Upgrading PC

[Kinjo2000]

Hey guys,
Have an ASUS Motherboard w/ AMD Athlon 2600 XP+ and 786 DDRam w/ ATI Radeon 9600Xt. Was thinking about getting the Radeon x850XT, how big of a difference would I see in terms of games like HL-2, FEAR, Doom 3, and other games of this caliber. BTW I only have an AGP slot. Or should i just screw it and wait a couple of years and just get high end computer?
Thanks
Kinjo

 

[SolMiester]

Kinjo, what resolution does your monitor go too. LCD or CRT. I would imagine you will get twice the frame rates with that upgrade, depends what res you play at!

 

[Kinjo2000]

LCD Dell Ultrasharp. Want to run at 1024x768. Question is, would upgrading be worth it?

 

[Kinjo2000]

bupm 4 answers

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

The X850XT at $200AR is a good deal.

Is 1024x768 the highest res you have?

Anyway, you should get a big boost if you like to turn all the "eye candy" on for games. The videocard is the most important component for gaming performance so that seems like a good bet to keep you going for a while longer.

EDIT: They used an A64 4000+ for these tests, but you can compare the video performance between the two cards here
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/07/05/vga_charts_vii/

 

[alimoalem]

go for it

 

[Mik3y]

i would try to oc that cpu of yours to 3000+ or 3200+. also, i recommend at least 1gb of ram. the more performance you can squeeze out of that old system, the better everything will perform.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

HL2 FPS are more dependant on the CPU/memory. Start there! I know its a short answer, but you will say to yourself, this guy was right. As for the other games, ehhh i don't know, but never the less the XT850 IS a faster card and ... o where was i, yes, HL2 FPS, let me say again HL2 "FPS" are more dependant on CPU/memory then any other game ive experienced out there...