Better off waiting?

Gamezy

Gamezy

Gamezy

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13 Jan 2005
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Right, I'm currently running, everything in my sig on an Ultra X-Connect 500w PSU but I'm looking to upgrade toa dual core rig, and ideally a new GFX card. Obviously this means going for a new (intel) motherboard, ram, etc but am I better off waiting a few months before doing this?

Reasons being, Supreme Commander is coming out, other high end titles are due out this year and I'd like to have my rig up and running ready for them. My system is choking on the SupCom demo at the minute despite being in pretty good running order, but I'm not sure if I should try and dive in now (on a serious budget! :( ) and make the best of the current popular allendale, 8800GTS setup or wait until AMD release thier new Barca chips and ATI have the R600 floating about.

I'm not looking for a super SLI, 4gb, Quad Core madness machine, but dual core, nice OC and DX10 ready would be a must (ideally 2gb RAM, but I can handle single). What do you guys think?

Sneaky Edit: I've been thinking, what do you rekon I'd get for a my current rig on the 2nd hand market? With an 80gb HDD, no OS, and no X-Fi.
 
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You can get a new Mobo, RAM, CPU, GPU, and PSU for £600-£700 that will be nice and powerful. Offset the sale of your current stuff, and you're looking at around £500 outlay.

You could wait for ever - but there is good cheap(ish) mobos (P5N 650, P5B and DS3/4 spring to mind), the e4300 is decent money, RAM is really cheap at the moment (15% cheaper than a month ago!) and the 8800 GTS 320MB has really brought down the cost of DX10. I'd say now was the time to buy.
 
Im running an almost ideniticle set up and tbh I run all my games at pretty much maxed detail on 1024 (even oblivion with Texture packs) at a deccent framrate.

I have though about an upgrade but tbh I dont think I would see any benifit (apart from gaming at a higher res), I am really happy with my system at the moment and think that an upgrade would be a waste of money for me. I dont use any dual core apps though.

I think when the new AMD chip comes out and the next gen graphics card are mainstream would be the best time to upgrade.

Its up to you though,

Rich
 
Ice Rich said:
Im running an almost ideniticle set up and tbh I run all my games at pretty much maxed detail on 1024 (even oblivion with Texture packs) at a deccent framrate.

I have though about an upgrade but tbh I dont think I would see any benifit (apart from gaming at a higher res), I am really happy with my system at the moment and think that an upgrade would be a waste of money for me. I dont use any dual core apps though.

I think when the new AMD chip comes out and the next gen graphics card are mainstream would be the best time to upgrade.

Its up to you though,

Rich
Click to expand...

I have to admit, I was running a Venice 2.7GHZ, 1GB of ram and a X800XT.

I am waiting for a decent GPU (using a 6200 LE Turbo Cache at the moment). My E4300 at 3300 MHZ, 2GB of ram and P5N-E motherboard stamps over my old system in just about everything, bar gaming because of my at the moment bad graphics card.

Soon I will be buying an 8800 GTS 320MB, and then I will have a truly decent system. I frankly love this new computer compared to my old one. I would advise anyone to upgrade, especially if they do more than just game.
 
I wouldnt bother waiting, the 'main' advantage of AMD's next generation processor is the fact its native quadcore. I dont honestly believe that the dualcore desktop version will offer much better performance than a Core2 Duo, if any as Core2 is already native dual, and supports 128bit SSE already. And you already said you were only looking to build a dualcore system.

To be honest, a mid range Core2 processor should be more than enough power to ensure that you are GPU limited in anything higher than 1024x768 :) Just turn on all the eyecandy, and make put whatever GPU you buy to full use.

You dont mention what screen you'll be using, (what resolutions), if your playing <1600x1050 then the 320meg GTS should be ok, if your using 1920x1200 or higher, then the memory will run low on the 320meg card, and that affects performance, so a 640meg GTS for the higher resolutions.
 
I run my games on a 19" CRT (yes a CRT, the big things, kinda like tanks on your desk...but hey, at least I can put my centre speaker on top of it!) in 1360x1024 (1280 looks weird, and I think this thing might be slightly windescreen or something *shurgs*). Also run dual monitor (well, using my TV @ 1024 to watch stuff while I game, and as 2nd monitor in SupCom :p ). I have to admit though, I am a bit of an FPS junkie, if it goes under 50 in a game, it bugs me (it seems to flicker! :rolleyes: ).

I was considering upgrading just the GFX card, but it's probably just gonna get CPU bottlenecked until I could switch the mobo etc out. I don't bother with AA or AF at the moment, but I find im still running CoH at low texture settings, model detail, etc.

Edit: Monitor is a Proview PX986N circa (woot! fancy word!) 2001 if anyone was wondering. Got me curious...
 
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If you want a cheap and cheerful upgrade to last you 6 months, you could always get yourself an X1950 Pro... should be around double the performance you have now (well, maybe a little more).

You should be able to get more from your venice though, when I had mine, it would go to just over 2.7GHZ :)
 
Gamezy said:
I run my games on a 19" CRT (yes a CRT, the big things, kinda like tanks on your desk...but hey, at least I can put my centre speaker on top of it!) in 1360x1024 (1280 looks weird, and I think this thing might be slightly windescreen or something *shurgs*). Also run dual monitor (well, using my TV @ 1024 to watch stuff while I game, and as 2nd monitor in SupCom :p ). I have to admit though, I am a bit of an FPS junkie, if it goes under 50 in a game, it bugs me (it seems to flicker! :rolleyes: ).

I was considering upgrading just the GFX card, but it's probably just gonna get CPU bottlenecked until I could switch the mobo etc out. I don't bother with AA or AF at the moment, but I find im still running CoH at low texture settings, model detail, etc.

Edit: Monitor is a Proview PX986N circa (woot! fancy word!) 2001 if anyone was wondering. Got me curious...
Click to expand...

1280x1024 is a TFT 5:4 aspect resolution, "standard" CRT's are 4:3, and 1366x1024 would be the most accurate resolution, but most graphic cards only display resolutions that divide by 8, so 1360x1024 is actually the correct res for a CRT, either that, or go all the way up to 1600x1200. Its the same with widescreen, TV's are 16:9, TFT monitors are normally 16:10 (1920x1080 for TV, and 1920x1200 for monitors)
 
Ta for info :)

As for clocking my Venice, as much as I want to (and probably could) it's done on the divider at the minute with my cheapo Geil value still at DDR400 not ideal, buy it's the best I've bin able to manage given I was skint :p . Not gonna bother with a 1950XT, think I'd be better off saving up for a month, seeing how the R600 fares (come on price war!!! :D ) and maybe wait for the Barca.

Ta all the same guys, always good to get second opinions! :)
 
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