What single upgrade would get me more performance?

[Googer]

Originally posted by: Ricemarine

Originally posted by: Googer

Originally posted by: sebastienmaass

Originally posted by: Ricemarine
Ehh I say get an extra 512 MB of the OCZ ram...
As for the BFG 7800gt, No it's not a good deal...
eVGA's go for like $260 shipped AR.

Does any kind of OZC work?

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80098-21

Um... He has DDR2 ram Googer lol...
Try and get the same model of that OCZ.

Value RAM is a better choice, the net gains from high end ram is only 1-4% but the cost is sometimes 200% more than "normal ram prices". Basicly expensive OCz has a poor cost to benefit ratio. 1GB of high performance OCz DDR2 is about the same price as a high end video card

OOPS!

I am so used to everyone owning AMD systems these days, that I almost forgot that Intel even existed!

 

[sebastienmaass]

Originally posted by: Googer

Originally posted by: sebastienmaass
my CPU isnt holding me back is it?

Not quite as much as the video card is. If you change over to AMD, expect to see a 10-15FPS gain. But get an x1900XT and you will almost double your frame rate.

Double?! As in my CSS stress trest results will skyrocket up to 160 FPS and over 100 FPS for HL2 and DOOM 3??

 

[Ricemarine]

Originally posted by: sebastienmaass

Originally posted by: Googer

Originally posted by: sebastienmaass
my CPU isnt holding me back is it?

Not quite as much as the video card is. If you change over to AMD, expect to see a 10-15FPS gain. But get an x1900XT and you will almost double your frame rate.

Double?! As in my CSS stress trest results will skyrocket up to 160 FPS and over 100 FPS for HL2 and DOOM 3??

Cs: source?... Mmm maybe...
But something will probably bottleneck your system IMO.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: sebastienmaass
I got the Alabtron 6600GT in Nov. 2004 and it cost me a little over 200$, would you say this card is past its prime?

Depending on your budget will ultimatly determine how much it is past it's prime.

Probably the best bang for the buck in the high end is x1900xt 512MB, it is faster and $200 cheaper than the $700 7800GTX 512MB.

 

[sebastienmaass]

how much do one of those go for?

For the moment I'm just gunna upgrade RAM (any suggestions?). Mid June I'll start looking @ video card 200-300$ range...

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: sebastienmaass

Originally posted by: Googer

Originally posted by: sebastienmaass
my CPU isnt holding me back is it?

Not quite as much as the video card is. If you change over to AMD, expect to see a 10-15FPS gain. But get an x1900XT and you will almost double your frame rate.

Double?! As in my CSS stress trest results will skyrocket up to 160 FPS and over 100 FPS for HL2 and DOOM 3??

Yeah, somewhere in that neighborhood. Depending on the game you can give or take a dozen or two FPS. It's a rough estamate.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: sebastienmaass
how much do one of those go for?

For the moment I'm just gunna upgrade RAM (any suggestions?). Mid June I'll start looking @ video card 200-300$ range...

http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=x19...g.mozilla:en-US:unofficial&sa=N&tab=wf

Before the headline broke out and the word on the street had not spread all the way about their performance, I had seen some sell on ebay for $400-ish, now they sell for a little bit more. Newegg.com had them at $470 for a while.

 

[Googer]

http://www.newegg.com/product/Product.a...512MB+GDDR3+PCI+Express+x16+Video+Card

 

[Googer]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814131006

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: sebastienmaass
how much do one of those go for?

For the moment I'm just gunna upgrade RAM (any suggestions?). Mid June I'll start looking @ video card 200-300$ range...

DDR2 is expensive, but ironicly this DDR2 1,000 is $100 cheaper than the DDR900!

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80097-91

Probably the best MHz/banwith to dollar ratio. Even if your motherboard does not support 1,000 mhz ram you can still run it at DDR2 600-ish at extremely low latency.

 

[Yeormom]

Originally posted by: Googer

Originally posted by: sebastienmaass
my CPU isnt holding me back is it?

Not quite as much as the video card is. If you change over to AMD, expect to see a 10-15FPS gain. But get an x1900XT and you will almost double your frame rate.

Personally, I'd have to ignore his suggestions based off the blind bias. I'm afraid you'd need more than just the AMD sticker for 10-15fps.

 

[duragezic]

Definitely get a 7800GT (or higher like X1900, but 7800GT are nearing $260 AR) and another 512mb stick of RAM. So for a little over $300 you'll see huge FPS gains. Games load much faster with 1GB vs 512mb, as well as much less in-game stuttering as your hard drive gets hit from swapfile use.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: Yeormom

Originally posted by: Googer

Originally posted by: sebastienmaass
my CPU isnt holding me back is it?

Not quite as much as the video card is. If you change over to AMD, expect to see a 10-15FPS gain. But get an x1900XT and you will almost double your frame rate.

Personally, I'd have to ignore his suggestions based off the blind bias. I'm afraid you'd need more than just the AMD sticker for 10-15fps.

I am far from bias, as we speak my PC is running an Intel Processor. Just let the bench marks prove me correct. In some cases the gains from an AMD processor can be 30FPS and more. In a recent compairison of AMD Athlon 64 X2 vs Intel Pentium D by CNET the AMD X2 won 9 out of 10 Benchmarks and points of interest.

If you remember this then show me the link (from anandtech news maybe 2005), I cannot find it.

 

[LW07]

Get this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231044
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104954 to replace the thermaltake PSU because you'll need more than it to power your upgrade.
and this:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130256
Total:~$500 after shipping

 

[bob4432]

the cpu is not holding you back. you are limited by gpu and ram, pure and simple. get to 1GB of ram and pick up a 7800gt. you can alwasy go to the cpu/overclocking forum and at the top is a stickied ocz thread, ask there about timings and you will get answers from ocz.

just recently i put cod2 on my machine and couldn't play higher than 1024x768 and my gpu is roughly equivalent to a 6800gt-6800ultra, that game needs a 7800gt at least, imo. also with cod2 running 1024x768 my total ram usage was still ~800MB, so that is why you need 1GB.

when i switched from my 9800pro on my p4 system (the 9800pro is a ta bid slower than your 6600gt) to a x800xtpe the difference was huge and i am sure you would notice the same difference going from a 6600gt to a 7800gt. get the evga one as they come factory o/ced and have a lifetime warranty, good cards.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: sebastienmaass
http://cgi.ebay.com/BFG-GEFORCE-7800-GT...686QQcategoryZ3762QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
is that a gd deal?

not a good deal, the evga ones from newegg are clocked similiar and are ~$250AR

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: LW07
Get this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231044
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104954 to replace the thermaltake PSU because you'll need more than it to power your upgrade.
and this:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130256
Total:~$500 after shipping

The differance between his PSU and the one you are suggesting is not that great, only 40 watts when most systems that have high end graphics only use about 300 watts. He has plenty of head room and can get by with what he has.

512MB is really enough, if you find the tomshardware article from about 6months ago where they did tests that showed the differance beteen 512MB and 1GB VS 2GB, the gain from 512 to 1024 was not a massive gain and there was almost no differance between 1GB and 2GB. I am not here to tell the opening poster what to do, but if I had $500 and wanted the biggest gaming performance improvement then I would get the fastest video card I could find. Go to any CPL match and most of the professonal players would agree.
Yes there is a gain from 512 mb to 1GB but a highend video card upgrade will provide more FPS than extra ram.




The RAM you linked is $145.99, the same ram can be found for $128.87
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141224.

 

[secretanchitman]

evga 7800GT
1GB of ram (or an additional 512MB for dual-channel if possible)

you also might have to upgrade the HD in case you install a lot of games, because nowadays they require a couple of GBs to install.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: secretanchitman
evga 7800GT
1GB of ram (or an additional 512MB for dual-channel if possible)

you also might have to upgrade the HD in case you install a lot of games, because nowadays they require a couple of GBs to install.

Or he could delete old useless programs and choose minimal/custom installs for infrequently used but needed programs like Acrobat reader or openoffice.org .