System Bottleneck : worth the upgrade?

M

mibu

CAG Veteran
I was thinking about the idea of upgrading my 6800gt to a 7800 or 8800 but I am afraid my system will bottleneck my performance severely either way. My cpu is an Amd 64 3000+ OC'd to 2.4 with a gig of ram. Is it worth dropping $200 for an upgrade or should I just wait it out?

Usually just playing cod4 tf2 and games like that.
 
I would suggest upgrading everything. Although if you don't want to do that. Get a 7600GT and a 2GB RAM kit and you should be good to go. But I would still recomend upgrading that processor.
 
[quote name='mibu']I was thinking about the idea of upgrading my 6800gt to a 7800 or 8800 but I am afraid my system will bottleneck my performance severely either way. My cpu is an Amd 64 3000+ OC'd to 2.4 with a gig of ram. Is it worth dropping $200 for an upgrade or should I just wait it out?

Usually just playing cod4 tf2 and games like that.[/quote]
you would have a definate bottle neck, and your 3d mark from what I just read an googled would be around the 8000 - 9000 range.

With a proper chip you would get around 12000+.

I think, the upgrade would give you benefits but you're still going to have difficulties playing current games like cod 4 and tf2.

You would definately get a performance increase, but it really just all depends on how good you want your games to look, you'll be able to play those games but at what resolution and what gaming settings are gonna probably be on low or medium.

a 7600GT like the user above me said would be more suited for you cpu, but you should really upgrade everything.
 
um.. you'd have little problem playing TF2. Source Engine doesn't take much to run.

You'd have a problem playing it with max AA and textures and all that stuff..
 
[quote name='crystalklear64']um.. you'd have little problem playing TF2. Source Engine doesn't take much to run.

You'd have a problem playing it with max AA and textures and all that stuff..[/quote]

it doesnt take much to run a source engine game but having to run steam in the background doesnt make things any easier.
 
sounds like a socket 939 board.

If so just grab a 4400+ and overclock it, you wont really have a bottleneck.
 
adding a good video card will still help, with or without a CPU upgrade, but upping your CPU to the fastest you can stick in the socket will help. I'd add another Gig of ram as well, its pretty cheap these days from newegg, could probably do the CPU and a gig of ram for under 100 bucks.
 
It sounds like you're mainly into multiplayer shooters. Luckily they tend to be more GPU-bound than, say, an RTS game.

If I were you, I'd pick up an 8800GT and nothing else. In about 18 months the new Intel Nehalems will likely be available at mass market prices (and perhaps AMD will have gotten its act together). That will be the prime time to make your full upgrade, and you can just move the 8800GT over to the new system. At least that way you won't be throwing away money on a cheaper, temporary video card.

Until then, I wouldn't waste any money delaying the inevitable. Your motherboard is outdated, you'll need new RAM, you'll want to upgrade to Vista in a bit, and when you toss in a new CPU and better GPU, you've basically rebuilt the entire PC. Best to wait it out, get a better bang for your buck next year.
 
If its a PCI Express card, I say go for it. And then if you decide to upgrade the processor and board later, you can transfer your vid card to your new build.

If your still running AGP, I would invest in another area.
 
Thanks for all the replies!

I will be probably be getting an 8800gt instead since they are at a decent price atm. Maybe later on I will upgrade the cpu if it becomes a big problem for me (not sure if anymore exciting pc titles are coming out).

Thanks for the help
 
[quote name='mibu'] not sure if anymore exciting pc titles are coming out
[/quote]

:roll:Duke Nukem Forever:roll:
 
Oh, and also another question:

If I were to buy a cpu upgrade as a dual-core processor would I be able to use it in my Asus A8n SLI-Deluxe motherboard? Or would I need a mother board that has two cpu slots?

God I'm so out of date
 
Not to hijack the thread, but I had a quick question about processor upgrades. I currently have an AMD Athlon 64 3500+ in my computer. According to sandrasoft, it's an AM2 socket, so can I just drop any AM2 chip in there? Apparently it is a "Brisbane" chip, so I didn't know if I had to stick to that or not.
 
Basically you can drop any AM2, AM2+ or AM3 CPU into an AM2 socket. Brisbane is just the name of the CPU's core.

However you'll want to find out the exact brand and model of your motherboard and visit the manufacturer's site, just incase you need to update your bios to run the chip.
 
[quote name='docvinh']Not to hijack the thread, but I had a quick question about processor upgrades. I currently have an AMD Athlon 64 3500+ in my computer. According to sandrasoft, it's an AM2 socket, so can I just drop any AM2 chip in there? Apparently it is a "Brisbane" chip, so I didn't know if I had to stick to that or not.[/quote]

Look up your motherboard and see what your mother board supports, but if it has an AM2 chip in there, chances are it will accept any AM2 chip placed in there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top