Upgrading Time

[McMullen]

Hey guys and gals,

Heard this was a great place to get all sorts of advice on computer related issues!

My current system is an Athlon 2800+ w/ 1GB Ram and A7N8x (??? Nforce 2 Chipset) and a 9800 Pro 128MB card.

I got $500-600 Bucks Canadian to blow on some new parts and I was thinking along the lines of a new video card. Could anyone tell me if thats where I am going to see my gains in the gaming department with my system? Or should I be going more along the lines of a new CPU and Mobo?

Regardless I would like to know opinions on the "close to the top of the line" video cards out there. ATI or NVIDIA, PCI Express or AGP? I'm open to all suggestions!

Scott

 

[Malladine]

AGP are more expensive in the Price : Performance department but still somewhat viable. For example, you could spend a mere $250-300 on an X800XT and receive a significant boost for gaming. There's word of 6800GS and 7800GS AGP cards heading to the market, but they aren't here yet. They would certainly be worth looking at if and when they arrive (your cpu is not too terribly outdated yet imo), but it could be weeks or months.

I don't know how much things cost in Canadian dollars so i'll need more info there if you want further advice. Here are the prices in $US for an entry level socket 939 upgrade:

3200+ Venice for $166 US,
939 mobo for $70 US,
PCI-E gpu for around $200 US (eg 256mb X800GTO is $180 and outperforms the 9800pro by roughly 50-100%)

Basically, if you can afford to upgrade those 3 main parts of your rig, do it. If you can't, just buy an X800XT/6800GT in AGP flavour and save for the bigger upgrade in a year or two.

To give a personal slant to this, my rig probably has identical performance to yours (3200+ cpu and 9800 NON pro) and I won't be upgrading for a while. When I do, if I can find a $250 agp card that will boost performance over the 9800np by close to 100% (according to various benchmarks) i'll be going that route for sure, mainly because AMD is coming out with a new socket which could affect prices.

So i'd be hoping for a $250 upgrade to get me 1024x768 with low/mid settings in any games for 2yrs.

 

[McMullen]

Ok, I think I will just be doing the Video Card this year. Would it be worth picking up a PCI-E? Is it faster than AGP? Is my mobo compatible?

EVGA E-GEFORCE 7800GT PCI-E 256MB 256BIT GDDR3 Dual DVI-I HDTV VIVO SLI Ready Video Card Retail

That is what I was looking at --- $417 CDN

 

[Malladine]

In order to use PCI-E you'll have to upgrade that motherboard and therefore the cpu as well. AGP -> PCI-E usually means CPU/MB/GPU all at once.

The fastest agp card available is the X850XT and they are a little more expensive ($50 or so) than the 7800GT in the US, so I guess it could be the same in Canada
The x800xt offers performance around 10% less than the X850XT for the same price as the 7800GT so that's another AGP option.

Below that the 6800GT is $20-30 less than the x800xt but harder to find.

No, PCI-E offers no direct performance advantage over AGP in today's games.

 

[McMullen]

Ok...

I have looked into more of what I am going to get and it looks like a full blown CPU, MOBO, RAM, VID CARD upgrade.

I'm going with NVIDIA 7800GT OC 256 and for MOBO and Processor I am unsure, but I know I want AMD. Now there are different variations of the chips out there correct? Venice, San Diego, Newcastle? Which one should I be looking for? I don't want to go duel core and I want the best of the variations for gaming.

For a MOBO I want something that will support SLI PCI-E 16x, nothing cheap, but I don't want all the bells and whistles with it either. Suggestions appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

 

[kamranziadar]

You should check the HOT Deals. There is a deal from EVGA 7800GT + Free SLI EVGA Motherboard $369 shipped.

 

[CJP]

Originally posted by: kamranziadar
You should check the HOT Deals. There is a deal from EVGA 7800GT + Free SLI EVGA Motherboard $369 shipped.

In Canada you can get that deal at TigerDirect.ca, just search for "evga bundle." I got in on the deal at NCIX but they aren't offering it today.