Worth Upgrading ?

[RetroFunk]

Now have my spanking new Athlon64 3200 (Winchester) working, got an Abit AV8 m/board with 512 mb of PC3200 RAM in it.

Now, do I upgrade the Hoover sponsored FX 5800 Ultra or not ?

I'm torn between spending £20 on cooling for it or £100ish on an upgrade. After splashing out on the chip etc I cant really afford much more so for that much cash would I get much benefit from buying a new card ?

And if I was to upgrade how much would it go for on eBay ? (boxed collectors item) lmao

[Timmy!!!]

TBH I don't think you will be able to get a better card for £100. The only card you could get for around that amount of money is a Radeon 9800 Pro, which the 5800 beats.

I would just get a really good quiet heatsink and overclock the card.

I am guessing here but I think you would be able to sell it for about £80. Not sure though.

[weebroonieuk]

keep your card for the moment spend that 100 quid on another 512 stick of ram your games will love it and so will the whole system
then spend that 20 quid u wanted spend on coolin on ... cooling
i dunno much about nvidia stuff but i think u can get the arctic coolers for them great coolers ood price buy some good thermal paste if u dont already have some and get a overclocking utility

a 3d card will only benefit u in 3d games and apps but more ram will help your whole system !

[weebroonieuk]

u could even try the for sale sextion or ebay for a second hand stick of ram too id rather buy of this forum tho users are more likely to tell you the truth on here and if the ram is overclockable

[exAndrzej]

...would I get much benefit from buying a new card...

You could get a massive benefit - but not around the £100 mark

If your budget is flexible - then maybe you need to think about how far you want to go, what frame rates you need in a particular game and how much you are willing to spend for the additional FPS

You have to remember that the 4-pipeline card you have was very fast when launched (inspite of the disproportionate amount of bad press they received relating to noise etc) - second only to the 8-pipeline R300 core products

The dilema you have is the same one that faces owners of 9700/9800 Pro cards

Having owned a top card from a manufacturer's previous generation - what should you upgrade to ?

Weebroonieuk has given you some excellent advice about the system memory - which can make a big difference in some games

Maybe you can find a friend who has 1GB in their rig and borrow 512MB for a day or two

They won't miss it (everything will still work) - but it will let you bench your rig with 1 gig (rhymes !)...

...then you can make an informed decision on whether to upgrade your system memory permanently