Recommended quick boost upgrade from A64 3000+ ?

[Maverick]

I'm looking for a quick boost from this setup:

A64 3000+ S939
DFI Ultra D Nf4
2 GB OCZ DDR CAS 2
Nvidia 7800GT PCI Express 512MB

Company of Heroes is being a little sluggish and I'm looking for a quick boost...was thinking of going with an X2 4600+ or 4800+ but I"m not sure if its money well spent.

Price is a major consideration as I'd like to keep my total upgrade cost below $300 max. C2D or AM2 would require motherboard/memory upgrades that keep this out of reach.

Additionally I'd like to avoid reinstalling windows/applications and just get a quick drop in upgrade. I want to avoid a major upgrade (like Core 2 Duo) until after Vista comes out.

Thoughts? Recommendations?? Thanks all.

 

[n7]

GPU.
X1900XT 512 MB/X1950 XTX or 7950GX2.

You'll see a very small improvement in games with a marginally faster dual core, unless you're mulitasking like mad while playing CoH.

 

[Captante]

Go with either a 4200+ or a 4600+ ... the extra money for the 2x1mb cache isn't woth the price premium charged for the 4800+.

 

[Regs]

Originally posted by: n7
GPU.
X1900XT 512 MB/X1950 XTX or 7950GX2.

You'll see a very small improvement in games with a marginally faster dual core, unless you're mulitasking like mad while playing CoH.

Agreed. Even the 7950GT looks to have improved a lot in performance. Of course...I looked for one lately at Newegg and ZZF and found nothing. Tiger Direct has them in stock "so they say".

I was thinking about taking the same route. I'd imagine you over clock you A64 at least?

 

[Maverick]

Prices are a little high for me to upgrade the GPU right now...I can't justify spending more than $300 for a new video card. Can you get anything in that range that will give any significant boost over at 7800GT?

 

[Regs]

Originally posted by: Maverick
Prices are a little high for me to upgrade the GPU right now...I can't justify spending more than $300 for a new video card. Can you get anything in that range that will give any significant boost over at 7800GT?

Sell your 7800GT?

The X2 will only perform better in encoding/decoding and maybe even recording. Or what I would like to call them: the three "ings".

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: Regs

Originally posted by: Maverick
Prices are a little high for me to upgrade the GPU right now...I can't justify spending more than $300 for a new video card. Can you get anything in that range that will give any significant boost over at 7800GT?

Sell your 7800GT?

The X2 will only perform better in encoding/decoding and maybe even recording. Or what I would like to call them: the three "ings".

Agreed (as you just restated what i said )

Sell 7800GT + buy new card.

You will not see a magical increase in performance from a new CPU, unless you get a C2D & fire her up to 3+ GHz

 

[Maverick]

Hmm looking into now...7950GT seems pretty reasonable..now I just need to see what I can get for my 7800GT.

 

[RamIt]

Probably not what you want but if i was in your shoes i would get:

ASRock 775Dual-VSTA $61 shipped at newegg
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 $180 shipped at newegg

 

[dexvx]

X2-3800+ (and overclock it some, 2.4Ghz with just modest cooling) if you wanna go Dual Core. Anything more, and you're better off saving for Core2.

 

[Maverick]

Hmm I think I will wait till next year and go C2D after Vista...doesn't seem like the boost I could get would be worth it.

Maybe its time to start pushing my A64 3000+ with some OCing.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Maverick
Hmm I think I will wait till next year and go C2D after Vista...doesn't seem like the boost I could get would be worth it.

Maybe its time to start pushing my A64 3000+ with some OCing.

Yeah, too bad you didn't get an overclocking board for that A64, or you would have thought of that first, huh?:roll:

 

[Maverick]

yeah I did...its a DFI Ultra D motherboard.

 

[Shimmishim]

Originally posted by: Maverick
yeah I did...its a DFI Ultra D motherboard.

good overclocking board!

i'm gonna have to say get a new gpu rather than cpu unless you are a heavy multi-tasker.

a 3000+ runs at 1.8 ghz

a 4600+ runs at 2.4 ghz

600 mhz is pretty significant (x2 since you'll have 2 cores even though performance doesn't scale 2x).

at the same time, you can get a evga 7900gto for around $250ish.

the 7900gto is pretty much a 7900gtx and comes with 512 megs of memory.

it's a tough choice but me personally..

i'd overclock that 3000+ to 2.4 (easily) and get a 7900GTO.

 

[Maximilian]

Yah 7900GTO is the answer here. Also you could wait for the next gen which is supposed to be out soon, that will push down prices on the current gen stuff. But if you find a good deal on a GTO just jump on it.

 

[Pens1566]

Don't get a 7950, get the 7900GTO instead.

 

[Rockinacoustic]

Originally posted by: Pens1566
Don't get a 7950, get the 7900GTO instead.

 

[GZFant]

I am basically in the same boat. Right in the middle of Vista without the funds to completely upgrade.

System specs:

AMD64 Winchester 3000+
ASUS A8N SLi Deluxe
1gig PQI Turbo (2X512 ) 3-4-4-8 (don't know the CAS that turns out to be)
7900GT PCI-e 256MB

Company Heroes is a little sluggish but more importantly BF2 takes half a decade to load. When I finally get in game it seems my compy caches the resources or loads for a little while longer until the 7900GT takes over and everything starts to run almost as smooth as butter.

I have been scouring for a cheap DDR set 2X1GB of CAS2 memory and a cheap processor to upgrade to for the time being. I am not a heavy multitasker but I do like my winamp running behind everything I do almost 90% of the time. Should I go as far as an X2 4800+ or should I wait for a good deal on an FX55 or FX57?

No vid card upgrade or CPU/Mobo upgrade yet. I like my rigs to last a couple years before I do a big overhaul.

Any thoughts, recommendations, Anandtech magic?

Thanks for the MILLIONTH time.