Whats the next upgrade?

Krieg

- Core 2 DUO E6600 2.4GHz, Overclocked to 3.0ghz

- NVIDIA 8800 GTS 640MB

- 850W Power Supply

- 4GB ram OC'd 900mhz


Just wondering if I could get your thoughts on what I should upgrade as Ive been a good boy and feel like spending some hard earned cash.

I was thinking of upgrading the gfx card since I have a few games where I cant run very high gfx. I was also thinking of getting a card with HDMI output so I can enjoy HD movies on the tv. Ive included the PS output just in case its an issue for the latest gfx cards
But maybe the CPU is lagging. Ive never changed the CPU before nor was I the one who OC'd the computer so id be a bit iffy about actually replacing it.
Im on vista 32bit so no point in upgrading the RAM, yet.

thoughts?

Effluo

Well there are very few games which use more than 2 cores of a processor and at 3ghz your e6600 is still good.
The 8800 is also still not a bad card!
However how good the 8800 is depends on what resolution you're playing your games at...

For less than 1080, a 4850 or 4870(€90-€120) mind you that the 4850 would be only a wee bit better than your current card! For 1080 or 1200 then you'd want to upgrade to the 4870 or 4890(€120-€160) to max your games.

Both cards come with a dvi to hdmi converter so there's be no problem watching your movies on the tv


Ram is also adequate even if your pc can only use about 3gig's of the 4.
It's be nice to know what brand that 850watt psu is but either way it should have the connectors and be able to power any card you want to spend your money on!

kaimera

ssd.

prolly not ideal if you play games much, iirc it's only a few fps increase (if even) but awesome, awesome load times and yer OS will fly along.

Solitaire

Effluo wrote:

mind you that the 4850 would be only a wee bit better than your current card!

In 3DMark perhaps. Outside that and a certain dodgy hardware site you'll find the HD4850 has ~50% better performance - and it doesn't get any prettier as you increase the res or crank up the detail/AA/AF...

The GTX and Ultra still hold their own but the vanilla 8800GTS has had its day - even said dodgy site rates it under a 9600GT. Upgrade time. What resolution is your screen?

CPU is fine. A 3GHz C2Q is a force to be reckoned with, and you can push the Q6600 even further. Given that, I doubt its going to be a problem for a good while yet

What PSU do you have? All 850W PSUs are not born equal I'm afraid. But I doubt it'll be an issue here unless you're running 20 HDDs off it

Krieg

Effluo wrote: »

Well there are very few games which use more than 2 cores of a processor and at 3ghz your e6600 is still good.
The 8800 is also still not a bad card!
However how good the 8800 is depends on what resolution you're playing your games at...

For less than 1080, a 4850 or 4870(€90-€120) mind you that the 4850 would be only a wee bit better than your current card! For 1080 or 1200 then you'd want to upgrade to the 4870 or 4890(€120-€160) to max your games.

Both cards come with a dvi to hdmi converter so there's be no problem watching your movies on the tv


Ram is also adequate even if your pc can only use about 3gig's of the 4.
It's be nice to know what brand that 850watt psu is but either way it should have the connectors and be able to power any card you want to spend your money on!

Well im actually using a a 1920 x 1080 monitor and same res for gaming so Im guessing requirements maybe higher than the listed radeon cards. I also have a TV hooked up to the card, though Im unable to check the resolution of it due to Nvidia driver being a basterd, but its a 33" widescreen if that helps :P

I have plenty of dvi-vgb-hdmi cables/adapters etc but I was under the impression that the use of the dvi output on the card into HDMI would result in DVI quality? so to speak

kaimera wrote: »

ssd.

prolly not ideal if you play games much, iirc it's only a few fps increase (if even) but awesome, awesome load times and yer OS will fly along.

Ive been long interested in SSD but cost was putting me off (Which I know sounds contradictory since im willing to spend the same on gfx/cpu atm) but from reading benchmarks, the results dont excite me, though faster load time would be nice. Another issue is that i currently have all 4 HD slots used up to make 2TB, I will inevitably sacrifice one for an SSD at some stage im sure

Solitaire wrote: »

In 3DMark perhaps. Outside that and a certain dodgy hardware site you'll find the HD4850 has ~50% better performance - and it doesn't get any prettier as you increase the res or crank up the detail/AA/AF...

The GTX and Ultra still hold their own but the vanilla 8800GTS has had its day - even said dodgy site rates it under a 9600GT. Upgrade time. What resolution is your screen?

CPU is fine. A 3GHz C2Q is a force to be reckoned with, and you can push the Q6600 even further. Given that, I doubt its going to be a problem for a good while yet

What PSU do you have? All 850W PSUs are not born equal I'm afraid. But I doubt it'll be an issue here unless you're running 20 HDDs off it

Res is mentioned above and the PSU is an "OCZ 850W Next Generation Power Supply". Plenty of connectors on it. Though It is powering 4 x 500gb HD's

Im glad to hear the CPU is still good, though im not confident enough to attempt OC'ing it higher. I know how, but I have too much fear of an explosion


Thanks for all the replies so far, very much appreciated

Effluo

Well if your gaming at 1080 the a 4870 or what most people would recommend the ati 4890.
It will give a a really big boost over your current card and will play almost every game on vhigh settings.

here's a link 4890
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-XFX-HD-4890-PCI-E-20(x16)-3900MHz-GDDR5-GPU-850MHz-800-Cores-2x-DL-DVI-I-HDTV-HDCP-Ready


or for a bit less 4870
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-XFX-HD-4870-PCI-E-20(x16)-3600MHz-GDDR5-GPU-750MHz-800Cores-2x-Dual-Link-DVI-I-HDCP-Ready

Both cards are great at that resolution and it's arguable anything more than those is being a bit frivolous and it would be a shame considering you had "been such a good boy" :L