Upgrade my video card or just save towards a new rig?

[evilbix]

Here's the deal. Going to be extremely busy over the next year. However, I do like to play games once in a while and my box is getting a little out of date now.

I have a pentium d805 @ 3.8ghz on air, 2 gigs of ddr2-800, 480gig hdd (2x160 raid 0, 320 storage), and an x1900xt @ 702/783

I've been noticing games starting to slug a little.. well. only tf2 and ut3. normally i'd shrug it off and be ok with it, but tf2 is one of my favorite games in years, as it requires almost no real time investment to reap the rewards of blowing someone to pieces.

I only game on a 19" 1280x1024 monitor, so the resolution isn't that crazy.

So now my options are wait until christmas and spend the money for a new rig, or spend around 200 and put it off for another year.

Would a 4850 do the trick for my gaming habits, or am I completely cpu bound now?

 

[natty1]

A 4850 would do the trick for TF2. Even a lesser card like an 8800GT would work.

If you buy the video card now you might not need to buy one at christmas time.

Also, if you are using Vista I would suggest more RAM too.

 

[SergeC]

With a Pentium-D, you're pretty terribly CPU-bound. I'd save for a complete overhaul.

 

[evilbix]

I'm on XP still, natty1. I was thinking of going to vista before, as I get free microsoft products (finances uncle is really high up in MS), but I held out due to not having a dx10 card and only the 2 gigs of memory. But that does bring up a good point. I'd need to finally make the switch to really take advantage of the 4850 or even the 8800gt

 

[Golgatha]

I'd recommend a new motherboard, 2GB more RAM (look for it distributed in Cracker Jack boxes now), new CPU (even a stock E7200 would mop the floor with a Pentium D), and an 9800GTX+ or HD 4850.

 

[MarcVenice]

If your uncle is so high up, get him to buy you a new rig

Honestly though, you can reuse the ram. A new mobo + cpu, like a ds3l p35 and a e7200 are pretty cheap. The 1900xt isn't exactly slow, I bet it will do just fine in Source based games at 1280*1024. If you got money to spare, upgrade it to a 100-150$ videocard, preferably a HD4850 since it's the most bang for buck. A HD3870 for 100$ ain't bad either.

 

[evilbix]

Eh.. not my uncle. It's my fiances uncle. If I wanted a laptop I could get one for free.. however, I already have three of them.

My point was that I didn't want to replace all that stuff. I'm going to be holding out for the nehalim for the cpu upgrade. Source games generally run 70+fps, in 1280x1024, 6xMSAA, 16xAA, and everything else maxed out. TF2 seems to be the exception, and I was wondering if the video card alone could get me another year of smooth gameplay or if I'm screwed.

 

[MarcVenice]

ah ok, your post said finances, which had allready left me a little confused Get a laptop, and sell it

Erm, well, 150$ for a HD4850 is a really good deal, and you could reuse it in your nehalem rig. It's not like you're throwing away money. I can't say for sure if your performance on TF2 will increase though, I'm not sure how much of a bottleneck your CPU is...

 

[evilbix]

that's not a bad idea.. i think i'll do that. even if it doesn't boost it a lot, i'm not really losing out

 

[HannibalX]

If it were me I would try to find an HD 3850 512 for around $75. This will play Source games (TF2, HL, CSS, etc) just fine. The difference will be night and day compared to your 1900XT. Since you don't game over 1280x1024 anyway getting a more exspensive card without upgrading your CPU/Motherboard won't make much, if any difference.

Spend a little now and put the upgrade off another year. At least that is what I would do.

 

[badnewcastle]

You have at least 1 fiance or is it 2?

Either way give up gaming now so it won't be such a shock when you tie the knot.

 

[mhouck]

Since you want to wait to upgrade your board, cpu until nehalm then I would suggest holding off completely. If you could be CPU bound, and you very well could be, then upgrading the GPU is a waste and faster cards could come out in your price range and if they don' then the GPU will be cheaper still at the point you upgrade the board.

Just my two cents. However, I wanted to wait for Nehalm as well but couldn't stand lagging in my games and went for a quadcore/ x-48 after holding off a total of of 9 days.