X800XT to 7900GT

[PhunkaeG]

Hey guys,
I'm currently in the works for an upgrade of my current PC, I wanna turn my:

AMD 64 3000+ (soc 754)
Gigabyte GA-K8U
1 GB DDR
ATI X800XT (AGP)

into a:

AMD 64 X2 4200+ (soc 939)
DFI Lanparty nF4 Ultra-D
2 GB DDR
Geforce 7900GT (PCI-E)

I really like my X800XT, she'll eat up everything i throw at her... but unfortuately its only AGP and i need to go PCI-E for the next stage of PC evolution.
I'm a 3D modeller so i need CPU/RAM as the main components of my system, but that doesnt mean that i want to skimp on my gaming speeds.

1) Is the Geforce 7900GT PCI-E much better than my X800XT? besides the 3.0 shader thingy for HDRI in Oblivion?

2) I'm thinking of sticking to the socket 939 until the AM2's have had their bugs ironed out (and so i dont have to buy DDR2 Ram)... which i'm assuming may take some time. Is this the right manuvoure or are they gonna be really kickass AM2sockets?

3) Is there anything fundamentally wrong with the components i've chosen for my upgrade? I've researched quite a bit recently, but it's always good to hear an experts opinion.

4) How long till DX10 cards are released? are they going to be hugely expensive?

Budget, as always, is an issue...

Thanks,
Evan

 

[Nukem]

DX10 is sometime near the end of the year to 1st Q next year... I would get the 7900 now... I would go with either the 3800 x2 or the 4400 x2 s939 the 4200 (as I have found) is a waste of money... you can OC the 3800 to get 4200 specs and 4400 to 4600... etc... besides the 4400x2 has 1MB L2 cache where as mine (4200) only has 512MB cache... so I would go with the higher of the 2 if you are into massive CPU usage

 

[aliasaid]

1) yes, quite a bit better (but your old card was still good..)
2) i'm not sure about this strategy
3) your parts are all compatible (make sure you have good PSU), but take what nukem said for consideration.. maybe a 4400+. or if you're into overclocking, maybe look into an opteron165 or opterion170
4) not sure

 

[john3]

are u sure u dont mean the x1800xt, cause how can u compare a x800 to a 7900GT, ANYWAYZ! dun spend too much money on a GPU right now, seeing as how well, read above, they covered it all.