Big Difference?

[hitman67]

Currently running a Socket AM2 Althon 64 x2 4200+.

Now the machine runs ok as it is and does what I need almost. I have some issues on games but I reckon that's down to the Nividia 6100 Graphics card which I will replace as I am waiting for a couple of games to come out that I think would kill my machine.

What I am asking is when I do the graphics card, would I notice a major difference if I say jumped to a 5000+, really don't want to change the Mobo so would stick socket AM2.

Cheers,

Matt.

[Bugbait]

Depending on the game and how fussy you are, probably not a huge difference. Notably improvement? Maybe, but it won't be night and day, especially compared to the GFX upgrade depending on what you get. If the upgrade is cheap then it may be worthwhile.

[Webby]

Personally I would think spending the the extra ~£50 it would cost to upgrade the CPU on the graphics card would show you better performance increases or putting in some more memory if your board can take it.

If you really wanted to go for a newer faster CPU and wanted to spend that much I would go for the 4850e 2.5GHz but only 45W so it will keep everything nice and cool

[shaithis]

In most games, the gfx card makes the biggest difference, by far.

Even a 500-1000MHz increase in CPU speed can be indiscernible, game depending.

[Rosaline]

But remember, beyond a certain point of graphics card investment, you do need a high power CPU to keep feeding instructions to the graphics card, lest you become bottlenecked.

I suppose the question is, what graphics card were you thinking of getting, and what is your overall budget here?

[DanceswithUnix]

Although the CPU can be a bottleneck, you need a really good graphics card for that to happen. Anything around the 100 quid mark should be happily fed by that CPU, and I don't see the latest and greatest being in budget on that machine (or being well served by the ColorsIT PSU).

More ram would be nice though.

[Rosaline]

More ram would be nice though.

Assuming this is the same system as on the original poster's profile, ouch, yes!

You will notice significant gains by increasing your ram, much moreso I suspect than the same investment in a new CPU.

[Bugbait]

Assuming this is the same system as on the original poster's profile, ouch, yes!

You will notice significant gains by increasing your ram, much moreso I suspect than the same investment in a new CPU.

I only just checked his profile as well and absolutely agree! Windows XP Pro runs noticeably better on 2Gig compared to just one. Vista is best at 4Gig+ and is arguably unusable with only 1Gig. Definitely upgrade your GFX and RAM before looking at you CPU, especially a “small” upgrade like 4200+ to 5000+.

[Koolpc]

Get a new Graphics card and try and have 2gig of ram in the PC.