Should I wait or should I buy? Help with upgrade plan!

[ebeattie]

Hi all. current specs:

AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego stock speeds w/ thermaltake all Cu heat sink and a 92mm Vantec Tornado
Abit AV8 mobo
2GB Corsair XMS DDR400 running in Dual Channel
BFG 6800GTOC AGP
enermax 460W PSU about 35 amps on the 12V rail
WD 80 GB HDD w/ 8 mb cash SATA
SB Live sound card

My plan is to finally upgrade to a PCI-E system; with all intents toward maximising my BF2 and the upcoming BF2142 experience (aside from the NFS series, these are the only games I plan on playing). My 6800GTOC has been a great card to me, but I have the urge to finally go balls out and get my system to where I can trully turn it all on; resolution, AA and AF, full draw distance, EVERYTHING.

I hesitate to do a complete upgrade. I am a die hard AMD user, and as it stands, the AM2 platform is simply getting overmatched by the Core 2. I have my own reasons for not going with Intel, most of which is their business ethic; its horrible to say the least.

I will wait for a brand new complete ground up system when AMD has revised their new architecture.

In the mean time, I dont feel like its neccesary to upgrade my processor, RAM, or PSU right now. The BF2 engine has been awesome and stable on my rig, and I believe that my 6800GTOC has been my bottleneck.

to begin my upgrade, i have gotten the DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR mobo. I chose this for the fact that I want to finally overclock my 4000; I believe that I have the cooling setup and Memory to achieve this. I wanted the best OC mobo I could find, and everything I had researched for OCing my 4000 pointed me to this board. I know that I will want to go SLI in the future and I will be upgrading to a RAID 0 setup in the very near future, so I am happy with my choice.

I have also added a 250 GB SATA HDD from WD so that I can save all my media on there without having to worry about losing it when i make the switch to RAID 0.

All that I have left to purchase is my video card. I know that I am going with nVidia, and I also know that I am going with evga for the simple fact that they have a great idea called the step up program. As wrenching as it is for me to leave BFG, I have one VERY good reason to get into the Step up program..... DirectX 10. as of yet, there have been no announcements of DX10 cards, but I feel that October will change all of that.

But here is my dillema: Do I go ahead and get an evga 7900 GTX NOW and hope to GOD that nvidia and evga have their next flagship videocard with DX10 native support by the end of the year? Or do I wait and save for 2 more weeks and get the EVGA 7950 GX2? If I did wait, i could get the best single card solution for BF2142 and BF2 NOW and have less to have to pay with the step up program, and I would also put myself in a position to take advantage of the program into the new year. But holy GOD is it tempting to splurge now.

Basically what Im asking is do you all feel that we will see DX10 cards ( the flagship, not the midgrade) out by the end of the year? and IF so, will it be a trully finished product? I shudder to think back to the GeForce 5800 and 5900 series cards ( which I was a proud ATI supporter back then). I PRAY this is not the case, but it just seems that DX10 is a HUGE leap for both ATI and Nvidia.

I do plan on upgrading to a WD raptor raid 0 setup, in addition to a PC power and Cooling PSU with SLI support, but I have heard that these new cards are just power MONSTERS. So should I wait untill we get specs for the new cards to purchase a new PSU?

Thanks to everyone in advance for any help at all, and if you need more info, please ask!

 

[robkas]

personally, even though you are an nvidia fan it seems (and i have owned two 7xxx cards from them so i have nothing against them) i think you would be best be off to with a 256mb x1900xt. It is $240 about so you won't be digging into your wallet too much. Also, the x1900xt will give you better IQ and CLOSE to as much frames as a 7900gtx in BF2 and BF2142. The only downside is the cards are loud and hot.

I personally wouldn't go out on a limb hoping that within your 3 month step up plan a DX10 card comes. I would just go with a fairly cheap, high quality/high performace gpu card so you can enjoy the BF2/2142 with amazing visuals and silky smooth framerates.

 

[lopri]

Get the 7950GX2. Doesn't make sense to get a GTX at this point when the price difference is $100. GX2 should easily overclock to 550/700 and will crush any single card. If you really want to wait it out for DX10 cards then you can go cheap (like 7900GS) and sell it off with minimal loss when the upgrade time comes. But I'd try to avoid the first generation DX10 cards if they're really such power hogs. More refiend and efficient 2nd generation DX10 cards will come like 6 months after the first DX10 cards.

 

[akshayt]

Get 512mb instead, 512mb 1900XTX for 300$ after rebate.

 

[josh6079]

Honestly, the 7950GX2 for BF2142 and BF2? That's pretty much overkill, but if you want to.....

The GX2 would provide the best frames due to it's two GPU's and if you did get it hopefully Nvidia will launch G80 in time for a step-up through EVGA. G80-$500+really smooth gameplay until then=bliss. However, if you're interested in doing some upgrades to the rest of your system as well, you can still get wonderful playability from a much cheaper X1900XT. X1900XT+extra money for the rest of your system, games, savings, etc.+smooth gameplay=bliss.

Only you can decide on the specifics that are authentic to one company or the other that might help your decision pick a target.

 

[ebeattie]

In all honesty, how long will it be after Vista and DX10 launch do you think we will see the first wave of native DX10 based games? Also (and I know this is th wrong forum) but do you think that it possible the Battefield dev team will release a patch bringing the new 2142 to DX10 support? Or do you all think that it will remain DX9?

Cause if the dont patch it to DX10, Im just going to stick with BFG and XP for the life of the DX9 based battlefield games.

I really would consider ATI, but I just really prefer nvidia solutions. More powerful IMO, and less confusing trying to figure out which card is which. (damn ATI with all their X's and L's!)

Thanks for all the help guys.

 

[Damn Dirty Ape]

Originally posted by: lopri
Get the 7950GX2. Doesn't make sense to get a GTX at this point when the price difference is $100. GX2 should easily overclock to 550/700 and will crush any single card. If you really want to wait it out for DX10 cards then you can go cheap (like 7900GS) and sell it off with minimal loss when the upgrade time comes. But I'd try to avoid the first generation DX10 cards if they're really such power hogs. More refiend and efficient 2nd generation DX10 cards will come like 6 months after the first DX10 cards.

GTX can be had for 373 after rebate..

 

[josh6079]

Originally posted by: ebeattie
In all honesty, how long will it be after Vista and DX10 launch do you think we will see the first wave of native DX10 based games? Also (and I know this is th wrong forum) but do you think that it possible the Battefield dev team will release a patch bringing the new 2142 to DX10 support? Or do you all think that it will remain DX9?

Cause if the dont patch it to DX10, Im just going to stick with BFG and XP for the life of the DX9 based battlefield games.

I really would consider ATI, but I just really prefer nvidia solutions. More powerful IMO, and less confusing trying to figure out which card is which. (damn ATI with all their X's and L's!)

Thanks for all the help guys.

If you have preferences that is fine, but Nvidia just replaced one card with two and is planning on releasing a 7650GT or GS or GX or GTX or GX2 or something like that....

I'm 99.9% sure that Battlefield 2142 can never be "patched" to DX10. You can't just go patching games to different DX versions especially with the move from DX9 to 10, and if you do it's not a "patch" but a "sequel".

If you're set on Nvidia, I'd suggest the 7950GT. But if you want to go full bore, the GX2 is the card to get. If you did get the GX2 though, you might want to make sure it is an EVGA so that you can potentially step-up to G80 easily.

 

[ebeattie]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I think that I will go ahead with my EVGA idea. All in all if they dont release good DX10 cards by the time my step up program ends, fvck it. Ill muscle my way through DX10 programming with my GX2! lol, j/k guys

thanks again for allthe replies and help.