AMD slot 939 upgrade woes

M

Madmischief

New member
Hi all

I need some advice which boils down to processor or graphics card ...

Current rig is 2 years old:

Athlon 64 3500+

3 gig Ram 333 speed

Asus A8N Sli SE mboard (slot 939)

Sapphire X850 XT 512mb (latest vista drivers)

Vista Home Premium

I recently got a 22 inch display which requires the main game I play, World of Warcraft, to now run in 1680 x 1050 res.

I have to reduce the quality settings in-game to get the frames fast enough to play happily at this res ... which is annoying as gaming now is not as pretty /sharp.

In the UK it is tough to get processorsthat are much better than my current one ... the best I have seen that might fit slot 939 is a Athlon X2 4200+ on ebay (which I prefer not to use for components).

I could get a better graphics card like the Sapphire HD3870 which costs about £160. But I am not sure if the processor would be the bottle-neck still?

I would rather not buy a new processor / mboard, as the new AMD chips have just launched and prices will drop fast in the next 2 months.

Any ideas on how to get my gaming running faster cheaply?

:confused:
 
Your current video card should be capable of slaying WoW on max settings at that res. I think your current problem is your processor. I recommend moving up to a faster dual core as your first measure. This should give you a considerable boost in framerate since your OS will have it's own core to run in the background and a full core dedicated to WoW.

Past that, a simple gfx card upgrade will help out even more. If you upgraded ur vid card at this point with that CPU you'd just be wasting money, you might see a fairly noticable increase in FPS even without upgrading processors but ur severely crippling it's overall ability.

Go dual core, then go for a new gfx card if you're still encountering slower than desired framerates.
 
I have a similar setup.

22" monitor @ 1680x1050

AMD 3500+

2gb of RAM

a 7800 GTX 256mb

Asus A8N SLI-Deluxe

I can run WoW with everything maxed, so i'm not too sure why you're having these problems.
 
Hi Chaps

Thanks for that ... couple of questions then ...

I have never bios upgraded my motherboard might that help the speed issue? Also I have not OC'd my 3500 ... is this worth trying?

Finally is there something I can do within Vista to make my game run smoother?
 
I`d be interested in how u have the 3g memory arrangement. Number of sticks etc.

Particularly it being ddr333, even dropping to 2g with ddr400 will smooth the machine performance generally, even tho Vista make take a large bite out of it.

Thing to consider here is the dual channel approach to memory.

Ur processor should be more than capable tbh.

Personally I`d like some tips on installing WOW on Vista. I keep getting some stoopid "can`t creat xyz.." error when it comes to the patching stage. I`ve tried allowing the install to run as an Admin, but it just gave another error.
 
heh if i wasn't giving my now not-in-use 4800 X2 939 cpu to my mrs you coulda bought it off me! lol
 
What about using an Opteron 180 its dual core at 2.6 ... anyone use those before?

I can see one for about £100 online.

:yumyum:
 
name='Madmischief' said:
What about using an Opteron 180 its dual core at 2.6 ... anyone use those before?

I can see one for about £100 online.

:yumyum:
Click to expand...

I ran a 180 for months and it overclocked like a friggin beasty!!! If you can pick one up at a decent price definitely go for it.

@glock: Ur 7800GTX rapes the pants off of the X850XT, not a lot of comparison there, hehe.
 
I`d be interested in how u have the 3g memory arrangement. Number of sticks etc.

Particularly it being ddr333, even dropping to 2g with ddr400 will smooth the machine performance generally, even tho Vista make take a large bite out of it.
Click to expand...
Its quite easy really. My old rig had a 2x1gig+2x512mb setup of PC3200 which came out to be 3gig of dual channel ram. Guessing from the age of his system PC2700 was probably really cheap back then (I know i had some too) so he prolly has the same cept DDR333.

Whats wierd is your not able to max this game out and have decent frames on your setup. I dont think you should have to upgrade your machine for this game cause its fairly dated and i used to play all games with a 3000+. When was the last time you formatted? Or the last time you updated drivers? And not to be mean but why are you using Vista?
 
Hi all and many thanks for the replies ...

Opterons are crazy expensive all running at £140+ so was thinking if its still worth getting?

If later I run a 8800GT with it will I be able to play Crysis and Gears of War decently or is this a step too far for an Opteron?

Should I just bite the bullet and spend £250 for a fast intel dual core / motherboard / DDR2+ my old X 850XT?

Cna't buy the 8800GT and upgrade mobo / cpu / ram ...

Thoughts?
 
Thanks raging that certainly puts it in perspective, that was superb advice ... is the diff between a E2160 and a E6750 a huge one for gaming with the 8800GT 512mb card?
 
what harddrive are you useing?

i useto have 2 identical systems one with an ide drive and one with a sata and the computer witht the sata drive use to run allot faster

processor wise i would say go for ether the 4200+ or the optron also i would suggest that 2 gb of ram should be enough for vista
 
name='Madmischief' said:
Thanks raging that certainly puts it in perspective, that was superb advice ... is the diff between a E2160 and a E6750 a huge one for gaming with the 8800GT 512mb card?
Click to expand...

not really if you clock some extra mhz out of the e2160 to bring it upto e6750 clock speed(or more if you want) but even if you dont clock it the difference isnt THAT big
 
Biggest thing for WOW tends to be memory (and arguably speed of) and graphics card.

The other components ~really~ only need to be `decent`.

I would hazard that anything from a solid 6600GT graphics upwards would be sufficent.

2G of memory is huge for it. If any1 was tight with memory, 1G is very nice. Slow memory however, tends to give u slow downs in mass areas.

I`m not so sure that coupled with a Vista background, the demands could be that much more. Problem being, by the time Vista finishes loading, ur 1G turns into 512m etc.
 
I would have thought the graphics card is the problem here as it has started struggling since the resolution has gone up.

If it's primarily WOW you play, try overclocking your current CPU to get the most out of it, then try an 8800gt, if your still not happy then look at upgrading the mobo/ram/cpu next.
 
8800GT, even tho it`s a great priced card for what it is, is too much for WOW. 8600 creams it easily. And we see a 7800 does it too.

IF u can have too much graphics processing power LOL :p

But if u want to spend on the best per price, u can`t go wrong.
 
Thanks all ...

the current problem is I can wow at max in busy battlegrounds and run an internet radio station in vista at the same time. Can game fine without the music in the background.

But I would also like to play new games like Gears of War etc so I think an overhaul is probably the way to go ... Intel core duo cpu /mobo 1st and then card when there is a bit more competition in the market get a 512mb 8800GT

does not make sense to buy a £140 opteron when it cost the same as the cpu / mobo that raging suggested!

:)
 
That's what OC3D does to ya, start off asking about little upgrades, end up buying all of the latest + most powerful hardware :D
 
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