My upgrades were based on games, bought so I could actually play a game or play it at highest settings. My first machine (pentium 2 350mhz) was bought from Tiny mainly for music production, gaming was never a big reason for purchase so I didn't have a clue about graphics chips. I played Unreal 1 in software rendering but for me the graphics seemed great (I hadn't seen just how great U1 could look in D3D though!). Finally saw unreal in beautiful glory in D3D and got to play GTA3 by upgrading to a PCI card as below because the mobo that was in the tiny pc had no agp slot. I built my first pc with the 5700LE (was supposed to be the ultra but they (not overclockers) sent me the poor LE instead and they never put it right. The LE was so weak with high end lighting and shadows. My first build went smooth after much research with a MSI K7N2 Ultra mobo and Athlon XP 2800. The 5700LE was bought to play UT2004 because that game killed the old pci 4mx (unplayable), that card did actually die during my upgrade. After a while I wanted to push my agp platform as far as I could and went for the gainward 7800GS which was a 7800GT PCI-E in disguise. Bought to play games such as BF2 and FEAR in all their glory at highest settings and thought I was future proofed for UE3 titles and other titles. Took the plunge and moved to am2 with a AMD X2 6000+ 3ghz with the asrock mobo that supported am2 and agp. Realised playing the Bioshock demo that the card was going to struggle at highest settings at 1280x1024 for the experience I wanted, so I made the decision to go PCI-E with the same X2 6000+ and an MSI K9N Ultra mobo and get the best out there - a 8800GTX. Knowing I would definitely be set for all UE3 games and other engines for some time to come. To get up to date, had problems with the K9N, couldn't work out if it was the mobo, the 6000+ or the hiper 580w.. during investigations, managed to physically break the 6000+ (topic on this forum). K9N worked with another cpu on test, still using the hiper, moved to intel chipset with an Asus p5n-d and E8400 3ghz. The X2 6000+ was a great performing cpu but it was a power hog, ate 125w (90nm) I think compared to the 45nm 65w of the E8400.
Since I game at 1280x1024 on a 19" samsung lcd, I'll be ok for a while yet. I've researched going to larger widescreen LCD in depth, but could not decide on size, or TN/PVA/MVA. People have said I am not stretching the legs of the gtx enough, and should go for 22" wide.
as time has gone on the amount I have spent on pc parts has increased over the years, the more you get into it the closer you get to the newer parts release dates and it becomes more likely you will spend more money. My last 2 graphics card purchases are clear examples, the 7800gs agp cost me around £250 and the 8800gtx cost me £300, that is the most I have spent on single parts, I think the majority of people spend the most on a graphics card, it's most likely to usually be the most expensive item in the system.
At this time, uprading would only make sense if my 8800gtx could not handle higher res if I bought a bigger monitor. I can go SLI in future, but I won't with the 8800gtx - 1) power use - the 8800gtx is not good with idle power and is not 65m, 55nm or 45nm. 2) need of psu upgrade.
I think most games out today and newer ones coming can be handled easily with my 8800gtx.
I'm not that amazed with the improvements the new nvidia cards have made over my 8800gtx. ATI have certainly made an impact with price and performance. But nothing makes me want to upgrade, the main thing that makes me want to upgrade, silly as it may sound to some of you is that the newer cards have much better power management compared to my 8800gtx, I like the idle power management of the new nvidia cards reaching as low as 25-35w idle.
When nvidia move to 55nm, and 45nm is reached eventually, then things will improve dramatically I hope. For now, my next upgrade will hopefully be a 55nm/45nm card. I'd like to stick with nvidia, plus I have an nforce sli mobo.
so in short:
2003 - On board ATI 3D Rage Pro 4mb (or 8mb) -> GeForce 4mx SE 64mb PCI - Unreal 1, GTA3
2004 - GeForce 4mx SE 64mb PCI -> GeForce 5700LE 256mb AGP - UT2004
2006 - GeForce 5700LE 256mb -> GeForce 7800GS AGP - BF2, FEAR
2007 - GeForce 7800GS 512mb AGP -> GeForce 8800GTX 768mb PCI-E - Bioshock, UT3, GOW
mainly just upgrade to get the fps for cod games.only upgrade when i know i will get at least double the performance.
