Gaming upgrade on a budget

[MGMorden]

Hey guys. Got a few questions. I just don't keep up with hardware as much as I once did. I have a gaming system that I keep separate from my daily use system, but I just haven't had much time for gaming lately.

Anyways, Dragon Age II is coming out next week and I do plan on playing through this one, but I have some concerns about my hardware. I want to be sure that I'm at least experiencing some semblance of a good experience with the game. I'm currently running a Pentium E2160 1.8Ghz Dual Core, 2GB of Ram, an Nvidia Geforce 9600GT, and Windows XP. I can swing maybe $150-175 tops worth of upgrades at the moment - anything else is going to need to wait at least a few weeks.

I was thinking about getting a video card - likely an Nvidia GTX 460 768MB, but am not sure the processor in this rig could push it. On the other hand I could get a Pentium E5800 3.2Ghz Dual-Core (plus a new motherboard - my old one doesn't' support newer 45nm chips), but then the budget for the video card would be dead.

I could also wait a month or two when I'd have money for a more serious upgrade, but by that time I'll likely be half-way through this game, and by the time something else strikes my fancy it may be back around to upgrade time again .

Any ideas? Which would I see a better improvement by buying (I intend to try to play at native res which for my monitor is 2048x1152 - I know I'll have to dial back the detail for this)? Is it even worth upgrading one half of the equation and not the other?

Thanks for any advice offered.

 

[mnewsham]

Overclock your cpu and get the gpu

 

[fffblackmage]

^ What he said.

I've tried the demo, and DA2 doesn't seem as optimized for quad cores like DA:O was, so you might be fine if you just overclock the E2160. Of course, a newer graphics card will help a lot.

 

[mfenn]

Yeaaaah, I don't know if a 9600GT could handle DA 2 at anything other than all minimum at 2048x1156. You really need to upgrade CPU/mobo/RAM as well as GPU, but the GPU by itself is going to be the most cost-effective upgrade within your budget.

 

[rockyjohn]

Yes, get the video card now and start saving to upgrade the mobo, cpu, and RAM. Then compare your performance with what the reviews show for the same card not constrained by the rest of the system and that should provide some motivation to upgrade the rest of the system.

 

[MGMorden]

Thanks for the advice guys. I went ahead and threw financial caution out the window and pulled out the credit card (man I hate doing that, but I can pay this small of a transaction off on my next paycheck). Went ahead and grabbed the E5800 3.2Ghz Dual-Core, a $40 Foxconn mobo, and the GTX 460 768MB. Total cost for everything was $250. I figure I might as well get at least to a point where I can enjoy the game - and if it's like my last upgrade these parts should hold me over for 1.5 to 2 more years.

 

[fffblackmage]

No desire to try overclocking? Those C2Ds are easily overclockable. I think the E2160 should be able to get close to 3GHz. I had an E6320 and that went from 1.86GHz to 3GHz without much trouble.

If it was overclocked, your E2160 isn't going to be significantly slower than the E5800, and you wouldn't have to pay for a new cpu and mobo.

The new GPU is going to help you more than the new cpu and mobo.

 

[MGMorden]

Once upon a time I did overclock my chips (did most of the old "classic" overclocks like the Celeron 366@550 and the Celeron 566@850, as well as some more along the way), but it's just not something I have the desire to do anymore. I just don't wanna go through the process of inching it forward and testing stability each time. Also a factor is that the motherboard I have has only the absolute minimum of overclocking options.

 

[dpodblood]

I wouldn't bother wasting money on another dual core CPU. Just grab a GTX 460, then save some money for new Mobo/CPU/RAM. The 1GB 460 would be preferable, but you can go with the 768MB if your budget is that restricted. I think you should give up on running @ your monitors native resolution though. With that kind of hardware it's just not realistic. Sorry

 

[MGMorden]

I wouldn't bother wasting money on another dual core CPU. Just grab a GTX 460, then save some money for new Mobo/CPU/RAM. The 1GB 460 would be preferable, but you can go with the 768MB if your budget is that restricted. I think you should give up on running @ your monitors native resolution though. With that kind of hardware it's just not realistic. Sorry

The demo ran acceptably at low detail on my current setup at native. I know that some of the scenes in the demo are less complex than the full game will have, but we'll see how it shakes down.

I think I should be ok dual coring it at the moment though. My main everyday usage system is running a quad-core (not a very new one though - an original Phenom 2.5Ghz) which needs it more (I run a lot of virtualized systems and other tasks on it - it has Ubuntu on it though which is why it's not available for gaming purposes). This second system is strictly for gaming. I'll try to move to something like an i7 in the future but just isn't in the cards right now. Just too many hobbies on the table right now all taking a bite out of my discretionary funds.

Thanks for the input guys!

 

[jterrell]

The demo ran acceptably at low detail on my current setup at native. I know that some of the scenes in the demo are less complex than the full game will have, but we'll see how it shakes down.

I think I should be ok dual coring it at the moment though. My main everyday usage system is running a quad-core (not a very new one though - an original Phenom 2.5Ghz) which needs it more (I run a lot of virtualized systems and other tasks on it - it has Ubuntu on it though which is why it's not available for gaming purposes). This second system is strictly for gaming. I'll try to move to something like an i7 in the future but just isn't in the cards right now. Just too many hobbies on the table right now all taking a bite out of my discretionary funds.

Thanks for the input guys!

dual boot the ubuntu system and put your budget to adding the vid card to that one, imho.

i do this and it works fine for gaming in vista and ubuntu for everything else.

 

[mfenn]

Thanks for the advice guys. I went ahead and threw financial caution out the window and pulled out the credit card (man I hate doing that, but I can pay this small of a transaction off on my next paycheck). Went ahead and grabbed the E5800 3.2Ghz Dual-Core, a $40 Foxconn mobo, and the GTX 460 768MB. Total cost for everything was $250. I figure I might as well get at least to a point where I can enjoy the game - and if it's like my last upgrade these parts should hold me over for 1.5 to 2 more years.

Bad move buying another Core 2. You're getting a pretty marginal improvement for that extra $100. I would have saved up another ~$150 and at least gotten an Athlon II X4, mobo, and DDR3.