PC Upgrade help

JAG · 12 Jan 2006, 18:15 (Ref:1500018)

I've not kept up with PC spec's and would like a little help.

Which would be the best CPU and graphics card to upgrade to for gaming, without changing the motherboard.

I currently have an AMD Sempron 2800+ CPU and NVIDIA GeForce4 MX Intergrated GPU, with 512MB Ram.

ASCII Man · 12 Jan 2006, 19:02 (Ref:1500045)

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 FX-57
Graphics Card: Radeon X1800

Oh, without changing motherboard..

Uhm, sempron's are pretty low-tech these days...

Also I don't know what motherboard you currently use so can't really suggest anything..

Best would be to upgrade on motherboard as well as there aren't alot of options that are significantly better than your current spec...

b1ackcr0w · 12 Jan 2006, 19:57 (Ref:1500079)

Yup, Ascii's right on the CPU Front. The only real place you could benefit might be on the Graphics card front.

Do you know whether your Mobo will accept 4x or 8x AGP cards? its important because they run on different voltages. If your mobo will take 8x, then you could pick up something like a Radeon 9800XT, much cheapness, which would still run most modern games very nicely madam.

If your mobo will only take 4x, then ASCII's defiitely right, it's time to bite the bullett and look at a 64bit mobo upgrade.

b1ackcr0w · 12 Jan 2006, 19:59 (Ref:1500083)

Having a think about it, I think the GF4MX was always a 4x card, which sort of suggests your mobo is probably 4x also, I think you're at the end of the line.

JAG · 12 Jan 2006, 20:56 (Ref:1500136)

Motherboard is an Asus A7NVM400

I'm currently trying to find out if its 4x or 8x. AGP, any help on that.

I'm currently running F1C mods and GTR timetrials at 1024 x 800 32 bit with no problems.

I'm just looking to run at higher res and with more effects.

It's either a cheap upgrade or a top spec SLI PC, but I'd prefer to wait as I'll only need that when rfactor gets into its stride and GTR2 is released.

JAG · 12 Jan 2006, 21:40 (Ref:1500175)

Motherboard is A7N8X-VM/400 and is AGP 8x.

I'll have a look at cards.

Would fitting 2GB Ram make a big differrence to the performance of racing sims?

ASCII Man · 12 Jan 2006, 23:38 (Ref:1500261)

2 gig of ram?
Hmmm, most of the hard work is done by the graphics card in graphically intense applications/games.
But 2 gig of ram is always good!

BTW, I think you can purchase an AMD Athlon XP 3200+ Barton processor for that Mobo.
But I'm not entirely sure about it though.

b1ackcr0w · 12 Jan 2006, 23:47 (Ref:1500267)

I run a Barton 3200 on a variation of the same mobo, the graphics card is really your priority for games, but I have no probs with it. the 3200+ Barton was probably the best 32 bit chip ever made in my humble opinion, if you can find one (they are getting scarse) it should serve you very well. If you get your case and chip heat extraction sorted (which need not cost much at all), the Barton Core is very overclockable.

JAG · 13 Jan 2006, 01:48 (Ref:1500296)

How about that card:-

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx...4294957147&v=2

What is the performance like compared to this:-

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx...831,4294957147

Alex Hodgkinson · 13 Jan 2006, 02:56 (Ref:1500313)

The first card (the X800) will absolutely pee all over the 2nd card. It's still an improvement from what you're on though.

An equivalent to the x800 is the "Geforce 6800 GT" - if you can get one of those for a good price you're laughing. I'm actually going to get one myself...

Hepatic · 13 Jan 2006, 08:34 (Ref:1500366)

RAM will help if you set the bios in the machine right. I got a big improvement when i upgraded to 1.5GB from 512MB because i used the AGP aperture to add an extra 256MB of ram from the main system to the gfx card. Its a bit like a temp area for the card to do extra work and adds on to the onboard RAM the gfx card already has. As long as you don't steal too much from the main system, you should find you can run more detail with no loss in performanace.

spanner · 13 Jan 2006, 13:42 (Ref:1500490)

With everything nowadays designed to look good you will need a high powered graphics card. The cpu and mem have little effect when playing only to help reduce loading times. However if you want higher resolution and higher detail i'd suggest a better graphics card. I'd definately recommend an X800 series card, as i've just upgraded mine at now everything looks stunning and i can run at higher resolutions.

JAG · 14 Jan 2006, 02:54 (Ref:1500976)

Is............

AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 4200+
4GB DDR 400 Memory
2x 512MB nVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX - DVI - SLI Configuration

...........overkill, lol

I can pick this spec PC up for £1850!

Or................

AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 4200+
2GB DDR 400 Memory
1x 512MB nVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX - DVI

.....for £1250!

I could always buy the 2GB RAM and second 7800 GTX at a later date, when much cheaper.

ASCII Man · 14 Jan 2006, 11:31 (Ref:1501093)

I'd go for the second configuration, the first one is a bit much to cough up all at once.

**Dani Filth** · 14 Jan 2006, 13:54 (Ref:1501142)

you sure are planing to spend some money .. is it urgent ??
cause AMD will launch a new platform soon . the M2 with DDR2 support ..
but yeah .. you'll be able to play absolutely everything with the second config ..

**Spudgun** · 14 Jan 2006, 13:58 (Ref:1501143)

Although the GFX card is the main way to get extra performance, extra RAM does help. I recently upgraded to 2GB and I found it does make a difference. But always make sure you have a half-decent GFX card.

Kidzer · 14 Jan 2006, 15:34 (Ref:1501181)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dani Filth

...AMD will launch a new platform soon . the M2 with DDR2 support

Yep, but apparently DDR2 suppport is the only new feature of the new AMD Socket, so the potential performance increase with an M2 of the same speed an a Athlon 64 could be nearly nothing.

Hepatic · 15 Jan 2006, 17:03 (Ref:1501746)

Quote:

Originally Posted by JAG

Is............

AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 4200+
4GB DDR 400 Memory
2x 512MB nVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX - DVI - SLI Configuration

...........overkill, lol

I can pick this spec PC up for £1850!

Or................

AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 4200+
2GB DDR 400 Memory
1x 512MB nVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX - DVI

.....for £1250!

I could always buy the 2GB RAM and second 7800 GTX at a later date, when much cheaper.

Where on Earth are you getting that price from, because the top one could be made cheaper than the bottom one if you just bought the parts. It's probably nearly twice the price of what it should be!!!

ASCII Man · 16 Jan 2006, 11:13 (Ref:1502276)

If the top one is available at half that price, then I can afford an uber-spec upgrade as well!

Oh, just think what I could do with a pc like that... °drools°

Where??

JAG · 23 Jan 2006, 00:48 (Ref:1507025)

What about this PC. It has the new ATI 512mb X1900XTX graphics card.

CPU
AMD® ATHLON® 64BIT X2 4400 1MB L2 Cache

Memory
4096 MB DDR400 PC3200 !

Motherboard
ASUS® A8R-MVP: DUAL DDR, S-ATA, 2 x x16 VGA, 3 PCI

USB Options
SIX USB 2.0 PORTS (4 REAR + 2 FRONT)

Hard Drive
SATA 300 GB HARD DISK @ 7200rpm 16mb cache

DVD ROM/Combi Drive
16X DVD ROM WITH 48X CD ROM

CD/DVD Writer
4x +R DUAL LYR DVD WRITER (16x +/-R) (& RW) + 40x CD-RW (£25)

Graphics Card 1
512MB RADEON X1900XTX PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT

Cost £1600

ASCII Man · 23 Jan 2006, 00:52 (Ref:1507027)

That's an Uber-PC...

You'll be able to run ANYTHING with that...

If you can afford it, get it.

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