Does this sound like a logical upgrade?

Post by **DiscoDave** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 3:17 pm

Lo all. The current deal is i'm going to spend the next few months working (im back from uni and dont go back up until mid september time) So im going to dedicate some of that money (£800-£1000) on a new rig, and the rest on whatever.

My current system:

Athlon XP 3200+
1gb DDR
Radeon 9800 Pro
SATA 250GB etc.

In all fairness, my rig currently isn't too bad, i play most games fine, so i dont feel it justifies an upgrade right now, does it?

Im thinking round about september - December time i might be getting something like:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+
2gb DDR 4000 (or whatever)
6800 Ultra (or whatevers reasonable at that time)

etc.

Does this sound like a logical upgrade in terms of the timing and what I have already?

Ta

David

Post by **Doombrain** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 3:49 pm

yes do it, and i'll buy your video card from you.

Post by **DRuM** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 3:54 pm

Doombrain wrote:yes do it, and i'll buy your video card from you.

If you mean his old 9800 pro, I personally wouldn't. I have a Sapphire 9800 pro, and although graphically it's a good card, it is bugged. Quake3 stutters from time to time, even crashed me before. I would stay with nvidia if I were you. At some point I'm gonna change to a 6800 or 6600.

Post by **Doombrain** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 4:09 pm

lol, yes but i only have a gf2 mx

Post by **DRuM** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 4:44 pm

Doombrain wrote:lol, yes but i only have a gf2 mx

Ah, heh, the gf2 mx200 is the exact same card I had before this one. Yes, quite a huge difference in performance.

Post by **obsidian** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 4:54 pm

That's a decent system you have already. Save your money for next year, unless you're feeling really charitable towards Doombrain and want to sell him your perfectly decent card.

Post by **Kills On Site** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 5:46 pm

I imagine that X2 4200+ will be an expensive processor

Post by **Psyche911** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 1:43 am

DRuM wrote:
Doombrain wrote:yes do it, and i'll buy your video card from you.
If you mean his old 9800 pro, I personally wouldn't. I have a Sapphire 9800 pro, and although graphically it's a good card, it is bugged. Quake3 stutters from time to time, even crashed me before. I would stay with nvidia if I were you. At some point I'm gonna change to a 6800 or 6600.

DRuM, it's you.
I have a Sapphire 9800 Pro and it plays Quake fine. Capped at 120/125fps at 1600x1200, , never drops below that.

The 5.x series of drivers have caused me a little trouble in Source engine games, but 4.12 work great. It's a good card, and if you can get it cheap, it's worth the price.

But you'd be better off waiting. The next generation nVidia card might even be out this month. The next ATi card should be out in the next 2-3. Even if you can't afford those, the current cards should be cheaper and still very good.

Post by **Psyche911** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 1:44 am

Kills On Site wrote:I imagine that X2 4200+ will be an expensive processor

Currently will retail around $550. Rumors of price drops on single core processors next month. I don't now when duals will go down. Probably not 'till late this year, early next year as I don't think they're releasing any new duals between now and early 2006.

Post by **Kills On Site** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 4:11 am

So nVIDIA plans on releasing new cards soon? Not that I am complaining that much, but my 6800 GT is still kicking total ass, so is nVIDIA planning a new top card or a new line of cards that will include a card priced around 400?
I ask because I gotta sell my 6800GT AGP when I upgrade to a 939 processor, so if I can get a new nVIDIA card for around 400 then I can wait

Post by **Psyche911** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 5:18 am

I don't know what it will cost, but the G70 is the upcoming high end (ie. 6800 price bracket) nVidia chip rumored to be announced at least this month. But with all the paper launches of GPUs, it could easily be 2-3 months before it hits the market.

Who knows.

If you're gonna get an X2 processor, I'd suggest waiting awhile for the prices to settle. I'm sure people will mark them up at first. And by then, hopefully the next GPUs will be out.

But I probably either wont upgrade 'till Longhorn era, or will go for a low-end Athlon 64 rig with the monetary situation ATM.

Post by **DRuM** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 9:28 am

Psyche911 wrote: DRuM, it's you.
I have a Sapphire 9800 Pro and it plays Quake fine. Capped at 120/125fps at 1600x1200, , never drops below that.

The 5.x series of drivers have caused me a little trouble in Source engine games, but 4.12 work great. It's a good card, and if you can get it cheap, it's worth the price.

Well, I was speaking to a pro Q3 player about this on msn a while ago and he said he used to have the same card, and the same problem with stuttering and crashing. He changed to nvidia and never had a problem again. It may be that the 9800 pro is sensitive to other factors in the pc, which can make it do that.

Post by **Grudge** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 3:00 pm

My 9800 Pro has worked flawlessly with Q3, HL2 and many, many other games (except for overheating when playing Doom3, but that's my own fault for disconnecting my case fans)

Post by **DRuM** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 4:47 pm

Well to be fair, my computer doesn't have the best cooling, so the card might be getting hot.
I dunno, I was just going on what that guy said who happened to have had the same problem.

Post by **AmIdYfReAk** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 7:27 pm

Grudge wrote:My 9800 Pro has worked flawlessly with Q3, HL2 and many, many other games (

Post by **Kills On Site** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 8:17 pm

my 9800 Pro decided to be a bitch to me, hated D3 mostly. It worked well with UT2k4 thas about it. I am, however, my 6800GT is flawless