What shall i get?...

[ojrules]

This is probably a question you get frequently asked, so i'm sorry.... at the moment i've got a x1950 agp card, an agp motherboard, and 4gb of ddr2 ram (only 2gb installed) and an e1280... unfortuantely the motherboard is pants at overlocking, so i'm seriously bottleneckd in that department....

so i'm looking to spend about £300 on a new motherboard, and new graphics card.... i'l be buying it for the summer hols, so if we say june/julyish time... obviously we cant tell the future, but i'd like a guestimate if thats possible

i spose i'd be looking at a asus p5k, or a x38 board dependant on prices, but i'm looking for around £70-80 and ddr2, and an easy to use mobo, i'm sick of pants ones...

the graphics card i'm looking at will be around £200-240

at the moment i've picked 2 graphics cards i'd like if you could compare:

the 3870 x2.... and the 9800gtx,

i've heard that the "next gen" cards will be out july time, but am i right in thinking these would be out of my price range.....?

i play on 1280x1024, so theres not much need for lots of video mem... thanks

 

[llwyd]

At that res you would be better off selling your cpu, motherboard and graphics card. Then getting a better cpu, an ok graphics card and a mid level motherboard. Something like an 8800 for the DX10, a Q6600 and an IP35 pro for example

 

[ojrules]

hmm i might stick to the processor for the moment, and hopefully clock it to 3.4 or there abouts.... but are you sayign that for that res i dont need the higher graphics cards?..

 

[-VK-]

I quite like the P5K Pro actually and it overclocks quite nicely.

As for graphics cards...unless you're playing on a high resolution it's probably not worth splashing that sort of cash out on a VGA....I'd take a serious look at a 3870 or 8800GT though.

As for CPU, you're probably OK with what you have....

 

[llwyd]

hmm i might stick to the processor for the moment, and hopefully clock it to 3.4 or there abouts.... but are you sayign that for that res i dont need the higher graphics cards?..

Yea basically an 8800 will run all games at that res fairly happily, providing the CPU is up to it as well, getting an even better card wont fill in the gaps left by the cpu performance. Its all very well clocking it nice and high but that will never make up for the other things the CPU is missing compared to higher end ones.

for example:

slow cpu + 8800 @ current res= 100fps with physics lag

fast cpu + 8800 @ current res= 150fps with no physics lag

slow cpu + 9800gtx @ current res = 150fps with physics lag

Will you notice the diff between 100 and 150 fps? nope

If you want the high end GPU anyway, in the hopes of getting a larger monitor in the future, I would wait until the next gen comes out, pushing the price of current cards down maybe enough for you to get a good CPU and the 9800 gtx

 

[ojrules]

ok thanks very much, that gives me a nice idea of what i should look for... ps what kind of difference do yu get between the p5k and the p5k pro?... i'm afraid i doubt i'l be getting a new cpu for the moment... but lets just hope the 4gb of ram buffers that...

 

[ojrules]

so does anybody have a specific card they would advise me for say the £160-2000 price range... ps thanks for all the advice

 

[!TIMMY!]

so does anybody have a specific card they would advise me for say the £160-2000 price range... ps thanks for all the advice

guessing that's a typo, 160-2000

 

[ojrules]

ohh yeah sorry yeah £160-200