Will I see an improvement with this upgrade?

[Barfo]

Title and summary say everything, a friend wants to buy my 7900GT for $100 so I figured a $50 upgrade to a 9600GT would be nice, but I don't know if I'll see a noticeable improvement since it would be paired with a Pentium 4 Prescott @3.3 GHZ and 2 GB RAM, I only play at 1280x1024 and upgrading the processor is out the question right now.
Also, I play mostly oldish games (Quake 4, NFSMW, WoW) and CoD 4, but it'd be sweet if I could run those games with 8x AA and maybe some newer ones.

So whaddaya guys think, will my processor hold me back too much to make the upgrade not worth or should I go for it?

 

[Barfo]

Does a higher level of AA strain the processor or just the video card?

 

[BassBomb]

You won't see much of an improvement

Higher AA will strain the video card

 

[v8envy]

At 1280x1024? I'd say you should be able to do FSAA and more eye candy than with a 7900GT. Also consider the $110 8800GS and some overclocking -- that would be an absolutely sweet upgrade for $10. A total no-brainer.

Remember that in newer games even the feeble 8600GTS can keep up and sometimes beat a 7900GT. A 9600GT or 8800GS would pwn face, comparatively speaking. Plus you'd have that much less to upgrade once you decide to join the rest of us in picking up a modern CPU.

 

[vanvock]

Be aware that there are a lot of driver issues with 8800 + cards & older games, you may wish that you had kept the 7900

 

[Throckmorton]

I feel sorry for your friend

 

[panfist]

I agree with Throck. If he's really your friend then you shouldn't charge him so much for your 7900GT.

 

[fire400]

I don't see why everyone is doggin' on you. If you want to try it, go for it. The bottleneck would most likely be the CPU as it is a single core and of a generation which makes obsolete for crunching more intensive games.

I say the money could go towards a really cheap dual core processor and a mobo, in which you could just transfer the RAM and the video card over.

I don't think it would be worth the upgrade though. But if you feel it's best, give it a shot.

 

[MustangSVT]

wtf, why is your friend buying 7900gt for $100?

what kind of a friend are u?