Legit Reviews

I am sure everyone is about fed up with my insesant questions but here goes some more. I know it would be best if I could run a X2 6400 with an 8800GTS and 4 GIG of 8500RAM but alas I cannot so....IF I were to go with a lower end CPU like a X2 3800 socket AM2 and run that with an 8800 GTS and 2 GIG of DDR2 6400 ram would that run the game ok or would I be better off going with a little faste CPU and a little slower Vid card?? I have not played this game yet and I want to be able to play it without lagging. PLease check my "consider this" thread in the general computing section for what I plan on doing. Gaming is about all I do with my PC but I havenot yet tried any of the new gen high graphics games since I have been playing in an online community for the last 4+years. I am ready now for the next stage. PLease advise thx.

Do you plan on overclocking your CPU, and is this the G92 512MB GTS?

Without overclocking, I can see that CPU bottlenecking the graphics card. So if you are not happy about overclocking it, then it would be a good idea to get a 8800GT and spend the money saved on a faster CPU. Also, with using a mATX motherboard, they aren't usually geared for overclocking, and while I think your board of choice has the options there, there is no guarantee as to how well it will actually overclock.

What resolution do you plan on gaming at?

Dan

It runs half decent on my test rig which has a 5200+, but it runs amazingly fast on my main rig which now has an E6850...

I messed up...I was actually thinking of the 8800GT but I could keep the setup I have right now OC my CPU to 2.2 Ghz ( which I have done already) and buy this card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130325 if that would run COD4 and Crysis with only the RAM I have I could do that and wait another 4-6 months before I upgrade to a DDR2 MOBO and an AM2 CPU. I don't know much about what resolution I want to play at but my monitor will support 1280 X 1024. Mostly I want to be able to see all the new graphics stuff they have come out with and I want to be able to play other new gen games going forward for the next.....18 to 24 months before I have to upgrade the video again.

The new Vid Card can always fit into future upgrades but I don't have the extra $$ to upgrade to more DDR ram for a temp upgrade when DDR2 is already out. I assume that a card that has PCI-E x16 2.0 will work on a MOBO that only has PCI-e x16.

Originally I wasn't going to upgrade my Video card at all but I also had not looked at a new game in some time and when I did I found that COD4, Crysis, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. etc all have massive Vid card requirements and what I had planned for my upgrade..look at the " consider this" thread in the general computer section, will not run COD4 any better than what I have now. Basically I am having to rethink the whole upgrade in terms of what to do first. The Vid card is the only item I can upgrade alone at this time, all the rest ( MOBO, RAM, and CPU) have to be done at the same time due to the socket and memory changes.There in lies the quandry...Vid card alone or CPU,MOBO, and RAM which way will I have the most playable system while I gather up the $$ to do the rest?

Short term, getting the GTS now looks to be your best option.

It will just mean that on your current system you won't be seeing its full potential. But carrying it over to a new build will then allow you to unleash it's power.

Ideally you could have done with 2GB of RAM to be comfortable, but even with just 1GB the games will still be more than playable.
I wondered if you should go with an 8800GT and 1GB more DDR, but like you say, it's putting $$$ into a dead end system.

Whats your cooling like on your current CPU? Any chance you can get up to 2.4 - 2.6GHz with it?

Dan

Wow talk about good luck!!! A co-worker of mine won 30K on a scratch off ticket a few weeks ago and today he actually gave me the $$ he said he would $1000. So my wife let me spend $600 of it on PC ( sadly I had dentist bills for the rest). So New system is on the way via new egg of course. Will post with stats and picks when I get it in. eVGA 8800 GT ( not GTS to save a little) X2 5000 Black. 2 GIG Corsair XMS2 6400, Gigabyte 740G chipset MOBO ( not the newest one to save a little more). Its not the top of the line but I had to stay under 600 and my shipped price was 565 including COD4 ! gotta have the game right.

Wow, that really is good luck!

There's nothing like a free PC

Dan

and a pretty nice one at that. I probably should have been a little more patient and held out for a GTS and a better CPU but to heck with it I am still getting a fairly sweet setup for free.

I am running max settings on a stock Athlon 4000, and an 8800gt overclocked to 675mhz, and 2 gigs of ram. No lagging whatsoever. That game is well optimized.

This is at 1280x720 on a 26" HDTV.