Stronger heads prevail?

Squink · 25 Jul 2007 at 04:17

I don't want to come across as one of these people who talk up an upgrade that I never do. Truth is, I've wanted to upgrade for ages; I love PC gaming but have never quite had the financial leeway to be sure I can afford to walk the talk. I'm on a 3400+. 1.5GB Ram, 6800U and 95% play WoW, but would like to shuck that game and move on. At the moment, I can afford a Q6600 and an 8800 Ultra (at £400) with the mobo and RAM. I have a 600W Enermax to cover me. I play at 16x10 widescreen. I know the GTX will often OC to Ultra, but I have bum luck with overclocks and would like to pre-pay the clock guarantee. Please don't offer the "just OC a GTX" as an option.

I know this is an enthusiast's board and accept that the "upgrade now" people often have a persuasive argument. BUT! Given that I can't afford to upgrade again for another 3 years or so (the lifespan of my current kit), is there a sound argument for upgrading now, or should I wait for the next big GPU upgrade, which might be in Nov? If the next big GPU end up being in Jan/Feb (as nVidia milk ATI), I'd rather upgrade now. I'd love to hear some genuine thoughts from people.

semi-pro waster · 25 Jul 2007 at 07:29

If you can afford the graphics card, CPU with a motherboard and decent Ram then the upgrade now could well be worth it. Ram is relatively cheap and there are a range of solid motherboards for ~£100. However more research would need to be done on the likelihood of a GPU upgrade in November if that is something that would sway you (personally it wouldn't sway me, I buy what I need at the time and worry about any form of upgradability later if I should decide to do it).

Do you have any particular game in mind that you want to play? If not (and given you can only upgrade rarely so presumably can't afford too many games) then if your system does everything you want just now there seems no pressing reason to upgrade.

Sorry if this doesn't help too much but the main point is that only you can really decide.

Raikiri · 25 Jul 2007 at 08:05

Wait until there is a game you actually want to play and can't properly (Crysis, maybe?), then when you do upgrade you'll get more for your money.

Megahurtz400 · 25 Jul 2007 at 10:54

That machine will definately play all the games for the next 2 years on High, i hope

Can you imagine thread in the future:

"My 8800Ultra wont play blah-blah game, spec e a new one plz

"

melbourne720 · 25 Jul 2007 at 10:59

For the price of a 8800 Ultra now, you could get a 8800 GTS 640MB, and have enough upgrade to the next big thing in 6-12 months time. The ultra is seriously bad vfm, don't do it!

Darg · 25 Jul 2007 at 11:07

melbourne720 said:
For the price of a 8800 Ultra now, you could get a 8800 GTS 640MB, and have enough upgrade to the next big thing in 6-12 months time. The ultra is seriously bad vfm, don't do it!

I have to agree with this. It sounds like you don't have a massive amount of money to waste on your computer that often. Spend wisely instead of blowing it all on the biggest and best and you will find yourself £200 richer after your computer is built with little noticeable drop in performance. There's no game around now that the 640MB GTS or 2900XT can't play at full settings.

Get a P35 decent motherboard like the P5K and a Q6600. The quad core is a bit expensive but will be worth it as you won't need to upgrade again anytime soon.

The ultra is just a complete waste of money in my opinion. You can get a card that will run all current games and any games coming out this year at high settings for half the price of the ultra. What more do you need?