to upgrade or not to upgrade

The Incredible... · Post by **The Incredible...** » February 7th, 2007, 13:20

I'm considering getting a new graphics card but i want to be sure it is worth it

my current card is an nvidia geforece 6600gt (128mb)

and the card i am looking at is a sapphire radeon x1950 pro (512mb)

obviously the new one is much more powerful, and i'm sure i will notice a difference but being that its agp would i be better off saving up some money and fully upgrading my system with a new mother board, dual core processor and pcie graphics card?

the rest of my system is as folows, any other advice on future upgrades would be welcome

Mobo: Asus A7V600-X
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3200+
RAM: 1gb (can't remember what brand)
PSU: 480W antec true blue (will this be enough wit the new gfx card?)

Post by **Dog Pants** » February 7th, 2007, 13:26

I was thinking this a while back, and I ended up going for the new mobo/CPU/graphics card option. Ended up costing about £400, but it means I won't have to upgrade for a few years now apart from a new graphics card in maybe a year (this was last april). If you can afford it I'd say go for the upgrade, it's got to be more economical in the long ru now that AGP is pretty much obsolete as far as a gamer is concerned.

The Incredible... · Post by **The Incredible...** » February 7th, 2007, 13:29

thats what i thought

but as a student just about to finish his degree and with soem credit card debt and overdraft it's going to be a while till i can save up £400

but i could just about spare the £150 for the new gfx card alone

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » February 7th, 2007, 13:32

We've been over this a few times.

I honestly believe that upgrading AGP is effectively throwing money away now, as less and less new mobos support AGP, so any future upgrades will be hindered.

If you want to not spend too much, and allow for future upgrades the asrock 939dual sata2 could be a good option (as it's cheap as hell and it'll allow you to use your agp card until you can afford a suitable pci-e card (obviously, if want to upgrade to core2 you'll have to upgrade your mobo again)

Otherwise, your best bet is to upgrade everything at once

The Incredible... · Post by **The Incredible...** » February 7th, 2007, 13:36

i think i am going to ave to be sensible and restrained and save up

i'm not very good at this though

i am a very impulsive spender
and it owuld be nice to see oblivion all pretty like, at the moment when i'm in the main field stuff in the distance looks pretty shit

another thing about upgrading is that i don't have a clue about the current processors, it used to be that you could just judge it on the speed with the intel ones, but with al these new dual core ones and what not i dont know where to start

mrbobbins · Post by **mrbobbins** » February 7th, 2007, 13:41

The Incredible... wrote:another thing about upgrading is that i don't have a clue about the current processors, it used to be that you could just judge it on the speed with the intel ones, but with al these new dual core ones and what not i dont know where to start

Whatever you're buying always start with how much you have to spend

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » February 7th, 2007, 13:45

http://tomshardware.co.uk/cpu/charts.html

and

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/graphics/charts.html

are very handy.

The Incredible... · Post by **The Incredible...** » February 7th, 2007, 14:05

damn

now i've looked at the graphics one and seen the difrerence between m ard and te one i want it looks like the upgrade would be worth it

not sure if it might put too much strain on my psu though

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » February 7th, 2007, 14:10

your psu should be ok. (someone will link to the psu calculator soon)

Lee · Post by **Lee** » February 7th, 2007, 14:42

The Incredible... wrote:and it owuld be nice to see oblivion all pretty like, at the moment when i'm in the main field stuff in the distance looks pretty shit

You get those crappy LOD textures in the distance no matter what graphics settings you use. This mod replaces them with some nicer ones: http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=2182

Also, PSU calculator: http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

The Incredible... · Post by **The Incredible...** » February 7th, 2007, 15:04

i assumed it probably would be, but i've already had to replace it once, cos the one i originally bought couldnt cope with my system

The Incredible... · Post by **The Incredible...** » February 7th, 2007, 15:09

Lee wrote:
You get those crappy LOD textures in the distance no matter what graphics settings you use. This mod replaces them with some nicer ones: http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=2182
p

i can see hardly any difference in the before and after shots there

Woo Elephant Yeah · Post by **Woo Elephant Yeah** » February 7th, 2007, 17:26

http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=4860

That should help you make your decision.
I'm still unsure what to do, so I don't think there is an aswer really, as it all comes down to how much money you are willing to spend.

Post by **TezzRexx** » February 7th, 2007, 17:40

Personally, i'd invest in a good PCI-E based motherboard with the tech to support SLi/Crossfire no matter what, (Even if it ment saving up for ages) simply because it will save you money in the long run when I feel the need to upgrade next.

However in terms of whether AGP or (a single) PCI-E card is faster is a different story altogether. One which tom's hardware may be inclined to clue you in on.

Post by **FatherJack** » February 7th, 2007, 22:50

I don't know whether they are cheaper to manufacture, or the graphics cards people want to encourage people to buy them, but on a price/performance basis PCIe cards seem to be cheaper than AGP - glancing at that chart berk posted, a 7900PCIe performs roughly 50% better than the similarly priced 6800AGP.

X1950 512Ms are what, £150-200? For that you could get a £50 Core-Duo capable mobo, either a £30 Celeron D to keep you going until you can afford a C2D or £60 for a dual-core P4 if you want more oomph now and £60 for a GF7600 or similar. That config would run Oblivion nicely - I've seen it done - and with unpatched Oblivion, too.

Using your existing RAM for now, you've got a system that can be upgraded with C2D processor, DX10 graphics cards and faster RAM as and when you can afford it.

Of course you'd still benefit from waiting and spending a little more on a mobo, it was just a suggestion if you're like me and find it hard to not spend money as soon you get it.