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Kathy

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 3, 2004
Messages
205
My current system is a AMD 64 X2 3800, 2gb Ram and I have a 7800GTX video card. Would I see much of an improvement if I got a new 8800gt or even a 8800GTX? Or should I get another 7800GTX and run in SLI? I have an Asus A8N-SLI Prem MB. I guess I could even upgrade the CPU but the fastest one I've seen for sale is the 4400 and I'm not sure if that would be much of an improvement either? Any suggestions? Thanks! ;)

Kathy
 
A single 8800GT should stomp dual 7800GTX. There are reviews linked in this forum. Do a quick search and you'll get some solid info.
 
well Kathy I think your decision should be decided by your budget and what games you like to play. It you are trying to keep up with the most current titles an upgrade to the video card would help for now, but the rest of the system would definitely be a bottleneck for the card. But when you do a more in depth upgrade in the future at least the video card will be good to go.

GL!:D
 
Thanks for the suggestions!

hossdaddy, are you saying I should upgrade the rest of my system to keep up with a new video card or are you saying my system in general is to old to keep up with the newer video cards even if I upgraded everything? Thanks!

Kathy
 
Kathy said:
Thanks for the suggestions!

hossdaddy, are you saying I should upgrade the rest of my system to keep up with a new video card or are you saying my system in general is to old to keep up with the newer video cards even if I upgraded everything? Thanks!

Kathy
Click to expand...

You would still see a significant upgrade going to an 8800 series. I saw one going from a 7900GTX to an 8800GTS. It is true that a C2 machine will yield higher FPS at all resolutions, but the difference is nowhere near as large as upgrading from a 79xx to an 88xx graphics card.

You will find that it is very common to see posts on this forum claiming bottlenecking even with the latest AMD X2 chips. On any note, I would try to OC your X2 3800 if you haven't yet. I don't think I've seen a post of someone not getting at least 2.4 from one.

My thoughts have been and always will be that you do not need to upgrade CPU/motherboard/RAM near as much as the video card to keep good FPS in the latest games.

What games are you interested in playing? I personally have no problems running Bioshock, UT3, Company of Heroes, Quake Wars, or Call of Duty 4. Generally 1920x1080 with no AA because I have a 320 card. Can you tell I got the monitor after? Heh.
 
hossdaddy is saying get the GT now. Later when you can upgrade the rest of your system, the GT could be carried over to it.
 
You'll max at about 9.8k in 3dmark06 if that helps any with an 8800gt and a x2 939.

I would OC as best you can with your 939 and go for 8800gt; upgrading everything else is potentially more costly and you'll still be w/o dx10 capability. Socket 939 may be dead or dying but it isn't crappy... yet.
 
Thanks guys! I appreciate the info and found it very helpful! I just noticed that Newegg has the X2 4200 CPU for my MB at $74.00 do you guys think that would be a good upgrade from my X2 3800? I figure that coupled with the new 8800GT or GTX would be a pretty good upgrade, what do ya think? Thanks again!

Kathy
 
The key is to get a good overclocking cpu; in my experience the opterons overclock the best, even better than the FX chip I had. My current opteron 165 is at 2.6 GHz on air cooling. The 4200+ Toledo is pretty good I hear.

The great news is that your motherboard is awesome! I've had mine forever except I broke the stupid PCI-E retention clip (arg).
 
MrSneis said:
The key is to get a good overclocking cpu; in my experience the opterons overclock the best, even better than the FX chip I had. My current opteron 165 is at 2.6 GHz on air cooling. The 4200+ Toledo is pretty good I hear.

The great news is that your motherboard is awesome! I've had mine forever except I broke the stupid PCI-E retention clip (arg).
Click to expand...

Thanks! Yes, it has been a great board, I've had mine for almost two years (I think) and have had zero problems with it. This is why I thought it might be worth upgrading it. The 4200 CPU that Newegg has is a Manchester not the Toledo, is that not as good? Thanks!

Kowan, yes, when I first got this board I played around with overclocking it but could never get it high enough to really make a difference so I put it back to the default settings. It was somewhere around 2.25ghz. I'll try it again when I upgrade it. Thanks!
 
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