Upgrading for the summer

[Billaboz]

Hi, I've been reading about the latest developments in the graphics market since I last upgraded and I was hoping some people can share some advice. I currently have a P4 1.8 running at 2.4, 512 DDR, and a 9700 PRO. Anything that happened since the 9700 I havn't been keeping up on (pci-e). My system runs nice but I'd like to get atleast a new video card for the summer and maybe another 512 ram(?). The thing is, I'm only going to have this system until this time next year when I plan to buy a laptop for college, so I dont want to put too much into it now (ie keeping motherboard, processor). I'll sell the 9700 pro on ebay and then it seems like the 6600gt is a good range.. or the 6800 (probably 200-250 for a new card). But if the next line is coming out soon and prices will drop, what would yall recommend for the next card? Either ATI or Nvidia is fine, mostly I care about performance vs price. Thanks for any input.

 

[razor2025]

Save up. Unless you overclock that P4 to 2.5-8 range (even then), you'll be CPU limited on most of the high-range cards. For example, I run a X800XL with A64 3000+ and I'm CPU limited. I get about the same framerate on CS: Source at 1024x768 and 1650x1050. If you insist on a upgrade, get a 6600GT AGP to tie you until next major upgrade. It'll be around $150 and it's not too powerful in that your CPU becomes major limit to it.