Upgrade advice

[fatalwario2]

I want to upgrade to get better performance playing games. What would give me the best bang for the buck? New video card or faster processor? I currently have a Geforce 4 440mx & Athlon XP 1900+. I was thinking about getting a Geforce 5900xt card to bump up my FPS, is that the best way to go?

[bombledmonk]

The best bang for the buck right now is a Radeon 9800pro for ~$200 at www.newegg.com. There are a few flavors to choose from, but I'd recommend Sapphire.

The next step up is the plain Geforce 6800 for $287 and that yeilds a good 50-60%+ increase in performance over the 9800pro.

If your willing to take small risks, www.newegg.com has a refurb section where you can get 9800pros for less than $150

[sechs]

Considering the card that you have now, just about anything would be an upgrade. A R9800 is a good choice for price/performance.

What games do you play?

[roley]

Any of the new cards (9200 upwards) will produce better gaming than your MX440.

I still use an MX460 on my system and it performs ok in Enemy territory and Painkiller etc. But I will also upgrade soon.

My specs:
Athlon XP 2400+ (2.0GHz)
1GB Corsair 266MHz Valu Select
MSI MX460
Epox 8rga+

=========

So, depending on the budget...you may benefit from say stepping the CPU and VGA up at same time. That would be my first guess.

EXAMPLE: get an Athlon XP 2600+ and a Sapphire 9600XT (inc Half Life2 voucher).

Consider that...what do you think?

Roley
Black Frog Tech

[maxiderm]

i say get a new cpu as well. get like a Athlon 2600+ if you have the cash, get a 6800.

[Starfury_2260]

Just make sure it's a Barton 2600+.

[dejha]

the vid card is more important. I myself upgraded from a MX440 to an FX5900, HUGE improvement and was still running everything else the same XP1800, 512 PC133 RAM

I went from 35 FPS avg on Unreal 2004 800x600x16 with everything on default to being able to play 1024x768x32 everything high at 60+ FPS

[roley]

Yeah, I agree strongly with what was said there...for games the VGA card will deliver the most important and compelling improvements...

I simply advocate the CPU upgrade on the basis of consistency. To make full use of the GPU, it helps to have a contemporary CPU.

I sold a Sapphire 9600XT to a guy running a 'Palomino' XP 1800+, 512MB RAM, and LeadtekMX440...and he noticed massive improvements in Painkiller and Battlefield Vietnam. However, he was keen as mustard to upgrade the CPU and mobo as well...to keep things 'together'...

depends on the budget really...money talks.

Roley
Black Frog Tech

[duffman_108]

I would go and get an Pentium 4 ht 2.6ghz, 1gb of corsair pc3200, and ati 9800pro 256. Upgrade to that for under 800$$ and have a kickass comp compared to yours.

[bombledmonk]

isn't it always about money.....