Current pc isn't cutting it. What should i upgrade for largest fps boost?

[Lord AnthraX]

yeah get a x1900xtx and 2 gigs of ram for those games that eat it up.

Just get the x1900xt ....Incredibly easy OC to XTX....just slide the bar

 

[stainer711]

that is an agp card. I have a pci only slot.

 

[magouster]

The x1900xt is a PCI-e card.

Something is definitely wrong in your system! I get 6998 in 3DMark05, and I have a $hitty CPU, with basically the same GFX card. Check my sig for details. I don't think another Gig of RAM will make a massive difference in 3DMark, but it would propably make a difference in CS:S. Your problem seems to be something else, although I don't know what that could be. Have you tried OCing the 7800? I've got mine at 480/1.4. It helps!

 

[stainer711]

No, my clock is set to 400/1.0 stock. I don't know what to do . I think that 3dmark is more graphics dependent than anything else. I'll probably just sell my current card on ebay and then buy another. Isn't there a utility that can tell me what is causing choke? I don't want to wing it by buying another graphics card frivilously.

Is the x1900xt really going to give me a greater performance when compared to a 7900gt with my specs? I'd rather not bay 450 bucks on something that may not solve my problem.

Why is it that 7900's are the same price as 7800gt's? Isn't there a huge performance difference between the two?

 

[magouster]

The 7900GT costs the same as the 7800GTX, and is in fact the same card, just built with smaller transistors (90nm I think). The x1900xt will give you a better 3DMark score I believe, but for general gaming, if you really wanted to buy a new card, get the 7900GT.

I would stick with the 7800GT though, its more than good enough to play most games today farely smoothly! It could be that you just had a lot of processes running in the background when you ran 3DMark05, cause I scored like 50 more after just a reboot, so try clearing some of those unescessary processes out!

 

[RicoDirenzo]

Yes. The 1900 ATI's are great cards if you have the extra money. The 7900GT is a huge increase in performance. I'm glad I went with the GT as my BFG runs 550/1600 with no noticeable temp increase ans no artifacts ever and it is $329 @ Newegg. You should boost your memory as well.

 

[stainer711]

So going from a 7800gt at 400/1000 to a 7900gt at 520/1500 is worth it if i can sell my 7800gt?

 

[magouster]

You'll see a decent increase in performance with the 7900GT, but with the G80 cards being released (propably) before the end of the year, I would stick with the 7800GT, and save your money to get one of the new cards when they are released!

 

[stainer711]

Well, it's only a 100 dollar price difference if i sell my 7800gt... So i should be confident that my 6850 3dmark05 score is contributed by my low clocked 7800gt?

The card i have doesn't overclock without artifacts at all. Is this attributed to the card or something else?