Upgrade Assistance Req (Processor)

Hi,I'm looking at upgrading my system. My current specs run at:Mobo: Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe
Pro: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+ 2.40 GHz
RAM: 2GB DDR2 Installed
GFX: NVidea GeForce 8800GT
OS: Win 7 RC 32-BitI believe the biggest downfall of my system is the Processor (correct me if i'm wrong). So I'm looking to upgrade it. This will then force me to also upgrade my Mobo (and RAM ? due to DDR3 ? ) The 8800GT is still a solid card as far as i can tell and can give great results.I'm looking at getting something like this: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164047(AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2 GHz Socket AM3 8MB Cache)Good/Bad choice (for the money) ?I'm a little stuck on a Mobo to go with it so any suggestions would be helpfull. I found this so far: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/171664(ASUS M4A77TD PRO 770 Socket AM3 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard) But would then need to buy more RAM as well due to the DDR3 slots.I'm looking at keeping the overall upgrade cost round ?50 if i can.What i want to do with it:I dont have any games consoles and play all my games on my computer. Havent bought anything new for a while so havent had any issues, pretty much just been running COD4 for ages. I recently bought Prototype on Steam and it's having issues running it due to processor power, so i want to be able to play that, also going to be getting COD MW2 so want to be ready for that.Cheers for any help you guys can give.Upgrade Assistance Req (Processor)
#1 Get more RAM, 2 GB now a days is seldom enough for games unless you optimize your setup to death#2 That's not a bad choice in mobo and CPU, that upgrade will do nicely.But with the release of the i5, excellent performance has been released for a steal. It is one of the best processors in gaming out there at this very moment. A motherboard like this would do fine, the only issue is lack of multi-GPU setups and is a little cramped in terms of size. It's a little more, but the improvement will be considerable in terms of processing power. Unfortunately you would need to buy completely new RAM.Upgrade Assistance Req (Processor)
If gaming is your only concern then what you need is a new graphics card. You would be surprised how littile factors such as CPU speed and memory size and speed affect games preformance. Upgrading your GPU is the single biggest upgrade you can give to a gaming computer. With a 2.4GHz procressor I doubt you will see any graphical bottle necking unless you had something like a GTX285. The 8800GT is good but it's got to be showing some age. You might want to upgrade to a ATI4850 or 4870 if you want to play games on high settings
[QUOTE=''soliderPp'']If gaming is your only concern then what you need is a new graphics card. You would be surprised how littile factors such as CPU speed and memory size and speed affect games preformance. Upgrading your GPU is the single biggest upgrade you can give to a gaming computer. With a 2.4GHz procressor I doubt you will see any graphical bottle necking unless you had something like a GTX285. The 8800GT is good but it's got to be showing some age. You might want to upgrade to a ATI4850 or 4870 if you want to play games on high settings[/QUOTE] The issue is the processor is bottlenecking the existing video card. The Athlon x2 4600 is a 4 year old processor, and that is the primary reason for low performance. I can agree with memory speed, but a good processor is actually more essential in gaming than a good video card.[QUOTE=''TweakGuides''] Performance Tip: This step highlights an important fact: your graphics card can only work as fast as your CPU can allocate it information. So a fast graphics card will typically perform better on a system with a faster CPU. In fact many high-end graphics cards are artificially bottlenecked because they are on a system with a CPU that is not fast enough to allocate data to them. In contrast, the higher the resolution and graphics settings for a game, the less important the CPU becomes as the bulk of the work will be done by the graphics card. The bottom line is the CPU is still the linchpin of your entire system.[/QUOTE]SourceThat being said, you don't need the best processor out there, but you will certainly need a better one. The 8800gt actually is still going pretty strong on most games.
Thanks for the reply.Is the Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz Socket LGA1156 8MB L3 Cache going to be much more powerful than the AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2 GHz Socket AM3 8MB Cache then? Simply from looking at the stats i would assume that the Phenom would be the better of the two. If i'm wrong could you explain why this is ?Anybody else have any other comments on what i'm looking at? or any other suggestions?
GHz is not as important as is once was. It's best to read up reviews and benchmarks to see how cpus perform. I5 is about equal with phenom 965 for gaming. I just upgraded my pc recently as well from a AMD 64 FX-60 chip to I7 920. I should haved waited a bit and got one of the new intel chips.As for your videocard I have the same thing. An 8800 GT. I decided to just get a second for cheap off of Ebay for $75 and do SLI. You can buy it new for around a $100. It's cheaper than paying for one of the newer cards. Just make sure you have enough power to run the 2 cards and keep them cool.
I've done a lot of research this evening into both of those CPU's and i must say judging by the benchmarking results the i5 is performing way above its price range!Very impressive. It was in a comparison with a higher spec Phenom 2 than the one i was looking at, and the i5 outperformed it in almost every test (Crysis seemed to prefer the AMD chips for some reason).Because of this i'm going to have to upgrade to DDR3, so i think i'm looking at these....CPU: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172755Mobo: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173542RAM: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148818Unless i discover anything different, i'll probably order these tomorrow!
[QUOTE=''soliderPp'']If gaming is your only concern then what you need is a new graphics card. You would be surprised how littile factors such as CPU speed and memory size and speed affect games preformance. Upgrading your GPU is the single biggest upgrade you can give to a gaming computer. With a 2.4GHz procressor I doubt you will see any graphical bottle necking unless you had something like a GTX285. The 8800GT is good but it's got to be showing some age. You might want to upgrade to a ATI4850 or 4870 if you want to play games on high settings[/QUOTE]In this case this is not true. His Athlon 64 X2 running at 2.4ghz might as well be a Core 2 Duo running at 1.9-2.0ghz (that's the rough performance equivalent). My last CPU was a 2.6ghz Athlon X2 Toledo-core (best socket 939 X2 chip).. and come to think of it, my motherboard was an Asus A8N-SLI. VERY similar setup to what he has now. Bottom line is this.. I've run 8800gt's and my current G92 8800gts 512 in my old system, and then with my E8400.. WOW, HUGGGGE difference in many games. Any 8800 series card (or better) is seriously bottlenecked by an Athlon 64 X2 under 3ghz, especially 8800gtx/8800 GT/8800 GTS 512/9800 GTX, etc..

[QUOTE=''soliderPp'']If gaming is your only concern then what you need is a new graphics card. You would be surprised how littile factors such as CPU speed and memory size and speed affect games preformance. Upgrading your GPU is the single biggest upgrade you can give to a gaming computer. With a 2.4GHz procressor I doubt you will see any graphical bottle necking unless you had something like a GTX285. The 8800GT is good but it's got to be showing some age. You might want to upgrade to a ATI4850 or 4870 if you want to play games on high settings[/QUOTE] Yeah, I agree with soldierPp, a single gtx295 will decimate any cpu/mobo upgrade anyday. Its like just buy the dang AWP, forget kevlar and helmet is for noobs!! Just add 2 more gbs of ram and is happy fragging again. Seriously.
[QUOTE=''darkjounin''][QUOTE=''soliderPp'']If gaming is your only concern then what you need is a new graphics card. You would be surprised how littile factors such as CPU speed and memory size and speed affect games preformance. Upgrading your GPU is the single biggest upgrade you can give to a gaming computer. With a 2.4GHz procressor I doubt you will see any graphical bottle necking unless you had something like a GTX285. The 8800GT is good but it's got to be showing some age. You might want to upgrade to a ATI4850 or 4870 if you want to play games on high settings[/QUOTE] Yeah, I agree with soldierPp, a single gtx295 will decimate any cpu/mobo upgrade anyday. Its like just buy the dang AWP, forget kevlar and helmet is for noobs!! Just add 2 more gbs of ram and is happy fragging again. Seriously.[/QUOTE]NOOOOOOOOO. A 2.4ghz Athlon X2 is already bottlenecking your 8800gt! I know this from experience. A GTX295 will not help you much, nor will any other GPU upgrade until you get a faster CPU. You're basically running the equivalent of a Core 2 Duo clocked at under 2ghz right now. Do you think that is fast enough? Don't believe me? How about I clock my E8400 down to 2ghz and I drop the clock speeds on my 8800gts 512 below stock so it performs like an 8800gt.. and we'll run 3dmark. I bet my system still wins.