Cheap and Chearful upgrade needed

Hi, just ordered need for speed most wanted and the demos not running as nicely as i'd hope for

Want to be able to play it at 1280*1024 with near full detail and currently only managing 1280*1024 low detail or 1024*768 high

Current specs are:

P4 2.26 533FSB
Gigabyte GA8IPE1000 Pro-G
1GB Crucial Value RAM
Sapphire Radeon 9800Pro
Samsung 160GB HD
X-Fi Extreme Music
300W SilentX PSU

Think thats all you need to know.

Basically want to know how i can get higher detail in the game without spending too much. Farcry and NFSU2 both run with full detail at 1280*1024 with no probs.

I'm thinking maybe try an source a 2.8/3.0 northwood?

Thanks
Ben

When are the slowdowns?

If it's generally slow/not very responsive, then replace the gfx card with a 6800gt.*

If it only slows down when you suddenly turn and see a lot of city background with stuff going on, replace the CPU.*

Most likely you will need to do both to get a smooth experience on full details. And that will still only be about 30fps - the game engine isn't very well suited to PCs at high details.

*recomendations made from my own experiences with NFSU2, not MW.

Will the PSU have to be upgraded with a 6800GT?

And can you buy AGP 6800GTs anymore? Think they've been replaced with the GS >?<

/em slightly confused with all the incremental GPU upgrades that have been coming out of the woodwork lately!

Thanks!

Kalniel, what you say is interesting. Most problems are when i suddenly turn/lots of tyre smoke etc so guess that hints at new cpu.

The full version (Got it today!) is much better with resources than the demo though. Get it working at 1280*1024 with medium-high details

I totally agree with kalniel. I'd say it was the 9800 hampering your style, I upgraded to a 6800 (pipes unlocked and overclocked of course :) ) and things are running alot smoother even though I'm still running on a 2500+ Barton. You'll see a bigger improvement by changing your gfx card then by geting a speedier CPU (although both is better:devilish: ). Only wish I had 256Mb like the GT...sigh...but budget wouldn'tstretch that far :mad:

I've posted a wanted thread here and will see what comes along

TBH the cpu is the most out of date part and the most overdue for an upgrade. Should give a nice boost to all tasks :)

Pretty sure i'll do the cpu this time then sometime its going to have to be AMD64/mobo/pci-e

the Asrock 939DUAL-SATA2 S939 PCI-E/AGP USB2 Lan 7.1Ch Audio is a good mobo for around &#163;45. means you can still use your (AGP) 9800 and when you want to upgrade go for a PCI-E card later. You can whack a 939 Sempron/A64 in now, then you can go dual-core when you win the lottery!

if you want to keep your motherboard you could get a 6800 ultra, loads of agp versions are being sold on ebay currently for around the £200 mark

Not looking at spending that much. If i could i'd probably do as oakleyb says and get the asrock mobo with agp and pci-e.

Waiting for any more offers of P4s :)