"world travelling budget gamer returns to the cyberworld to catch up on lost games"

[sunchas3r]

Hi fellow gamers,

After travelling around the world for 2 years, i´m nearing my return date and am anxious to make up for lost time by upgrading my pc when i get home and play all the games i´ve missed while on the road..

My current specs are :

Nvidia Geforce GTX-260 768 Mb
AMD Athlon X2 7750 Black Edition (2,7 oc´ed to 3,0 Ghz)
4 GB DDR2-800 (will be upgraded to 8 GB DDR2-800)
Asus M2A-VM HDMI Mainboard
Antec 500 Watt PSU
Samsung Syncmaster T-220 22" 60Hz LCD (max rez 1680x1050)
Windows XP x86 (will be upgraded to Windows Vista Ultimate x64)

The max cpu´s that will fit in this mainboard are :

Athlon II X3 445 (3x3.1 GHZ)
Athlon II X4 640 (4x3.0 GHz)
Phenom II X3 740 Black Edition (3x3.0 GHz)
Phenom II X4 945 (4x3.0 GHz).

Righty, so my questions are :

(A) What is the fastest graphics card / cpu upgrade combo i can make, keeping in mind i don´t want a GFX-card that my CPU can´t power? (budget is no question)

(B) Is >60 FPS noticeable in current FPS games on a 60 Hz monitor like mine?

I´m basing this question on Tom´s article :
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/athlon-ii-x3-440-gaming-performance,2619-2.html
I realize it´s an old article but is this information still accurate?
I will mostly play FPS games in 1680x1050.

Thanks a million, any info/recomendations welcome..

Greetings from Colombia,
Joseph





No cross posting of identical threads in multiple forums

I left open the one with the most replies


esquared
Anandtech Forum Director

 

[Vdubchaos]

CPU - 2500k , Money no object = 2600k

Graphics Card - 580GTX , Money no object = 6990 or 590gtx (both dual GPU cards)

Anything above 30fps is good

Just keep one thing in mind. It all depends on what exact games you play. There is TONS of Graphics cards in the 130-250 budget that will play MANY games MAXED out at that resolution.

What I'm trying to say is that all the money you will spend on that $500-1000 video card will give you NOTHING.

 

[sunchas3r]

Thanks for the reply.
I should´ve mentioned that i prefer to keep my current system mainboard.
Could you give a recommendation on that too?
Thanks!

 

[Lasthitlarry]

6950 for ~$240

X6 1090T for ~165

If budget is no question, consider getting a 32-42+" 1080p screen, but that's just my opinion.

 

[Vdubchaos]

Thanks for the reply.
I should´ve mentioned that i prefer to keep my current system mainboard.
Could you give a recommendation on that too?
Thanks!

Unless you upgrade you CPU to (AMD 6 Core or Intel quad SB) I suggest you don't upgrade your graphics card.

Your CPU will bottleneck it

 

[sunchas3r]

thanks for the replies.

=> consider i want to keep my current mainboard and only the cpus mentioned above will fit in it.

i was thinking in the direction of a 6950 with either a Phenom II X3 740 Black Edition or a
Phenom II X4 945.

- which of these cpus would you recommend?
- would the cpu hold back the gfx card (6950) in that case?
- if yes, which other, slower grafic card will be a better combo with this cpu?

thanks!