Upgrade from a X800XL

[Xcobra]

Hello,

I know this question has been brought up a lot but I feel like my case is too specific. Well I have the X800XL with a 3200 Venice (clocked to 2.65). I have little money so something relatively cheap would be great (maybe under 150). I plan on buying S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky, CoD 4, and some of the new games (not sure yet). Any recommendation would be awesome! I have no preference in brand! Thanks AT!

EDIT: I primarily game @ 1280x1024 since I have an old 17" CRT. Might be upgrading to a 24" LCD later on.

 

[IlllI]

it you spend anything that amount (150) there would be severe bottleneck and you would hardly get any real use out of the card. specially at such low resolution, unless you actually do upgrade to the 24in

 

[geokilla]

Since your system is so old, I suggest you to save up your money and get a new rig.

 

[Xcobra]

That is what I was thinking but I am just trying to max out the performance from my current system. I am sure that my card keeps me from doing high details and AA. Or is my cpu close to being the bottleneck that getting a slight performance boost from the video card would be useless?

 

[reallyfull]

There is a good article on tomshardware.com about the very question you're asking.

 

[Tempered81]

yah your cpu is 3 times slower than today's modern cpus in games:
http://www.matbe.com/articles/...processeurs/page24.php

and 2 times slower at your res with high details here:
http://www.matbe.com/articles/...processeurs/page27.php

 

[MarcVenice]

I'm pretty sure he will see BIG gains if he buys a 8800gt. Anything faster then that and diminishing returns will kick in hard. Or maybe get a 9600gt or 9600gso ... Do you even have a pci-e slot though? If you can upgrade that venice for a x2 3800+ and overclock it to 2.6ghz you should be just fine, even with a HD4850. This is also assuming you have 2gb of ram ...

 

[Xcobra]

Great article reallyfull. I guess Im better off saving some money. This sucks !

BTW, MarcVenice, I do have 2gb of RAM and PCI-E slot.

 

[MarcVenice]

Then I'd say grab a 8800gt or 9600gt, those will GREATLY improve framerates, and can be reused in a new build. I'd grab a 8800gt though, because if you do buy a 24" screen, the 9600gt will really suck ass. Not sure if it's possible to use AMD's fusion with your setup, but that might help a little as well. In the end, with a new videocard, you might be bottlenecked a bit to some extent, but you should be seeing a solid 30 fps in MOST titles, save for maybe Crysis, which can be really demanding on the CPU as well.

 

[Ares202]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Then I'd say grab a 8800gt or 9600gt, those will GREATLY improve framerates, and can be reused in a new build. I'd grab a 8800gt though, because if you do buy a 24" screen, the 9600gt will really suck ass. Not sure if it's possible to use AMD's fusion with your setup, but that might help a little as well. In the end, with a new videocard, you might be bottlenecked a bit to some extent, but you should be seeing a solid 30 fps in MOST titles, save for maybe Crysis, which can be really demanding on the CPU as well.

it would be better placed in the savings until he can afford something more substantial IMO, unless hes really unhappy with the framrates he is getting

 

[MarcVenice]

Why would it be ? A 9800gt can be had for $100 AR: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814127381 Hundred bucks for like 3-4 times the performance ? I bet he paid $200-300 for that ati x800xl, if not more. For 100$ he will see a HUGE improvement, and it can be re-used? If I had his videocard and lived in the USA, I'd be ordering that 9800gt right now.

The framerates he is getting will suck BIG time. Clear Sky will be unplayable, and CoD4 will look like shit and still play crappy ... No, I'd definately buy a 9800gt, no hesitation ...

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: Ares202

it would be better placed in the savings until he can afford something more substantial IMO, unless hes really unhappy with the framrates he is getting

It's not like he can't take the video card with him when he migrates his CPU / mobo / RAM to a newer platform.

Nothing wrong with upgrading, he'll still see a tangible improvement over his x800xl, even if it makes his CPU the limiting factor. At least he'll bee utilizing it to the maximum of it's ability.

It's not like he can split his $100-150 and get a complete system upgrade. ANd a 9800gt will be useful at his resolution for quite a while, so he should have no problems using it when he does end up with the spare cash to upgrade mobo / CPU / RAM.

I'd rather have a killer card with an anemic CPU than vice-versa.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

I definitely think you will see improvements from upgrading the video card. I think you should consider cheaper cards, like these:

HD3850 512MB - $50 after rebate, free shipping
9600GT $70 after rebate

The best deal is the HD3850 and should match your system very well.

 

[Denithor]

I would suggest going with a lower card ($50-70 range like those cusideabelincoln recommended) just to squeeze the last months or possibly one year out of your system. If you get another year out of it with this upgrade it's definitely worth the money.

Then, when it seriously slows down again just upgrade the whole thing.

Buying a GPU today for $100-150 and expecting to carry it forward into your next rig (in a year or so) is unrealistic -- today's budget video cards will be about as useful then as your x800xl is today. Spend a little now to keep your gaming alive and start saving toward a full upgrade.

 

[Xcobra]

Originally posted by: Denithor
I would suggest going with a lower card ($50-70 range like those cusideabelincoln recommended) just to squeeze the last months or possibly one year out of your system. If you get another year out of it with this upgrade it's definitely worth the money.

Then, when it seriously slows down again just upgrade the whole thing.

Buying a GPU today for $100-150 and expecting to carry it forward into your next rig (in a year or so) is unrealistic -- today's budget video cards will be about as useful then as your x800xl is today. Spend a little now to keep your gaming alive and start saving toward a full upgrade.

Exactly what I think Im gonna do. Now, what to get is the next great question. Thanks everyone this is all appreciated!!!!

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: Xcobra

Exactly what I think Im gonna do. Now, what to get is the next great question. Thanks everyone this is all appreciated!!!!

Jump on that 3850 before the rebate expires (10/31 -- tomorrow). you're not gonna get much cheaper than $75 + free shipping with a $25 rebate for a decent video card.

 

[Xcobra]

What about the HD4670? Isn't this card supposed to beat the HD3850? but I guess at 50 bucks nothing beats it. Ideas?

 

[cusideabelincoln]

The HD4670 slightly beats the HD3850 in AT's review, but I believe AT was also using the 256MB version (because of the results in the Crysis benchmark) of the 3850. The 512MB version is much better and does offer a performance boost. And with overclocking you can easily bring the performance of the HD3850 past an HD4670. But your processor is going to bottleneck both cards so you actually wouldn't notice the difference between the cards listed in this thread, which is why we are recommending the cheapest card. And just for good measure, there is no card as cheap as the HD3850 right now that can match its performance. The next closest card, on newegg, is the 9600GSO, but it's a tad more expensive and at stock speeds it is slower than an HD3850 512MB.

 

[Xcobra]

Thanks! It should be here next week! yay! after 3 years!

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Good, now take the money u saved and head over to the FS/FT forum here and buy a 3800+ X2 for $35 - $40 shipped and feed that new GPU before you wake up to "FEED ME SEYMOUR !! FEED ME !!! FEED ME YOU WEENIE !!" Then realize your new video card is gnawing on your left foot because you tried to starve it with that 3200+ Venice @_@

 

[Xcobra]

LOL! True...Will there be a significant difference between the Venice and the X2? Also, I have a OCZ PowerStream 520Watt PSU, will this be enough power for this card?

 

[lifeobry]

Originally posted by: Xcobra
Thanks! It should be here next week! yay! after 3 years!

i remember contemplating getting the X800XL for $299! enjoy the upgrade

 

[lyssword]

I just recently got 3850 for $60+ship, so far I'm pretty happy . I also have e2160 @ 2.9 tho, u might wanna upgrade ur platform.

 

[nemesismk2]

The 8800 GT, 9600 GT, 3870 or 3850 would be ideal!

 

[Denithor]

As mentioned above (by reallyfull) check out the article at tomshardware.com covering gaming performance with single versus dual core AMD processors (and fast versus slower dual cores also).

This should answer most of your questions, especially if they happen to review one of the games you play. In general, most games were cpu limited on the single core and fewer were limited on the slow dual core. The faster dual core gave better performance in most games in a range of resolutions but not always (indicating they were GPU bound in some games at certain resolutions).

The way to evaluate these charts: if the fps goes up at a certain resolution with a faster processor the game was cpu bound. If the fps doesn't change with a faster processor it is GPU bound (tended to happen more at higher resolutions). And note that your resolution will fall directly between 1024x768 and 1280x1024 so look at those two points for most of your info.