lookin to upgrade -- any tips?

[the100thballoon]

Im looking to semi-upgrade. I want (2) 512 MB sticks of RAM (DDR 400 pls) and im debating btw another (so id be SLIing these) GeForce 6800 128MB card or selling my current card (GeForce 6800 128 MB) and buying a GeForce 7800 512 card.

Any suggestions? Please include price if u make a suggestion.

 

[Lahdoz]

What are you using the computer for?

I built my primary PC specifically for gaming, and that's about all I do at home. I chose a single core 64. If you plan on doing a lot of multitasking with processor intensive applications, go with a dual core system.

Most 939 motherboards will take both kinds, so you could go with something like a single 3700 for now, and in a year or 2 get a dual core processor.

 

[Speedo]

There's a huge price difference between the GF6800 and GF7800GTX-512, you know. Like $100 vs $750, last I looked. If you've got the money, a 7800GTX-512 is a no brainer. It's the faster card on the market, and will easily outpace GF6800 SLI (the 6800 had rather lackluster performance to begin with).

If you've got a decent budget but aren't quite crazy enough to drop it all on the 7800GTX-512, pretty much any of the 7800 series cards will beat GF6800 SLI.

If you're wanting to do a hefty upgrade now (as in, spend a good bit of money), then go for the dualcore. I would get the 4400 though... minimal performance difference vs the 4800, but about a 30% lower price.

 

[the100thballoon]

I use my machine for gaming 99% of the time.

 

[HawkeyeGS]

2 video cards can easily out perform one (even if the one is a very good on) once you factor in cost. I have just bought 2x 6800GS. As for CPUs go a single core (dual core is not supported in many if any games. It is only good for say ripping a DVD and blowing the head off some guy at the same time). You may want to ruun 2 applications at once all the time in whcih case dual core would be the way to go but if you are someoe like me who can play games all day and then rip a DVD while having lunch I would wait until games support dual core which will take several more years IMHO.

 

[Speedo]

2 video cards can easily out perform one (even if the one is a very good on) once you factor in cost.

Completely inaccurate. The improvements offered by Crossfire and SLI rarely top 30%. Unless you are on the high end looking for maximum performance, you are always better off getting the higher-level single card. Your 6800GS's cost about $200 each for a total of $400, but for just over $300 you could get a 7800GT which will offer better performance across the board than the 6800GS SLI.

I would wait until games support dual core which will take several more years IMHO.

We already have games like Quake4 offering patches with SMP, giving massiv performance increases to dualcore. Many of the major games on track for '06 will have some SMP features. Multicore is the future.

 

[Xeven the God]

Get the RAM. Get the bloody RAM. More RAM is always good. I'd make sure I had at least 2GB, if I were you. 2GB is just about good for anything, unless you're doing video editing or 3D modelling (I'll assume you don't, but I could be wrong).

AMD Athlon 64 3200 is a great budget proc. If you have it, or reasonably close, don't worry about a processor upgrade until dualcore multi-threading is pretty widely supported. It's still not quite the standard and many programs have still yet to take advantage of it.

As for the card... Would sell that 6800 and invest in either a 7800GTX or a 7800GTX512. Upgrading to one of those will give you a massive performance increase--much more than another 6800 in SLI. Don't look at the 7800GT. The Decreased performance isn't worth the small price drop, in my opinion.

Bah, first post in ages...

 

[dragokatzov]

dual cores are pretty handy. what does happen when you use dual core, or hyperthreading, one core/thread will pretty much only use the game, and the other will do everything elce. i do not see any reason NOT to upgrade to a dual core processor right now. lessen the load!
but i really think you would be better off with a RAM upgrade instead, then upgrade to dual core once you start to see some games system requirements reach 2.5 Ghz/2500+

 

[Speedo]

what does happen when you use dual core, or hyperthreading, one core/thread will pretty much only use the game, and the other will do everything elce.

Normally with dualcore you will see the load basically even between the cores, even running something like a game. Essentially all programs run multiple threads (your computer is running 300-400 or more threads at any given time) and Windows will automatically balance threads between the two cores.

Don't look at the 7800GT. The Decreased performance isn't worth the small price drop, in my opinion.

Dunno where you get that. The 7800GTX has almost a 50% greater price tag than the 7800GT. ~300 vs ~$450. The performance drop between them is small, but I don't call that a "small" price drop.