Graphic card or CPU upgrade?

Message

Julio78 · Post by **Julio78** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 3:37 pm

My specs,

AthlonXP +1600
ATI Radeon 9200 128M

Which one should I upgrade if I can only afford to change one? My idea is to buy the one that will privide the most significant FPS increase.

rekked · Post by **rekked** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 3:57 pm

I would go for the video card, but, seeing your specs, I would say your card is "more than acceptable", so I'd bet for the processor upgrade (to the highest your motherboard can handdle).

Boris27 · Post by **Boris27** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 4:11 pm

I'd say videocard, but it all depends on the game you're playing. Quake 3 for example, would benefit more from videocard, since it's fillrate limited.

Anime_Fan · Post by **Anime_Fan** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 4:14 pm

CPU...

Any 128MB GFX card should be enough if you run games at 800x600 resolution.

I would run my Ti4400 with an Opteron (or Athlon64) if I could afford it. No need for more GFX horsepower here.

DocGonzo · Post by **DocGonzo** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 4:58 pm

I don't know how fast the Radeon 9200 is, but i bet its the same class like the Nvidia 5200 FX witch sucks. I testet a 5200 and I get half the fps in glxgears than on my old but great GF2 Ti200 its the same in any other simple opengl benchmark. If the games/benchmarks are more complex the results get closer to each other. But over all the 5200FX seams slower.

If it just for gaming i suggest you a real fast videocard (a GF FX Ultra or Radeon Pro/XT) The Mainstream cards are all to slow on memory access. The CPU seams quite good enough for me. If you look at the requirements on some windows game boxes, you'll hardly find a game that realy needs more power.

The advantage of a CPU upgrade would be that all applications would benefit of it.

Its your choice anyway ...

blueworm · Post by **blueworm** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 7:11 pm

I think the most sensible thing to do would be how many fps per $.
You could perhaps almost double framrates by changing the cpu to a athlon 2800+
about 150 EURO.
I would suspect that for 150 Euros you are not gonna buy a grafics card that would increase the fps by much at all.

To · Post by To » Fri Nov 28, 2003 8:59 pm

Honestly it depends on your mother board, if you have a good chipset, then go for a graphic card. If your motherboard ain't that good, well go for a new processor, but start thinking on buying a new board on the xmas

Tó

Julio78 · Post by **Julio78** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 9:48 pm

Humm, not sure if my MB is good or not...

this is it : http://www.ecsusa.com/products/k7s5a_pro.html

jaska · Post by **jaska** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 2:30 pm

Probably will cause problems if you get an xp 2800+ because it needs ddr333(pc2700) ram and your mb does not look like it can support it.

You can get a decent upgrade by buying Abit NF7 for about 90 + xp 2500+ for maybe 100, then a decent 512mb pc3200 ram stick for about 90 as well.

zypher · Post by **zypher** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 3:19 pm

I have that board, too and I'm happy with my XP 2200+.
Actually you won't notice the difference between cpus if you're not making a really big jump.

Noomin · Post by **Noomin** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 8:40 am

The K7S5A Pro is an okay board for the price. However, if you're really concerned about performance, drop it.

If you want to keep the board, you can improve things a great deal by installing a honeyx hacked BIOS. Be sure to read the K7S5A Motherboard Forum for more information.
021209b is thought to be the most stable honeyx BIOS, but I've been using 030811 for awhile and have encountered no trouble.

honeyx enables lots of features (including overclocking and AGP Fastwrites). I also recommend reading the Unofficial K7S5A Motherboard Guide for further advice.

dreas · Post by **dreas** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 3:31 pm

I used to have an Athlon Thunderbird 1200MHz and a Geforce 4 MX.

First I've upgraded to a Geforce 4 Ti 4200 and saw almost no performance boost in Savage. I was quite disappointed.

Then I upgraded to an Athlon XP 2400+ and a new mainboard and finally there has been an huge increase in fps when playing Savage!

SQLBoy · Post by **SQLBoy** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 7:48 pm

I would go with a new motherboard if I were you since any new processor or video card worth buying is going to be crippled by your current motherboard and chipset.

I believe the fastest Athlon boards right now are all sporting Nforce2 chipsets. You can use your current processor, video, and ram with this board. The Asus A7N Deluxe. Behold.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... ode=240272

After the mobo update I would do video card since the Athon XP 1600+ can push a faster card. The 9600 XT is a reall good buy.

Then I would do RAM and CPU at the same time since your new CPU will have a faster FSB. The current trend is to go with the Barton 2500+ and overclock it as fast as it will go. Mine went to 3200+ no problem. Also look into OCZ ram. Its been stealing the show from Corsair big time.

Barton Chip
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... ode=240272

512 megs of OCZ Ehanced Latency matched pair (2 x 256) optimzed for dual channel operation supported by the nforce2 chipset.
http://www.essencompu.com/nupplysingar.asp?ID=3338

Anyway, I hope that helps. Upgrading is an art.

Malakin · Post by **Malakin** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 8:36 pm

Which one should I upgrade if I can only afford to change one? My idea is to buy the one that will privide the most significant FPS increase.

As was already said, you should tell us what games/s you play. With some games a faster cpu isn't going to make any difference and with others a faster video card isn't going to make any difference, totally depends on the game.

Julio78 · Post by **Julio78** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 10:13 pm

America's Army.

I get about 40-60 fps with AA0 1.9 , however it drops to 1-10 fps with v2.0.

Malakin · Post by **Malakin** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 2:47 am

Julio78 wrote:America's Army.

I get about 40-60 fps with AA0 1.9 , however it drops to 1-10 fps with v2.0.

I've barely played that so I'm not too sure about it but I think it's more cpu intensive if I remember correctly. If dropping the resolution doesn't speed things up then you're better off getting a faster cpu although as people have mentioned an nforce2 board will give you another 15-20%. You can get an XP2400+ for about $80usd and possibly trade in or sell your XP1600 so you can stick with your current board and get a decent upgrade for fairly cheap. You might want to hold onto your current board and wait until Athlon 64's drop in price before making the jump to a new board, then you can go to an Athlon 64.

Oh I should also ask, you are using ddr on that motherboard right? it takes both sdr and ddr. If you're using sdr then your mobo/ram would be a much bigger bottleneck then my stated 15-20%.

grinch · Post by **grinch** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 1:16 pm

I'd say its too early for you to buy a new gfx card. So either save until the next gen of vid cards come out or buy the cpu.

DocGonzo · Post by **DocGonzo** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 4:06 pm

I have one question relating this topic: How does a AGP 8x card perform on a AGP 4x mainboard. Is this a hard bottleneck? Does anybody have experiences with this?

Malakin · Post by **Malakin** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 7:30 pm

DocGonzo wrote:I have one question relating this topic: How does a AGP 8x card perform on a AGP 4x mainboard. Is this a hard bottleneck? Does anybody have experiences with this?

The difference depending on the app is usually <5%.