Upgrade Video Card with current specs?

[jet.]

Athlon Bred B 1700+ @200x12.5 -2.5Ghz
Abit NF7-S rev.2.0
TwinMos 3x256 6/3/3/2 @ DDR400 PC3200
Radeon 9700 Non-Pro 350/290
Antec 380W WD80JB/WD120JB HDD's
Xaser III Case w/Aeroflow 45C +/-5
XP Pro SP1
3D Mark '01/03 (.340) -16,720/5,260

I was thinking if i should either upgrade the motherboard, processor or graphics card first as i'm quite tight on money? An Athlon 64 motherboard, FX processor and X800 on the cards perhaps? Or maybe go down the Intel route? Not too sure, any suggestions.

I think i'd see a greater performance boost with a new graphics card (being a gamer predominantly), but i'm guessing my 2.5Ghz and motherboard are bottlenecks? Therefore if i stick a X800 inside, will i more than likely need to install a high-end athlon xp or have to buy something even higher up, as stated before, Athlon 64 mobo and FX processor?

What about DDR3 and PCI-Express? Do i need to take them into consideration?

[dajogejr]

You're tight on money, but considering a 400 dollar graphics card, or a 700 dollar CPU and Mobo upgrade?



I'd wait...but I don't think a 2.5GHz AMD CPU is bottlenecking anything.

Go with the top of the line ATI or Nvidia card if you're really scratching that bad...but, you're card is still pretty good....

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Liek the man said, wait, the 9700 is still a reasonabel enough performer.

The motherboard and CPU arent bottlnecks, and to be honest, you wont notice the full benefit of upgrading to a 64-Bit CPU at present anyways given the lack of 64-Bit specific optimisations, OS's and software.

Similar things go for PCI-E, at present its slower than AGP 8x. If i were you i would wait for a good few months yet, to see how PCI-E and 64-Bit processing develop. Similarly, graphics cards are movign to 512mb of Vram in a short while.

If you must have something in the next couple of months then wait until the furore dies down over the X800 and FX6800 Series then pick up wither an FX6800 GT and o/c it up to FX6800U level or an X800 Pro VIVO and flash it to X800XT.

With the setup youve got at present though, you can probably wait until Christmas if not later.

--Jakk

[JediOfDarkness]

Well, as they said, the CPU is great, nice OC. And with your current configuration, I'd say nothing is bottlenecking. If you went with a GeForce 6800 GT or Ultra, your CPU will probably hold it back a little, but I haven't seen a CPU yet that hasn't. A Radeon X800 Pro would be an awesome addon to your system, would give a huge boost in preformance and wouldn't burn a hole in your wallet. You might also consider a GeForce 6800 Standard, as I've seen them for as low a $280, and they preform between the ranks of a R9800XT and the X800P, though sometimes even beating out the X800P.

Bottom line: your CPU is great, can't see any reason to upgrade unless you want to OC further (i.e. a Barton 2500), and your graphics card will do for now, unless you want to play new games with sharp graphics and highest detail levels. But like they said, if you want the best video card, wait. Soon PCIe will hit off and become more powerful and they'll also get a boost in vram.

[dajogejr]

Honestly...even if he got a mobile Barton, I wouldn't be surprised to see him hit the same ceiling he's at now with that older chip...save the loot!

[JediOfDarkness]

True, but I've seen Barton 2500's hit 3.5GHz, so it shows ya it's a great CPU. I highly doubt you'd be able to bottleneck anything with a CPU like that even if you tried.

[dajogejr]

Jedi...are you sure you're not talking about 3500 XP ratings?

I've never heard of a chip DOUBLING it's stock clock rate, in this case the 2500 is 1.833 GHz.

I know they've been hitting 2.4 and 2.5 GHz with those mobile chips...but, 3.5?

I find that hard to believe. Not saying you're lying...I'd, just have to see it for myself, that's all...

Anyways...the real bottleneck of any system is the hard drive.

That's where a nice SATA or SCSI hard drive come into play...but, they are pricey for the size you get...

[JediOfDarkness]

Nope, the Barton 2500 CAN hit 3.5GHz, though by means of Dry Ice or Nitrogen. And I know that all of you have Nitrogen laying around the house..
But for those of you without the Nitrogen and Dry Ice in your freezers, I've seen a Barton 2500 hit 2800MHz with Air Cooling and 3000MHz with water cooling and vapor chilling.

[dajogejr]

OK...I thought we were talking practical here...

Yeah, I'm sure it'll hit 4.0GHz if he wanted to head on over to the Zebra Ice Station...

Yes, the average Joe on Air is getting 2.2 to 2.5 results. Which...he is already at.

So...as mentioned, I say stay as is!

[JediOfDarkness]

Well, it's not all about the speed, either. He has an older CPU that doesn't have some capabilities.. but I still agree with you, not worth buying a new CPU over. I was just saying that the only reason that he would have to upgrade is for more overclocking capabilities, not that he should.

[RamonGTP]

I've never seen nor heard of ANY amd hitting 3.5GHz with out phase change cooling... So kinda poitless to bring it up since jet isn't gonna be doing anything like that.

Also, 2.8 isn't typical of a mobile, thats what you'll get if you're lucky. Not wroth it considering he has his at 2.5 now.

[NDD]

Originally posted by JediOfDarkness
Nope, the Barton 2500 CAN hit 3.5GHz, though by means of Dry Ice or Nitrogen. And I know that all of you have Nitrogen laying around the house..
But for those of you without the Nitrogen and Dry Ice in your freezers, I've seen a Barton 2500 hit 2800MHz with Air Cooling and 3000MHz with water cooling and vapor chilling.

I'd like to see some real screenshots of that

[jet.]

Thanks everyone, i'm sorry if it seemed i had alot of money, heh (i don't!) i was just comparing one of the three mentioned (graphics, processor or mobo) in regards to buying all three.

Well as i'm not tearing my hair with my systems performance at the moment (confused looks from others i expect ), i would definitley like to upgrade my graphics now that i've seen the X800 can play games at my current desktop resolution (1600x1200) at 60 fps on average and that's with AA and AF enabled! As for my processor, i may just go for water cooling being as i'm still on air. Maybe get nearer 3ghz! dope. As for motherboard, well there is 64-bit, then there are no distinct advantages and performance gains over the nforce boards.

Again, cheers for the help in making my mind up guys.

[jet.]

X800 IQ's
http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjExLDEw

CPU Overclock Databases
http://www.cpudatabase.com/CPUdb/

Man, someone got my CPU (i have same stepping) with Kryo to 4.7Ghz!

[JediOfDarkness]

Well, with water cooling you probably wouldn't get more than a couple hundred MHz more out of your CPU, if that. It would really take either Phase Change (ie VapoChill) or something along the lines of Dry Ice cooling to get anything higher than that, seeing as you'd have to have extremely low temps. But if you're wanting to spend the money to get higher MHz, you could go with a VapoChill system (about $900) and probably clock your CPU out at 3GHz or higher.