Upgrade - biggest gaming difference?

avrc

avrc

avrc

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What would make the biggest difference to gaming? In FarCry2 I can't run any AA what-so-ever without experiencing stutter.

As it stand I have:

Athlon X2 4600+ @ stock speed
Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 AMD 770 Rev2 (AM2+ board)
4GB (2x 2GB) OCZ PC2 6400 Dual CH Gold Edition XTC
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache
Palit 8800GT 512MB
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer
Belinea 22" Widescreen @ 1680x1050

What would I need to be looking at upgrading in order to use AA?
 
I'll look at getting a 4870 with 1024MB. Only just changed the motherboard, so would rather get my monies worth out of it if possible.
 
I think your first option is to go for a new motherboard with something like an e8400 dual core and keep the graphics card. If that doesnt satisfy you, perhaps then a new graphics card. Your AMD 4600+ is starting to get long in the tooth. That is what I found with my AMD 4200+ sometime back.
 
Well I chose this board because it's an AM2+ so I had CPU upgrade options. I'm not looking for a complete new rebuild. Staying with AMD, I'll try overclocking but otherwise what, without spending £200+ would be a good CPU upgrade?
 
Qu

avrc said:
Well I chose this board because it's an AM2+ so I had CPU upgrade options. I'm not looking for a complete new rebuild. Staying with AMD, I'll try overclocking but otherwise what, without spending £200+ would be a good CPU upgrade?
Click to expand...

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-238-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1328

You could try going for the quad core, but the tri-core will be great, 2 cores for the game and a core for the background stuff.

For a GPU upgrade, I'd recommend the Sapphire 4870 1GB
 
avrc said:
Good price on that X3. Will a game actually use 2 cores? I thought they only used 1.
Click to expand...

I think almost every game now uses 2 cores, and only a small few use 4. But a tri-core may run smoother than a dual core due to the fact that the background processes can use the other core, at least, from what I hear.

Plus, the tri-core is an absolute bargain at that price.
 
Just tried overclocking the CPU and can't get much more than another 100Mhz out of it, it seems. I used the AMD Overdrive utility. Maybe because it's the energy efficient 65w one? Intend getting the X3 720 anyway so it's no biggy.
 
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