Help choosing for next upgrade, GPU or CPU?

[ki9090]

hello all, my machine is a little dated, but not to much so. Im basically gonna spend around 350 to get this thing to run some games such as unreal tournament 3, Call of duty 4. Call of duty 4 demo ran at 30fps steady on medium on my machine.

Mobo: Asus P5PLD2 (775 socket)
CPU: Pentium 4 3.0 ghz
RAM: 2gbs OCZ DDR2
GPU: MSI 6600GT 256mb

So this is what im thinking, should i go for a new core duo processor? Or should i invest money in a new GPU, what will make the diffrence.

And any suggestions as to which GPU? I was looking at the 8800GTS, in my price range, good memory (320mb) for some resolution, and it seems to support direct x 10 which looks to be important for future games.

EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS Superclocked Video Card - FREE Enemy Territory: Quake Wars PC Game, 320MB GDDR3, PCI Express, SLI Ready, Dual DVI, HDTV, Video Card 320-P2-N815-AR in Canada at TigerDirect.ca

anyways your help is greatly appreciated, thanks.

[gurusan]

Well both components are pretty dated.

But I'd swap the GPU first as that would make the biggest difference. That 320mb is a good choice, but a better one would be the 2900 Pro in my opinion.

Also I don't think your motherboard supports Core 2 Duo processors so I would start saving up for a conroe and a new motherboad.

[dave39]

Upgrading the processor to a newer Intel E4400 or something like that and overclocking would be nice but if you are just planning on spending $350 for now than I would go with the 8800GTS video card that you have selected. I have it and it is a great card so I can vouch for it. Use NCIX.com though and save yourself $50. Here is the link for it on NCIX
NCIX.com - Buy EVGA E-GEFORCE 8800GTS Superclocked 576MHZ 320MB 1.7GHZ GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDTV HDCP Video Card - 320-P2-N815-AR In Canada.

[gurusan]

or this one. The ATI drivers have matured quite a bit and the 2900 Pro can overclock past XT speeds.

NCIX.com - Buy Sapphire Radeon HD2900 Pro 600MHZ 512MB 1.6GHZ GDDR3 Dual DVI-I HDCP VIVO Video Card - 100212 In Canada.

[ki9090]

Do you guys know if my processor will hinder gaming performance much? also how much would i be looking at for a good mobo/cpu, i thought my mobo supported it, its this one?

ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

And how is the 2900 compared to the 8800 GS?

[saltynay]

That motherboard does support C2D. The graphics card will give the biggest performance increase, but nvidia are literally about to revamp the 8 series next month so if you wait that little bit longer you should get better bang for your buck with the newer tech.

If you can't wait then upgrade the cpu to a E2180 and a nice heatsink and overclock like mad and use the spare cash to save up for the better gfx card next time

[ki9090]

Originally Posted by saltynay

That motherboard does support C2D. The graphics card will give the biggest performance increase, but nvidia are literally about to revamp the 8 series next month so if you wait that little bit longer you should get better bang for your buck with the newer tech.

If you can't wait then upgrade the cpu to a E2180 and a nice heatsink and overclock like mad and use the spare cash to save up for the better gfx card next time

im not good enough with comps to overclock, so i guess im gonna have to just spend the cash for a e6600 or the like.

Do you think though that next month Nvidia will have a GPU that compares to the price of the 8800GS with better performance?

also something i have been wondering, does my CPU having an older chipset make things in my computer nto work to their best effeciency? like am i not getting everything out of my hardware?

[saltynay]

overcocking is extremely simple actually and fool proof as if you overclock to far the system automatically shuts down and then you can just lower the clock until you reach a stable level. Its getting better performance for no extra cost and is what they actually do in the factories the E6600 and the E6300 are exactly the same chips but with different stock clocks and memory installed.

The new gpu's are the 8800gt and the 8800gts. There is no 8800gs... The new 8800gt is slightly more powerful then the current gts and the gts is being upgraded to be only just below the performance of a gtx. The price of the gt is suppose to be less then the crrent gts price and the new gts are going to rise a little ($30-60).

Your motherboard is slightly older and this will restrict hardware performance but not noticeably it might also restrict overclocking potential of your new cpu