To upgrade or not to uprade - thats the question!

[Flying_Nut]

Hi,

Usual sort of question please, I have a an AMD Winchester 3500 with two 6800GT graphics cards in SLI mode. I've realised that this is now a bit ancient and want to upgrade. I was thinking of going back to the dark side and going for one of the new Intel Conroe Core2 Duo CPU's but this will mean a complete re-build and re-format etc.

So, as a stop gap I'm seriously tempted by one of the top end AMD 64x2 CPUs that OC are now doing and maybe a new 7950 GX2 graphics card. I have a 19" monitor but 1280 is my max res.

Worth doing, will I see a significant benefit in gaming (flight sims and FPS) or shall I wait until next year for DX10 and Quad Core etc...???

Thanks,

 

[Hades]

Ignore quad core for gaming - most games barely use dual core. Quad core will be useful for games in the future but not right now.

If you can pick up a cheap X2 (preferably second hand) then I'd say get it. But it's the graphics cards which will be holding your system back most. But the problem is that DX10 will be out soon so it's not a good time to upgrade that either. So I'd suggest keeping an eye out for a good X2 deal now and then in a couple of months when DX10 is out buy a new gfx card (or again pick up a bargain used DX9 card when people move to DX10).

 

[Raves]

At 1280x1024 rez - are your SLi'ed 6800GTs not cutting the mustard? What goames do you play?

If you do upgrade the vid cards, yer best to get an X2 as well, otherwise you'll probably bottleneck the vid cards.

I went from a 3000+ 6800GT to an X2 4600+ and 7900GTO and I am quite please with the increase in performance. My rez is 1280 as well.