Buy now or Build later?

mordeith

Hi all.
I just got F.E.A.R for Christmas and installed it no bother. However my specs are a little outdated . The game plays all right but there is a noticeabe lag when more than two or three enemies come on screen.
Should I just get another stick of RAM or would it make any real difference given the other flaws in the system.
My current specs are:
AMD 1.9 Ghz
784MB DDR RAM
Nvidia 5900FX
Matsonic MS8176C

Gurgle

mordeith wrote:

AMD 1.9 Ghz

Is that a 1900XP or a 2800XP which runs at 1.9GHz ?

Dooom

It wouldn't make a huge difference considering the graphics card is the main bottle-neck in the system. More RAM is always helpful, but I'd say pick up a cheap(ish) better card aswell, something along the lines of a 6600/6800 would do you right.

mordeith

Gurgle wrote:

Is that a 1900XP or a 2800XP which runs at 1.9GHz ?

I'm pretty sure it's the 1900.

Yeah I might go for more RAM and a new GFX. Still I'm limited to AGP 4X with my current mobo so maybe I should get off my ass and plunge into the delightful world of self-build.

Gurgle

mordeith wrote:

I'm pretty sure it's the 1900.

Yeah I might go for more RAM and a new GFX. Still I'm limited to AGP 4X with my current mobo so maybe I should get off my ass and plunge into the delightful world of self-build.

I'm pretty sure the 1900XP runs at 1.6GHz with a 266MHz bus.

Probably worth your while splashing out on a new motherboard & CPU.

Isn't the 5900 an 8X AGP card anyway ?
I'd wait and see how it runs with new CPU/Motherboard before ditching it.

mordeith

Gurgle wrote:

I'm pretty sure the 1900XP runs at 1.6GHz with a 266MHz bus.

Probably worth your while splashing out on a new motherboard & CPU.

Isn't the 5900 an 8X AGP card anyway ?
I'd wait and see how it runs with new CPU/Motherboard before ditching it.

Yeah you're spot on there. At the time I really needed a GFX upgrade. I knew that I'd be loosing some benefits of the 5900 while only having a 4X mobo but it was difficult to locate a good 4X card that would have been a decent increase over my previous card.
So if I decided on a new 8X mobo would I be looking at another short term-solution? Are there high-and AGP cards out there capable of running the latest games or should I be realistically looking at acquiring a PCI-E system to save myself more upgrading in the near future?

uberpixie

Gurgle wrote:

I'm pretty sure the 1900XP runs at 1.6GHz with a 266MHz bus.

Probably worth your while splashing out on a new motherboard & CPU.

Isn't the 5900 an 8X AGP card anyway ?
I'd wait and see how it runs with new CPU/Motherboard before ditching it.

TBH the price difference in going pci express vs AGP is not very much.

An agp mobo is only a quick fix. If you then want to buy a new gfx card in agp your options are fairly limited.(if you want a card to last you a while)

i.e. 6800GS/GT, X800XL/XT, X850XT

All of the above ar around 300 euro. The cheapest pci express 7800gt on komplett is around 390 euro which is twice as fast as anything in agp still.....

Lets look at the costs of upgrading.

AGP solution.
NF3 AGP mobo on komplett 80 EUR
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=307785&cks=PRL

Nvidia 6800GS in AGP 293 Euro.
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=316258&cks=PRL

AMD 64 3700+ 233 EURO
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=309484&cks=PRL

1 gig generic pc3200 ram in 2x 512mb sticks twinmos 99 EURO
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=118498&cks=SPC

AGP SOLUTION TOTAL:705 EURO* ex shipping.

*All prices as of 3/1/06 from komplett.ie

PCI EXPRESS SOLUTION.

Bog NF4 board, gigabyte. 81 EURO
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=312583&cks=PRL

AMD 64 3700+ 233 EURO
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=309484&cks=PRL

Nvidia 7800GT by point of view 389 EURO.
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=315784&cks=PRL

1 gig generic pc3200 ram in 2x 512mb sticks twinmos 99 EURO
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=118498&cks=SPC

TOTAL: PCI EXPRESS SOLUTION - 802 EURO* ex shipping.

*All prices as of 3/1/06 from komplett.ie


All in all a little over 100 euro in price between going AGP and PCI express.

A 7800GT and a better upgrade path vs a 6800GS. I know what I would be going for....

mordeith

Thanks for the suggestions Uber.
If there's only a €100 in the diff the I'd defo go for the PCI-E option. Although I'm worried about the use of Bog beofre the mobo . Do you think it's a poor board? I have to say I like Gigabyte products.

BadCharlie

I think if i was in your case and you did not want to spend much money at all. I would just try and overclock your CPU could also OC your video card, maybe you dont know how ?. Then if you did that and you were still not happy i would go about buying another 512megs of ram i think 1gig of ram in a computer should be min.

After that if still not happy then i would either think about buying a new video card or just go PCI-E and sell your old rig. A new 6800GT or you might find a second hand one in the FS Hardware section that could do the trick. I dont think you need a new motherboard as them cards should work at 4x speed.

Im very much in the same boat as your self but just with a better CPU then i upgraded to a 6800GT. I know i cant play the games in great detail but i OC everything and i think my system will last me another year.

mordeith

BadCharlie wrote:

I would just try and overclock your CPU could also OC your video card, maybe you dont know how ?.
QUOTE]
Well the GFX card comes with V-Tune so I should be able to overclock that ok. I've toyed with the idea of OC'ing the CPU but I wouldn't know what would be a safe threshold before burning it out. What's the average capabilities of OC'ing. I suppose adding extra cooling would get better results but is there some kind of safe level you can oc to and still get a performance increase?