will be fun . Also will try an OC on this cpu.

 

[MarcVenice]

Do not forget, sli-ed 8800gt's can be a real powerhouse, they often rival a gtx280 in raw performance. Have fun !

 

[Cheex]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Do not forget, sli-ed 8800gt's can be a real powerhouse, they often rival a gtx280 in raw performance. Have fun !

+1

Just remember though that you're limited to 512MB VRAM so keep that in mind along with your resolution and in-game settings.

Note: This is just a caution to not get overly excited about the prospect and then be disappointed if it doesn't scale as well as you had hoped.

Good luck!!!

:thumbsup:

 

[Denithor]

What PSU are you using to power all of this? Make sure it's strong enough for SLI.

 

[Bman123]

I have some experience with amd so I will chime in here.I had a 64x2 am2 5000+ @2.6ghz with a 8800gt @1280x720.

@ my res I was very cpu dependant.I could play cod4 maxxed out settings and get a very low of high 20's framerate.Avg mostly around 60 fps but when stuff happened like explosions,smoke grenades or alot of bodies on screen I would dip into the 20's alot.My avg was good certainly but the minimum framerate made it unplayable for me.

I went to a E8400,and a 9800gtx oc.Call of duty now is a blast to play.THe absolute lowest framarate I have seen is 55 fps.Avg around 90 now with the intel cpu.

I dont know what res you are at but if you are up there 1680x1050 at the least or 1920x1200 then sli is certainly your best choice since you would be mostly gpu dependant and not cpu dependant.

This way you can maxx out settings and be playing good.8800 gt cards are cheap as hell now and the performance they give in sli is very nice.They will draw some juice tho so I hope you psu is up to par.

Good luck happy gaming and I hope to see some results from your sli setup

 

[Eddie313]

Just to add my 2cents i had the same mobo and ran a AMD 6000 X2 in sli with 8800 GTS G92 you cant compare the two really you cant.

Went from 80fps and hitting 40fps in some spots and LAG!!

Then went to a E8400 and it beat out that hole system with only one card installed.

I think my 3dmark06 score was 12000 with the amd and 18230 with the intel.


AMD>>opening 3dmark06 frame rate 68fps sli


Intel>> opening 3dmark06 frame rate 120fps with one card

 

[pugh]

Ok I got the extra card in but I ran into a slight problem.

I have an areca 1210 RAID card that requires x8 pci express slot. Currently, it's plugged into one of the extra pci express slots that is used for sli mode. In order for me to use sli mode for both of the 8800 gt's, I would need to remove the areca raid card which I don't want to do. Am I correct in thinking that placing the RAID card in the extra pci express x1 would cause the card not to receive enough power or would it work?

What motherboard would you recommend where I could run my 8800 gt's plus my RAID card which requires x8. This also need's to power my AMD 64x2 2.6ghz which I plan on Oc'ing to get some more life out of it till the next big upgrade.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[pugh]

Decided to make a move and go intel mobo and cpu. All things should work great for me now.

 

[Drsignguy]

Originally posted by: pugh
Decided to make a move and go intel mobo and cpu. All things should work great for me now.

Well at lest this resolved your raid problem

 

[PingSpike]

I had the same kind of problem when I was thinking about upgrading my wife's rig. Its a socket 939 x2 2.4ghz hand me down machine. Ultimately, I just decided to sit on it (since it still performs reasonable well, the biggest killer apps it runs is L4D and Oblivion) and do another hand me down when I upgrade my machine.

The trouble with 939 upgrades is you have to replace your ram and buy a new motherboard to upgrade to a better CPU. Which is more of a cost and a lot more of a hassle. And if you're doing that, you may as well just spend a little bit more and jump straight to a core2duo rig. Which is what I ended up doing with my main rig. On the one hand, I think AMD missed the boat by not providing a drop in chip upgrade for 939 users. When people were looking at doing a mainboard/cpu/ram upgrade they jumped to core2 instead. There wasn't much to be done though, the ondie memory controller meant they'd have to stay trapped with DDR on 939, which would have been an eventual death sentence.