My Upgrade Dilemna

[culito]

I'm currently running on an AMD 64 3000+ socket 939, 1024MB Patriot low latency RAM, 160 GB WD SATA main hdd, and 2 Maxtor 100GB SATA's as backup's. No RAID setup or anything. My video card is a 6600GT, and I use onboard sound. All of this on an MSI nforce4 mobo, non SLI. My system is running ok, but when I'm involved in 40 man raids in World of Warcraft or too many players load in CS:S, my fps drops of course.

I'm really considering a video card upgrade. Something along the lines of a 7900GT. BUT, I don't want to upgrade and not notice much of a performance upgrade if my CPU is going to bottleneck my PC.

So... to upgrade the CPU first to a 3700+ or more, non dual core, with a X-fi sound card, or go with the video card purchase?

Provide some of your technical expertise, if possible.

 

[slick_tech15]

Well your cpu is not going to bottleneck any video card at all, well of course it will make the gpu perform worse than an fx60, but still. I dont think you really need to upgrade to that cpu. You should wait for socket AM2 or get a dual core cpu. But, if you are going to get vista when it comes out, dont upgrade your graphics card until the g80 cards come out. - Charlie

 

[john3]

that was kinda all over the place, although all true. If you want it for now just to play the new games, just get a 7900 GT, i dun think ur CPU will bottleneck, i remeber someone made a post on how CPU does not bottleneck GPU.

 

[tommyboy123x]

yea, i think i remember that too... but really your hdd will be a hard core bottleneck too, but not nearly as much DURRING gameplay.. just loading... which i guess you can deal with. upgrading ur gfx card will totally give u a huge boost in performance. but as the others have said, if ur getting vista, wait for the g80...

 

[BillGates]

If you're just looking for something to hold you over until the G80's then the 6800GS or 7600GT woudl be perfect. Both would handle those games just fine and cost less than a 7900GT.

 

[NosBoost300]

if your an impatient tard like me.... get the 7900gt, great card! if not.. then a 6800gs would suit you just fine