Computer Gaming Question

[Whirlwind]

Hi guys. This is my first post,however i have been reading threads at this forum ever since i found it about 3 weeks ago.

I really have liked what i read ,so i thought i would sign up .

I am saving my money to get a new pc and after reading some things on here i would just love to build one, just not sure that i can handle the task. {I have put in a new video card and ram in my pc and that is it!}

It wont be until late this year that i have enough money saved to get my new pc, i am shooting for $2000, i have $1200 now, but can only save around $20 per week.

I just love to play games on the pc and i am 47 years old!! LOL.

Anyways,here is my question. When playing my games on the pc do i get all my "eye candy" from my video card and my frames per second from mt CPU?

If so i am going to want to have a sweet cpu in my next pc, because everything looks awsome {Ati 9800XT} but in some newer games my frames drop and it stutters some. {P4 2.6Ghz 400FSB}

Thanks to anyone who can answer my question.

 

[Trifid]

Games now mainly depend on the GPU more than the CPU, so spending loads on the CPU is not as good Costerformance ratio, with that said, it is usually the CPU that is the bottleneck (GTR is a prime example of this.)

M2 will be coming out in the spring, so the prices will go down a bit, but with AMD, the first batch's are the best ones out, so it could be woth considering getting the CPU now, and keeping it in storage until you have enough for motherboard, RAM and a graphics card.

It is not hard to build a PC, all it needs is a bit of force on the places it needs, and a gentle touch in others.

 

[C1!m@t3]

It is not hard to build a PC, all it needs is a bit of force on the places it needs, and a gentle touch in others.

And patience ^^

 

[Mr_Threepwood]

In my opinion when I build a new PC I like to blow the most money on the processor and get a medium quality video card. That way in a year or two you will be able to get a new video card without having the CPU be the limiting factor.

However with regards to your question, no the video card matters far more when playing games. But without a good CPU a video card cannot always operate at its full potential.

 

[AnthraX]

Personally, I would wait until the AMD Socket M2's ship and get one of those. Also, I would wait until "Windows Vista ready" hardware arrive. Such as video cards that natively support DirectX 10.