Geforce 8800gtx and system question

[peebee]

I am currently running a PC Specialist system on Vista Ultimate 32 bit with an AMD FX 57 processor, 2 gigs of unbranded DDR 400 RAM and a Geforce 7900 GTX card on an Asus A8N SLI motherboard. I am considering buying an 8800GTX to put off the inevitable system upgrade but I have a question. Will my current processor etc. act as a bottleneck to graphics performance? I want to be able to run Crysis and Call of Duty 4 at full detail with all the bells and whistles enabled. Do you think this will be possible with the addition of the card alone? If not I may put off the purchase and wait till I can afford a new system with a dual or quad core chip and some faster RAM. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Paul

[s_kinton]

I would say it will be something of a bottleneck. The performance increase of adding an 8800GTX will be more than noticeable, but with most new games utilising dual/quad core capabilities you will no doubt be missing out on achieving the cards maximum potential.

[shadowmaster]

I agree with s_kinton, you would get a boost in performance over the 7900gtx, but since these newer games (crysis, COD4, bioshock) are beginning to employ the use of dual core, the 8800gtx wont be able to reach its full potential.

However you can always buy a graphics card now, enjoy whatever boost in performance it gives you, and then upgrade the motherboard/cpu/ram at a later date. But by that time the prices of gfx cards may have fallen and newer/better ones may have come out.

[dangel]

The big question is... what resolution are you gaming at? As a general rule higher resolutions (e.g. 1600x1200) means you'll almost always be GPU limited, whereas as lower resolutions (e.g. 1280x1024) it's often the CPU holding you back.
An 8800GTX will make everything lots faster regardless though (in the context of your system) - and if you then found yourself CPU bound a dual core cpu is a relatively trivial upgrade (although make sure you find a socket 939 one as socket AM2 isn't compatible with your system - and that means you'll probably be looking for one second hand).

[peebee]

Thanks for all your replies. I'm running games at 1680 by 1050 on my LCD widescreen. It sounds like there will be a noticeable difference over the 7800GTX. It's certainly cheaper than the £2000 my ideal next system would cost. If I upgrade later and want to get another 8800 GTX to run in SLI do they still have to be from exactly the same manufacturer or just the same chip?

Paul

[dangel]

Yup - it'll be a good buy then. I'd certainly consider that dual core though - it's a cheap upgrade and i'd say that system would last you a fair bit. But get the card first and see how it 'feels'

[shadowmaster]

I think you can run sli as long as its the same chip (not too sure about overclocked versions).

It may be worth buying an 939 AMD dual core chip- possibly the 4800x2. Since your ideal system would cost £2000, I think it would be better to upgrade the graphics card and then processor at a later date, which overall will cost much less and still give you very good performance.

Have you considered the 8800GT, as its £100 cheaper and almost gives the same performance as an 8800GTX?

[s_kinton]

I think you can run sli as long as its the same chip (not too sure about overclocked versions).

If I upgrade later and want to get another 8800 GTX to run in SLI do they still have to be from exactly the same manufacturer or just the same chip?

They dont have to be the same manufacturer, that requirment was removed a long time ago. They just have to be the same chip.

Where one of the chips is an oc model, the cards will revert to the slower speed of the two.

Peebee: I 'Thanked' your post accidentally above!

[Asulc]

I thought that if there is an oc model and a non oc model, it would still work with the different clock speeds?

[shadowmaster]

I thought that if there is an oc model and a non oc model, it would still work with the different clock speeds?

Both cards will revert to the slowest clock speed of the two