Stuck with Socket 754 & AGP

[saiku]

Hi all,

I currently run a Athlon 64 3000+ system on a socket 754 mobo (MSI) and a NVIDIA 6800GT AGP card. I have 1GB of Kingston DDR 3200 RAM. I use it mainly for FPS gaming ( CS:S , BF2) and photo editing and managing. Rarely, a little bit of video editing maybe.

I want to upgrade to a Dual Core system soon since I am concerned that if I hang onto my 754/AGP , I may never be able to sell it for anyting close to a reasonable price on ebay/craigslist etc. Is there any hope for non-PCI-express, non-939 folks out there? How can I sell just the mobo-cpu-videocard combination? Has anyone done this in the past?

Just a little apprehensive about how to upgrade to the 939,pci-e world from 754,agp world. What have your experiences been.

Thanks for any info.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Right now you pay a premium for dual-core and for PCI-E cards as good as your 6800GT.

Why not just use your current system for another year? Yes the resale value will plummet, but so will the prices of dual-core A64 and of nv 7800 cards.

Put the money in an INGDirect.com account and save up for a significant upgrade instead of just a crossgrade.

 

[saiku]

Not a bad idea, Dave. The only thing is that newer games seem to run fairly poorly on hardware just a few months old. I never dreamed that BF2 would bring the 6800GT to its knees. But I get 50ish FPS at medium settings at 1024x768 (quite disappointing).

 

[DaveSimmons]

You might check the threads in the Software forum for tips on tuning performance,this seems to be the only game that causes this kind of slow performance on a system like yours.

Also try to figure out what is actually holding you back most: CPU, video or RAM.

Remember the X2 chips are much slower in games than the ratings, a 4200+ X2 is slower than a 3700+ single core.

If the CPU is the main problem then a faster socket 754 CPU might make the most sense to get this one game to work at the speed you want.

If video is holding you back, then it's time to auction off a kidney on eBay and get a 939 mobo, CPU, and nv 7800GTX card.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Also check out AnandTech article on BF2 from it it looks like you'd need a major hardware upgrade to get much more performance in this one game.

Unless you have $1,000+ to move to a 3700+ and 7800GTX you might just turn off AA/AF and live with 50ish frame rates for BF2.

It's hopefully the exception for upcoming games rather than the rule.