Upgrade options (vid card or CPU)

[imported_MeatSauce]

I am running a P4 2.6C, Radeon 9800 Pro with 1 GB 400 Mhz ram.
I am seeing some slowdowns in UT 2004 in large Onslaught maps, and Halo only runs well in 800x600. What would be best to upgrade first? I am looking at a P4 3.2E or one of the new Nvidia 6800 cards.
What would give me the better boost?

 

[farmerjoe09]

i would say you try to upgrade both of them a little bit if you can but if not i would just go with the 6800 if your only gonna be doing lots of gaming but otheriwise the 3.2 will give you a better overall boost, just my opinon

 

[Mik3y]

upgrade the cpu. any video card higher than the 9800 pro will probably bottleneck, meaning you wont get full potential of the video card. as of now, the 9800 pro is still great and will run fine on doom 3 and half-life 2 as long as you dont go crazy on the higher resolutions. also, unless you overclock , dont get the 3.2E. the prescotts are not good until you get at least 3.5ghz off it. since you're gaming, go for the athlon 64. they are superior to the pentiums in every way besides encoding/decoding. wtih socket 939, amd owns intel on everything, even encoding/decoding.

 

[PhoenixOrion]

cpu upgrade. both ut2004 and halo are cpu-dependent.

i'm surprised that your rig has slowdown with your 9800 pro when it's a great gaming gfx card.

try overclocking your 2.6c to 3.0ghz (230fsbx13=2.99ghz) and that might help without buying anything.

 

[AristoV300]

All the 2.6c's I know should do 250 (3.25Ghz) out of the box with no additional vcore or even cooling. If you don't have ddr500 memory change the divider to 5:4 and you can run ddr400 memory at stock speed. I'd say upgrade the video card though, your not going to get a better CPU currently unless you go with a p4ee that will make that much of a difference.

 

[SickBeast]

You are not in need of an upgrade ATM. If you must have a serious DoomIII/HL2 computer, the most logical solution would be to buy a really good HSF, overclock your CPU to 3.5ghz or so, and buy either a 6800GT/6800U/X800XT. The new cards are expensive though. If you could get $150 for your 9800PRO it would soften the blow a bit.

 

[RussianSensation]

The videocard upgrade is a much much better option for you if you are looking to increase your framerates for gaming as your primary objective.

Call of Duty - 1600x1200 4AA/8AF
9800xt + P4 3.2C = 60.7 frames
x800pro + P4 2.4C = 81.5

LOMAC - 1600x1200 4AA
9800xt + P4 3.2 = 22.5
x800Pro + P4 2.4 = 34.9

IL-2 Sturmovik - 1280x1024 4AA/8AF
9800xt + P4 3.2 = 29.8
X800Pro + P4 2.4 = 37.3

Splinter Cell - 1600x1200
9800xt + P4 3.2 = 44
X800Pro + P4 2.4 = 68.2

Tomb Raider:AOD - 1600x1200 4AA
9800xt + P4 3.2 = 24.1
X800Pro + P4 2.4 = 51.5

UT2004 - 1600x1200 4AA/8AF
9800xt + P4 3.2 = 31.1
X800Pro + P4 2.4 = 52.1

Far Cry - 1280x1024 4AA/8AF
9800xt + P4 3.2 = 30.6
X800Pro + P4 2.4 = 49

Halo - 1600x1200
9800xt + P4 3.2 = 28.1
X800Pro + P4 2.4 = 44.1

This forum has a lot of opinions, but take them with a grain of salt unless data is provided. In every single game, increasing the cpu speed from lets say your 2.6C to 3.2C speeds had a minute effect on gaming performance. Keep in mind that this was with a faster 9800xt videocard compared to your 9800Pro.

Considering that even on AXP 2500+ X800Pro often doubles the performance in Far Cry over a 9800pro (same cpu) solution as seen Here, the videocard upgrade is what you should seek if you are willing to part with $400US right now. Keep in mind that 6800GT is an overall faster card than x800pro (even in Far Cry and esp. Doom 3) and overclocks to 6800ultra speeds (while even if you overclock x800pro it will not reach the fillrate of the x800xt due to the 12 pipelines). Like others have mentioned the 2.6C overclocks fairly well. But considering that even without a cpu overclock, a faster videocard delivers significantly better gaming experience, the cpu should be the least of your worries when it comes to gaming right now if you can only afford to spend money on one or other. In the future if you intend to upgrade the cpu later, I recommend buying the A64 variety. Otherwise for the best bang for the buck, 6800GT is a no brainer if you must upgrade now.

You can use www.pricewatch.com or www.pricegrabber.com to find deals on the cards online. Also try to look in HotDeals on this forum for possible links on sales. I recommend getting eVGA version of the 6800gt as it comes with Far Cry and unlike PNY has "real" lifetime warranty. BFG versions come slightly overclocked on the gpu at 370 vs. 350 stock.

Hope this helps.

Welcome to Anandtech.

 

[gwag]

Your system is fine dont waste your money live with it for a while..........

 

[FullRoast]

Nice post, RussianSensation. Always good to see numbers and data.

MeatSauce - If the slow downs you see are bothering you, one option would be to try overclocking your processor (you didn't mention which motherboard you have or if overclocking is even an option). I have a 3.0c P4 and ATI 9800 Pro and never saw slowdowns with Halo, but there may be other differences in my system. Maybe the safest bet is to wait until you have had a chance to try Doom 3 or Half-Life 2 and see if you want to spring for a new video card. I think (and RussianSensation's seem to confirm) that you would get better improvement from a new graphics card than from a CPU boost.