Should I upgrade anything on my PC?

[Josh7289]

Hey, my rig is in my sig, and since I like new things, I was wondering what would be the best thing to upgrade on my PC for a small amount of money (use your relative judgment as to what "small" means ). Now, I don't overclock anything, simply because I only create problems for myself, no matter how easy it is, and also because I already have some cooling issues that I have to work out soon.

So, what do you guys suggest I do, assuming I can work up the money?

 

[martinez]

Your system is similar to mine, except I have a 3500 and 2 gig of RAM and a 19 inch LCD. If I were you I would get a 7600GT and a better monitor, in that order.

 

[Sunrise089]

Well since you don't OC and Conroe is right around the corner than a CPU upgrade is out. Video upgrade would be nice, but you might be CPU limited in some titles anyways, and GPUs are not exactly a cheap upgrade. I recommend a nice fan - it would be very cheap and will help wit hthe cooling issues you mention. Also, this should probably have been posted in General Hardware, unless you only were considering video upgrades.

 

[Josh7289]

Yeah, I just realized that now. Is there anyway to move the thread without a moderator's help? Or should I just post this thread over there, too?

Well, I've found out my cooling problems...My main problem is that the stock heatsink fan on my video card is really really bad, so I've got to get that fixed.

So anyway, if I were to upgrade, I was thining a 7600GT. How do you think that would affect my framerates in games compared to benchmark framerates with the 7600GT that usually are paired with top of the line processors?

 

[Captante]

7600GT would be a good place to start... 7900GT if you can swing the extra $100 or so. Either one will give a nice performance boost.

 

[Sunrise089]

A 7900GT would offer more bang for your buck, but only slightly since it will place a lot more of the bottleneck on the CPU. In all honesty, much of the bang-for-the-buck value of the 7900GT coms from it's OC'ing and volt-modding possibilities, and if you don't want to go there it may not really be the best option. A 7600GT would be a nice moderate video upgrade, and at higher resolutions you would probably see frames pretty close to what reviews suggest. What res does your display use OP? Alternatively, you could wait until the launch of Conroe, and then do a full processor, MB, memory, and video upgrade. I know you might not have the cash now, but if you save the $$$ you would be spending on the 7600GT now, you might be able to do that sort of thing sooner than if you spent the $$$ now on the video card that will make you very GPU limited if you upgrade to a much faster CPU in the next 6 months.

 

[FelixDeCat]

I like the X850XT, you would too.

 

[akshayt]

you are getting it all wrong, even with this cpu a 1900xt may do wonders over a geforce 7900gt, most games are gpu limited and cpu limited only after the gpu requirement is fullfiled

get atleast 1800xt(arnd 220$) or 7900gt

if you have the money, go for a radeon 1900xt like I am with my amd 64bit 3200.

 

[Ichigo]

Where are you guys getting CPU bottlenecks from? The 3000+ will run any single GPU out right now just fine.

 

[Sunrise089]

Look, I am NOT claiming that there will be a bottleneck FOR SURE. I am asking what resolution the OP runs and what games he plays (well I'm really only asking the game thing now). I am not sold on the idea that at 1024x768 a 7900GT will never be CPU limited. For all we know the OP may play only slightly older games or strategy games and only at fairly low resolutions.

 

[Hellotalkie]

What ever happened to the 7800gt??

 

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by: Ichigo
Where are you guys getting CPU bottlenecks from? The 3000+ will run any single GPU out right now just fine.

Depends on resolution. 16x12 4xAA 16xAF, pretty much shows theres not much difference.
However at lower res, there is a big difference. (It could also affect minimum fps as well).

 

[Captante]

The 3000+ will cause a small bottleneck @ lower resolutions ... roughly 1024x768 depending on the game, but its not like its slow enough to make it not worth getting a 7900GT, sure a faster CPU would provide a bit more performance but the point is which will provide more & no question that win goes to the GPU.

7800GTs are still good cards, its just that their prices havn't fallen much, so you can get a 7900GT for the same or less & its considerably faster, also 7600GT's can be had for $160 +/- a bit and are close to as fast as the 7800GT themselves.

 

[Josh7289]

I would like to play at the 1280 resolutions (1280 x 1024, 1280 x 960). I already do play most of my games at that resolution, but usually with Medium settings and no AA. I'm primarily a console gamer (actually, right now I'm primarily a handheld gamer), but the PC has some genres that neither consoles or handhelds are capable of accurately reproducing right now, namely FPS, RTS, and MMORPG games. However, I'm not a fan of RTS or MMORPG games for particular reasons, so I mostly play FPS games, and more specifically realistic FPS games (i.e. not Half-Life, Doom, Quake, etc.), so only playing these types of games, I do not really want to spend too much money on a PC.

ANYWAY, I mostly play Battlefield 2, Call of Duty, some CS: Source, etc. I already am content with the frames per second I get now and settings I have now, but an upgrade is almost always worth something, so I was wondering if it would be best to get some more RAM, get a faster CPU, or get a better video card, which has mostly been answered, and based on how much I would spend, I would get a 7600GT.

Also, I do not plan on building an entirely new system until I go to college, sometime next year, so Conroe, for now, is out.