CPU limited?

[manveruppd]

What class of GPU should I be looking at to upgrade an oldish 3GHz P4? I'm concerned that the latest, fastest crop of video cards will be CPU-limited on such a system and getting one would be a waste of money (especially as that system is still AGP so the graphics card will be useless in the event of a total upgrade).

 

[manveruppd]

Yep, it's AGP, and it's the older P4 core (Northwood? - it's a friend's PC, I'm an Athlon man myself so not up to speed on the Intel side of things, but it's from before P4s switched to DDR2). Currently on a 9800XT, not sure how much difference one generation up would make in all honesty...

 

[manveruppd]

Sounds like you do have a slight bottleneck then, since '05 should be mostly GPU-based. Still, thanks for the advice everyone, I've passed it on already!

 

[manveruppd]

I've been intending to watercool for a while now so perhaps I should take the plunge?

Unfortunate pun there?

 

[manveruppd]

I remember last year, when all the 6800/X800 cards came out, somebody (might have been Gibbo, can't remember) posted a guide on what GPU-class to go for based on your budget and your CPU type/speed. Would be handy if whoever did that would update it to include the current generation's CPUs/GPUs (hint-hint, nudge-nudge )