What is the smartest upgrade from a 6800GT AGP?

[sawyen]

awww.. how did u figure? I suppose you dated someone similar?

Right, you and your FX-57, and me and my lab's HP dual core Opty.. You can clock it to whatever frequency you fancy.. Lets make a single run of a NR-BLAST on human kidney cells protein extract. I'll even handicap by running with only 2GB of memory.. Lets see who's faster.

If you could make a cheaper system as fast/faster as this HP here on multithreaded basic alignment, then I'll probably admit that we're spending way too much on our research.

Also.. thats if you can even afford that software.. Savvy?

OKay, back on the topic guys..

[Smokey21]

Storm, you are so single minded, it's shocking. You were exactly the same, 5 months ago, before you disapeared, which was understanable as Dual Core offered no performance increase.

It does now, and we have a massive game due out in less than 4 months, built from the ground up using Dual Core.

Run along, and bench your FX on 2001, and we'll all enjoy our computers properly.

Also where the hell are you quoting those prices from?

You can pick up a 4400+ for £310 and a 7800GT can be had for £.200

Storm with the prices you just quoted, you couldn't build a space shuttle cheaper.

Ah well, this has gone way off topic, and i can't be arsed to reply to you anymore Storm, your wrong.

So hardware reviews ar a waste of time? We've all got to do our own testing? lol.

KingJimi, the system you said in your first post is great, i was assuming you had a fair bit to spend, seeing as you listed a 4400+. You could always go for the 3800 X2, and save yaself £100, they overclock very well.

The video card is a choice between the 7800GT, 7800GTX, X1800XL and X1800XT. There is nothing wrong with ATI's drivers, there hasn't been since the 8500 days. The Nvidia cards are cheaper, the ATI cards are more expensive, but perform better with AA, and more IQ.

Scan were doing a GTX for around 280quid the other day, id look around, and go for a cheap GTX like that, if you don't want to spend over 300, otherwise the XT is a dam fine card.

[StormPC]

WTF is wrong with you girls? This thread is about a guy who wants a videocard for gaming. NR-BLAST on human kidney cells protein extract? You're pretty pathetic, both of you.

Smokey, I will not comment further until you learn to read my posts before responding.

[sawyen]

*yawn*

On topic:
Like what was previously mentioned, a 4400+ will be difficult to squeeze into a £500 budget. Unless you ONLY play games or willing to do only ONE thing at a time on ur system, go for Storm's suggestion on the Sempron + GTX. I really see no reason to get a Sempron if you're really aiming for a decent setup.

The smartest way to upgrade the entire package from ur current XP 6800GT setup is to go for a all round system that takes either a 7800GT or a X1800XL and above. But £500 for the lot will be a little challenging, but not impossible. The previous page already outlined some directions u cud get it done. Might be a little off budget, but you'll get an extra core and a 7800GT. As far as I know, my new shiny 7800GT plays way better than my aging 6800GT too.

If you still want to get it under £500, you could spend it on a 6800GS.. they're close to if not similar to a GTs performance. You wont get substantial performance increase, but at least its still a sensible upgrade cs cards from now on will be mostly if not all PCI-E.

[Smokey21]

This is what id get:

3800+ X2- £229 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=256882
7800GT- £204 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=250971
Asus A8N-E- £66 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=298780

Your not going to get a better video card, though id want to spend more myself, as the upgrade isn't that substancial. Can't you sell of your current stuff?

[davethechamp]

This is what id get:

3800+ X2- £229 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=256882
7800GT- £204 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=250971
Asus A8N-E- £66 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=298780

Your not going to get a better video card, though id want to spend more myself, as the upgrade isn't that substancial. Can't you sell of your current stuff?

To save a few more quid on the CPU you could try here, and then get an after market HSF, which you would prob do any way if you are going to overclock.
I think the 7800GT should be fine, you should be able to take up a reasonable amount.

Dave

[Nox]

Games will go multi-threaded, not right now (in general) but over the next few (5) years they will, and we will see normal desktop machines with 4 or more processors on them. Well, thats what I reckon - software is becoming more of a resource hog, and hardware is slowing down its speed growth so fast... my old system, a p4 northwood 3.2 is still blindingly quick, and thats got to be well over 2 years old by now.

Personally, I went for a single core opteron - fast and cheap. My last processor was only 9-12 months old. If I only upgraded once every 3 years, I definately would of gone dual core, infact my next processor will most likely be a dual core.

Whatever floats your boat - both are good processors, and ultimately everyones arguing over a few points/pounds here and there, not worth the stress. The X2 will 'feel' faster in windows, everything will feel smoother. But for games? not a lot of difference either way.

Nox

[KingJimi]

The 3800+ X2 is pretty inviting, considering that in the latest Custom PC, they reviewed a PC that has it overclocked to 2.6GHz, and runs almost as fast as a FX-57.

(Oops, looks like I've started the argument again)

Simple as this, FX-57 and the X2 range are both good anyway. Whoever wants which is their decision, probably based on their needs. I personally want a dual core because it would stop me having to upgrade when multi-threaded games do start to appear. And it probably will be in the next two, not five years.

I do admit, fitting everything into £500 is challenging, but I think I can do it.

Also, I only need to add 512MB more to the Corsair I have already so I could fit it in. I did say I want to cap up to £500 for the CORE components (MB, CPU, Graphics), everything else is just up to whether I need it like the Raptors I've ordered.

[sawyen]

Yeap, I've said it before.. Its challenging, but not impossible.

My new rig is ALMOST similar, 3800+ X2 + Neo4-DM + 7800GT.. not 1 week ago. I did it for a tad more over £550 but I'm pretty happy with it.

and yes, the 3800+ X2 clocks up very very easily.. It hit 2.4Ghz with just a tad more 1.45V, havent tried higher.

[Smokey21]

Like Dave said, get the 3800+ from the link he posted. I bought my 4400+ from there when they first came out, for like 380quid, hell some shops still sell them for that price, it's a good retailer.

The 3800+ does overclock very nicely, 99% of them seem to hit 2.4Ghz with ease, with will be plenty fast enough for a long time, of course with overclocking there is no guarentee, but you would have to be dam unlucky not to reach 2.4Ghz.

[KingJimi]

For the 3800, is some monster cooling setup required or I can just run it on standard air cooling?

So, on second time of asking, the updated specs are as follows:

AMD Athlon 64 X2+ 3800 @ 2.4 -2.6GHz
1GB Corsair XMS4000 RAM
XFX GeForce 7800GT
4 x 74GB WD Raptors @ Raid 1 - (Got)
Akasa PaxPower 460W (Got)
SB Audigy 2 ZS (Got)

Lookin good, anyone agree?

[sawyen]

Mine's running on an Xp-90C using a tornado.. Super overkill really.. You could get away with just the stock cooler at 2.4Ghz..

[StormPC]

Dual-cores are not gamining CPUs. You can play games on them but that's not what they are designed for. Dual-cores are designed for multi-tasking and programs that benefit from more than one CPU. While there are a couple of games that benefit slightly from a dual-core when compared clock-for-clock to the single core equivalent, the single core will overclock at least 200MHz higher on the same voltage (usually much more) and cost about half the price.

For example:

4000+ San Diego (2.4GHz/1MBCache) is $334.00 US and hits almost 3GHz on air at 1.5v
4800+ Toledo (2.4GHz/1MB Cache) is $787.00 US and barely hits 2.6GHz on air at 1.5v.

In addition, the dual-cores have much lower memory bandwidth and higher latencies clock for clock as well.

Dual-cores are great for some things. Games are not (and will not soon be) one of them. If you want to build a good budget gamer dual-cores are absolutely the stupid choice.

[Smokey21]

Storm, go away. Your opinion, is

-wrong
-and not wanted.

Seriously, why have you come back, you have no idea what your talking about.

Dual Core's aren't designed for games? But the FX-57 is so thats a much better buy?

LOL i love how you pluck out random overclock numbers for chips. 4000+ hits 3ghz on air? My ****ing arse crack does it.

With a decent video card, a DC at 2.5ghz and a single core at 2.8ghz, the DC is the winner, and thats now.

[Nox]

With a decent video card, a DC at 2.5ghz and a single core at 2.8ghz, the DC is the winner, and thats now.

erm, i'm not convinced. And i'm not in the mood to argue with this, even if it is last years:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...px?i=2397&p=18

For the next year or two, games will continue to be mostly single threaded, meaning that alone, they get no performance benefit from being run on a dual core CPU.

oh, and ignoring th FX benchies, the dual core is slower IN GAMES than a single core at only 200mhz faster.

But ultimately, and this is the key thing, they are all roughly the same, no one will notice 3fps so stop stressing. If all you do is play games, and you're on a budget - go single core. Otherwise, go dual, esp if you want to defrag your HD while playing games. Games will go multi threaded, eventually, and the more people that buy dual core, means it will more likely be sooner.

Nox

EDIT OK, I know you can see a few % performance increase from nvidia drivers on a dual core machine, same still applies though.

[davethechamp]

For the 3800, is some monster cooling setup required or I can just run it on standard air cooling?

So, on second time of asking, the updated specs are as follows:

AMD Athlon 64 X2+ 3800 @ 2.4 -2.6GHz
1GB Corsair XMS4000 RAM
XFX GeForce 7800GT
4 x 74GB WD Raptors @ Raid 1 - (Got)
Akasa PaxPower 460W (Got)
SB Audigy 2 ZS (Got)

Lookin good, anyone agree?

I think that'll give you a really great all round machine that should last a good while. Going dual core now if you are upgrading is the right thing to do i believe, coupled with a 7800GT and a gig of quality ram should see you fine.
You should be able to tackle most any task you through at it.

At the end of the day, if you feel happy and comfortable with your upgrade decisions, GO FOR IT!!

All the best,

Dave