What would be the most beneficial upgrade?

[Pinscher]

I have been going back and forth on what I want to upgrade for awhile now and I know somebody here could probably help me make my decision.

I have a brand new 8800GTX (just RMA'd it) but I am a graphics lover and would really like a 4870 X2 or possibly a GTX280.

My qx6700 can OC to 3.3GHz, but not very easily, and creates alot of heat. I suppose the heat isnt really an issue because of my watercooling which keeps it at about 26-28 idle. I would like a q9650 and get like a 4ghz oc out of it.

The other thing is my mobo. I'm not totally sure if it is the cause of this but when I run certain movie types or games, the graphics driver will stop responding and my screen goes blank. I have to shut off my comp to fix this. It is extremely annoying. I thought it was the graphics card but now that I have a new one I'm guessing its either crappy nvidia drivers or my mobo. Either way, getting a different mobo would most likely solve this problem.

Anyway, what do you guys think would be the most beneficial upgrade to my system? I can only upgrade one thing.

 

[Akubane]

hm. well at 3.3GHz you won't see much of an improvement out of faster clocks as far as graphics and gaming goes even if you get the newer q9650. Unless you play sup com or C&C a lot.
Replacing your mobo would probably fix that bug you have that makes your screen go blank.
Getting an X2 would probably show you the biggest improvement, but even that depends on what resolution you're running at.

I don't know how often you get that blank screen crash thing but that'd be high on my priority list. The 8800gtx isn't a weak card by far, unless you're at 1920x1200. I'd say CPU would be on the bottom of my list of improvements since it wouldn't really do anything as far as most gaming is concerned. (besides supcom and the like)

just my 2 cents

 

[Pinscher]

Well the blank screen crash is mainly with video files and I can usually avoid it by opening the files with a different program.

I currently game on a 22" @ 1680x1050 but I am hoping to get a T260HD for christmas or bday (november) so I will need the extra horsepower.

 

[baron5]

the crashing might be because your cpu isnt entirely stable, run the intel burn test for at leat 5 tests or even 10. as for the pgrade your g card would eb the worst component probably, but if i was you your better of waiitng a gtx still holds its own. depends on the res of your new monitor you could go with a 4850 and overclock the **** out of it or even a 4870.

 

[lukas]

why run the burntest when nothing is gonna stress it asmuch as that? just fiddle about with your CPU settings to see if it fix's the crashes.

 

[Pinscher]

The crashes aren't cpu related. Its on stock right now. Its also not an entire crash... I can get to the task manager but it gets all screwy when I try to quit the movie. I can trigger this crash every time so it can't be cpu stability.

As far as my new monitor goes it will be a 26" running at 1920x1200 so a 4850 won't cut it for me and a 4870 would still be a little slow for me. If I get a new card it will be a 4870 x2 or possibly a gtx280. When I upgrade I go big because I don't do it often. I don't have the money to upgrade my gfx card every 6 months like alot of you do.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

The nvidia 7xx series motherboard suffer from a video corruption issue so that may be the problem you are experiencing.

 

[Pinscher]

Ya I have experienced that before but this is slightly different but is probably still the same corruption issue.

 

[baron5]

why run the burntest when nothing is gonna stress it asmuch as that? just fiddle about with your CPU settings to see if it fix's the crashes.

because the intel burntest is very good at testing stabilization of a overclocked cpu, the most likely time for a crash is the transition from a heavy load back to a neutral idle. even if your cpu may withstand 3dmark and crysis, it still may crash at a random time when your encoding or raring etc. That can be very annoying and i prefer to have my processor as stable as it can be.

 

[Pinscher]

The intel burntest has actually been quite helpful. The problem though, like I said before, is not with my cpu being unstable. It is some glitch in the 7xx boards.