budget upgrade from SLI 7800 GTX, what should I get?

[jamesd]

I currently have a pair of 7800 GTX's in SLI and I’m looking to upgrade to either a single card or another SLI setup, the max I have to spend is about £100. What are my options? I wouldn't mind being able to play Test Drive 2 on better settings than low/medium if possible for that price?

I also have a 3.4 Intel Extreme Edition 955 over clocked to 4.3 is this still a decent processor?

Thanks

 

[arc@css]

I'm not sure if this would be create a bottleneck in your rig but I immediately thought it would be good if you stretch the budget just a little more and go for a 460gtx 768 / 1024 mb. Failing that an ATI 5770 would I think be the best option within your price range.

What res do you play at?

 

[reflux]

I also have a 3.4 Intel Extreme Edition 955 over clocked to 4.3 is this still a decent processor?

Nope, it's very old now, comparable really to a low-clocked Core 2 Duo, so it's about 5 years out of date.

 

[arc@css]

Ahh..that's my suggestion in the bin then.

 

[jamesd]

Hmmm I thought the processor was getting a bit dated didn't realise it was that bad though. What would be a decent video card to run with that processor then? Even just a little boost in performance would be good.
Would a 280GTX be reasonable or is my processor not up to that? I was looking at some cheap 8800 GTX’s and 9800 GTX’s and was considering another SLI setup up. Would these cards be a reasonable leap in performance compared to my 7800 SLI?

Thanks

 

[psychas]

i think its a combo of gpu and cpu bottleneck they both quite out of date, there few options . depends what resolution you pay on ?

upgrade to second hand cpu , motherboard , and ram, you can get some cheap 775 socket stuff.

or upgrade the gpu.

or upgrade both but larger budget is required.

i would go with option 1. becouse tdu and other games are more cpu bound then gpu.

 

[jamesd]

I usually have the resolution at 1280x960 but I do drop it down a bit if it makes the game run a bit better. The motherboard I have is quite decent I think so perhaps I could keep that and upgrade the CPU and graphics card. I have an intel Duo from another PC I could use if it was better spec? I think the chip I have is the one in the link although I will need to double check tonight.

The motherboard I have supports quad SLI so would an upgrade to a pair of GeForce 7950 GX2 or GeForce 9800 GX2 be a good upgrade or do only certian games use the quad SLI?

Thanks for all the help

 

[flinco]

You should be able to put that duo cpu in your mobo. Should be much faster as well

 

[ThomasTheTankEngine]

I wouldn't bother getting more old cards. They'll be over-priced because since they're EOL there will be more demand than supply.

Something like a 5770 is the way to go. The budget cards below this won't give you a huge amount of performance boost over your 7800gtx's, so wouldn't be a sensible upgrade.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-124-HT&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=708

Some games you'll be cpu limited, but it shouldn't be a problem if you can put the duo in there.

 

[jamesd]

Sorry to dig up an old thread but the Pc got put on the back burner and I didn't get any upgrades for it. How ever now I have a bit of time I'm looking again for some upgrades.

I did check the CPU though and the other one I have is an E8300 not an E8400 like I thought. Is this still a decent upgrade from the extreme chip mentioned in the first post?

How come the duo is a better chip even though it's only a 2.8 dual core and the extreme chip is a 3.2 dual core with hyper threading?

 

[paulc25]

Those are quite old chips, maybe you should save a bit and get a new(ish) cpu, mobo and ram combo instead.