Upgrade: CPU, video card, or both?

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cmdrfunk

Junior Member
Oct 9, 2006
6
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I'm looking to upgrade my system. I'm not looking to go that far into it, though. I'm just looking for a decent bump in performance. I'm looking for the best price/performance and don't really want to spend more than $300 and preferably $200.

My current system is almost two years old and has:

Geforce 7900GTO 512mb
GIGABYTE GA-965P-S3 P965 Motherboard
Core2 Duo E6300 1.86ghz overclocked close to whatever its limit was back then
2 GB Corsair DDR2 800
Windows XP
22" flat screen CRT (tend to run games at 1280x1024 but will push up sometimes if its not a big performance hit)


Could I get away with just a video card upgrade for now? I'm looking at the Radeon 4850 right now. My real dilemma is how limiting is the CPU on games nowadays? Would it be a waste to not upgrade the CPU while getting a "today's" video card? It just seems like if I need a new cpu i'd also need a new motherboard and whatever other dominoes would have to fall after that (memory, etc) and next thing i know it's $500+

My second question for the future is would I need a new motherboard to use crossfire with a second 4850 later on?

I'm from US. I'm going to order parts ASAP. I'm going to reuse whatever parts I already have. I will overclock but i don't go all out usually with special cooling or anything.

Thanks.
 
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modoheo

Member
May 28, 2008
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Agree with updating to a HD4850, plus you can add another 2 gigs of DDR2 800 RAM for 50 bucks or less. Total will be 200-250. No need to upgrade the CPU yet. With these simple upgrades, you'll be running all games at high-to-max settings.
 
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cmdrfunk

Junior Member
Oct 9, 2006
6
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Is the ram upgrade really necessary? Does XP even allow 4 gigs? I'm seeing conflicting info.
 
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modoheo

Member
May 28, 2008
187
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XP will recognize 4gigs minus however much you have on your GPU. The increase will still help performance a bit.
 
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soccerballtux

Lifer
Dec 30, 2004
12,553
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Originally posted by: modoheo
XP will recognize 4gigs minus however much you have on your GPU. The increase will still help performance a bit.
Click to expand...

Minus some more
I have 4GB, 512MB Vcard, XP only gets 3.25.
 
D

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
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You can live without 4GB in XP, it's Vista that needs it.

The 4850 will be a nice upgrade even if your CPU isn't running it quite at full speed.
 
M

modoheo

Member
May 28, 2008
187
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Originally posted by: soccerballtux
Originally posted by: modoheo
XP will recognize 4gigs minus however much you have on your GPU. The increase will still help performance a bit.
Click to expand...

Minus some more
I have 4GB, 512MB Vcard, XP only gets 3.25.
Click to expand...

Strange.
 
H

heyheybooboo

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2007
6,278
0
0
Originally posted by: cmdrfunk
Originally posted by: heyheybooboo
MSI R4850-T2D512 Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3: $190 ($160 AR)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814127359

What's the refresh on that CRT at 1280x1024 ?? You will be smokin' fast with the HD4850
Click to expand...



85mhz. Why?

Thanks for the reply.
Click to expand...

The higher the refresh rate of your monitor, the faster your screen is updated. If that resolution will support 100MHz+ on your CRT go for it.

Some titles will limit your framerates to 60. This is because flat panels generally operate at 60Hz. Typically you may either disable this lock in the game settings or in your video card control center.
 
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