Which of these two upgrade paths make sense?

[kaiten]

Here is my dilemma. I recently purchased a Dell 2407WFP, so I would like to game (Oblivion and others) in 1920 x 1200. I would like to upgrade for better playability at higher settings.

Current setup.
Asus A8N-SLI Premium (~287*9), A64 3200+ Venice (~2.55 GHz) with stock hsf, 2 GB Corsair VS (~235 MHz), eVGA 7900 GT (x2) in SLI (~530 MHz, 1.45 GHz mem), Seasonic S12 500W, Seagate SATA150 250 GB, NEC DVD burner in a Coolermaster Centurion case with additional PCI slot fan cooler and fans controlled with Vantec fan controller.

It seems like the current setup has some CPU limitations in games such as Oblivion. Anandtech Oblivion Link suggests dual core should show some improvement. After reading in the various forums here, it seems like there are two reasonable upgrade paths.

Path 1: Get an Opteron 165 and new hsf (maybe a Thermaltake Big Typhoon). The A8N-SLI I have maxes out at around 318 MHz from what I remember, which shouldn't limit the overclock (on air) very much on the Opteron 165. The upgrade wouldn't cost very much, less than $200.

Path 2: Move to Core 2 Duo/E6300, Asus P5N-E SLI (650i), Corsair XMS2 2GB DDR2 800, and Thermaltake Big Typhoon or similar hsf. Upgrade is more than $600.

I'm looking on opinions on if it would be better to do the incremental upgrade and stay on socket 939, and try to make the system last a little while until a complete system overhaul to dx10/quad core/ddr3/?/ when more software supports it.

With that video card/monitor setup, would a highly overclocked Opteron 165 match the CPU/GPU bottle neck closely with games like Oblivion? Thanks in advance for any input and putting up with another one of these threads.

 

[crispy2010]

I would upgrade to the 4000, only 80-90$ at the egg!

 

[ch33zw1z]

goddamn those things have gotten cheap!

 

[Bill Brasky]

The problem with upgrade path 2 is the price. If your only trying to increase oblivion/gaming performance, then it wouldn't be smart to spend $600 or more and not get a g80. The geforce 8800 gtx would give you a little less than a fifty percent performance increase in oblivion. See the Link.
If you have another reason or use that would benefit from a core 2 upgrade, then go for it. But if you're only interested in gaming, then get the 8800gtx. I guess you could buy the opteron, but it would be last on my list.

 

[kaiten]

Would the 8800 GTX be very CPU bound in the current A64 system, as in it wouldn't be worth getting unless I also upgrade to C2D?

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: crispy2010
I would upgrade to the 4000, only 80-90$ at the egg!

I agree. Your system is pretty good now, but your CPU needs a boost and this is the best way to go.

 

[kaiten]

Any idea on what I might expect to be able to overclock the 4000 to on the current mobo (limit is somewhere near ~320)? I assume I would need to get better cooling that the hsf that came with the 3200+.

 

[AllGamer]

i went to down to a similar path 2

but i'm still a die-heart of AMD 64x2 / FX systems.
as soon as AMD releases the new line up of CPUs that can outperform the Core Duos again, i'll be jumping ship to go back to AMD

 

[bamacre]

I would stick with what you have, or just upgrade the cpu.

Reason I say this is the fact that later you will want to go C2D, and I'd stick with an Intel chipset and do away with SLI. New C2D cpu's and price breaks are coming, and so is DX10. So stick with no, or a small upgrade now, and wait a good 6 months or so before you do an overhaul.

 

[kaiten]

Perhaps DDR2 prices will also decrease in a few months after the release of Vista? After reading some more, it seems like now is not the best time to get the best value for a major overhaul. Now the key is to either get by with what I have for a while, or buy a CPU when 939 prices hits rock bottom - if they haven't already...

Originally posted by: bamacre
I would stick with what you have, or just upgrade the cpu.

Reason I say this is the fact that later you will want to go C2D, and I'd stick with an Intel chipset and do away with SLI. New C2D cpu's and price breaks are coming, and so is DX10. So stick with no, or a small upgrade now, and wait a good 6 months or so before you do an overhaul.

 

[Maluno]

Originally posted by: bamacre
I would stick with what you have, or just upgrade the cpu.

Reason I say this is the fact that later you will want to go C2D, and I'd stick with an Intel chipset and do away with SLI. New C2D cpu's and price breaks are coming, and so is DX10. So stick with no, or a small upgrade now, and wait a good 6 months or so before you do an overhaul.

I agree. If you are only concerned about Oblivion performance, then you have no reason to worry, because your system will do fine.