Upgrading my Computer (another thread!)

About 2 years ago I got a computer that I am now looking to upgrade. My current specs are:
Windows XP Professional
AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3200+ (2.0Ghz)
512Mb RAM
nVidia GeForce FX 5500
LG Flatron L1715S
Realtek AC97 Audio

I was thinking of upgrading my graphics card to a nvidia 6800 or a 7800 and maybe upgrading ram to 1GB? Also i know very little about AMD processors so don't know whether to leave the processor or not. Mabye someone could give some advise.
Also the other day I went on ebuyer and saw this [www.ebuyer.com]. I don't know much about graphics cards either so don't quite know what to make of it. And would i need a new motherboard for one of the graphics cards i mentioned?

Thanks in advanced

you would probably need a new motherboard as your 5500 is most likly AGP. Are you sure that you have an athlon 64 3200? i didn't think they had been around for two years?

if your going to upgrade you graphics card you should al least get a 6600GT 256 mb if not a 6800GT or 7800GT personally i think the 7800's are silly money.

you might get more luck with hyelp if you post this in the off topic forum . (vader?)

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It depends on how much money you have tbh, upgrading to 1GB RAM could help alot, and probably a 6800GT or something similar would work nicely. If you have the funds you could try for a 7800GT and 1GB of RAM which would probably increase performance by quite a margin over your current card.

As for processors, the one you have atm is good, but for single core, something more like a 4000+ plus would be better which is 2.4Ghz would also give a big increase in performance, because after one of those, your starting to look at the FX series, and the Dual core systems

I`ve recently got a new pc-:

INTEL P4 3.2ghz
GE-FORCE 6600 pci-EXPRESS 128mb
1024 DDR 400 ram
180gig hard drive BARRACUDA
AUDIGY SOUND
ANTEC 550watt power supply

now you would think GP4 would fly with these specs "WRONG" i still get stupidly high PO at the start of races (140/150) once you get going as long as im not in a pack of cars PO drops to about 40/50 and this is out of the box game, apart from 3d rims, so what will happen when i put the latest cars/tracks in? i`ll probably have to start turning down the graphics,which is set med/high at 1024x768 and mirrors with no objects.My old pc was-:

ATHLON XP 3000+ o/c to 2.3ghz
GE-FORCE 4 Ti4400 128MB
512 RAM
AUDIGY SOUND
40 GIG HARD DRIVE
ABIT AN7 NFORCE MAINBOARD

and GP4 did`nt run much different than it does on the new system, a bit dissapointing really, so if GP4 runs ok on your present system i`d stick with it,you might lay out a load of cash for not much gain.


PS DOES ANY ONE KNOW WHAT GP4 DOES WITH ALL THOSE EXTRA CLOCK CYCLES OF A 3.2ghz PROCESSOR WHEN THE BOOK RECOMMENDS P3 750mhz?????????????

Remember this is a game made at the beginning of the millenium and that is only a recommended spec. I would think that the reason the game isn't running very well on your new system is probably because you have tweaked the f1graphics.cfg Find someone who has a similar PC spec to you, and get their .cfg off them and I guarantee that you'll have a much better PO.

3d rims don't help PO much either I might add

Willb Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Are you sure that you have
> an athlon 64 3200? i didn't think they had been
> around for two years?

Sorry I've probebly had it for about a year and a half actually. I'm sorry but i know very little about ram would another 512 mb of ram work with my old stick or would i have to buy a brand new 1GB stick of ram? I'm also thinking of getting a Athlon 64 3700 but i'm not sure. And I think i'll get a 6800 because 7800s are a bit expensive.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/2006 08:15PM by Robert.

ok you have a socket 754 cpu, so you can update mainboard and vga and mem, and conserve cpu or update everything

tell me where are you and how much money to use

cheers

robert,

it depends on what speed and type of ram you have at the moment. It's always best to have a matched pair rather than two sticks from different manufacturers. What motherboard do you have atm?

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@sobpd1
first backup ur f1graphics.cfg and f1gstate.sav from GP4 folder than try mine
[rapidshare.de]
try these graphics file in ur system. b'coz with same configuration of urs i ran GP4 in 1280X1024 with AA and AF on.
download them ,they are two files and try each of them. once u extract them paste into GP4 installed folder and start ur game ,run calibrate graphics for once and check the frame rate how much it is coming and press use if it is between 30 to 40. run the game in 1024X768 and see how it is coming.

if u want more performance in game ,,,,.....follow below
NOTE: press start button in windows and in run command type "dxdiag" when it loads press sound tab on top and u can see like this "Direct X features ,,hardware sound acceleration level",, there by default it will be Full Acceleration. so reduce that to basic acceleration and press exit in that window. when u start GP4 from GPX patch try to tick off in 3D sound option and after starting it will ask u to calibrate sound, do so. then see how much performance will increase in GP4.if not my sorry b'coz i did so i got nearly PO 30-50% increase in GP4 with all settings high.

these feature can be done by anyone if they don't know, doing so will reduce processor burden in loading sound files and reduce sound quality too which doesn't matter if u want game clarity and preformance.



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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/2006 11:13PM by sunil.

@Willb
I don't know what type of ram i have because i've never actually done any upgrades myself and have never opened my computer up. Is there any way of finding out about ram and motherboard without opening up the computer. I have a friend who I was going to ask to do it for me.

Isn't the Athlon 64 3200+ I have a 939 socket? If so can I get a motherboard which will support both the 3200+ and the 3500/3600 etc.
Because i'm thinking about just getting new ram and a nvidia 6800 graphics card and leaving the processor




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/2006 10:12PM by Robert.

check everything with cpu-z

[www.cpuid.com]

sunil,

if he calibrates his graphics, it will overwrite the settings saved in the f1 graphics.cfg.

robert,

if you currently have a socket 939 motherboard then you can just upgrade you ram and video card. However if you motherboard support agp and not pci-express then I would reccomend getting a new motherboard too (a socket 939 one) and going for a pci-express video card as it will save you hassle in the future when you want to upgrade your motherbaord and you find you need another new video card because your new motherboard doesn't support pci-express.

so youll be looking at:

new motherboard socket (939)
new / more ram
new video card (pci-express)

hope this helps!



wills

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/2006 11:11PM by Willb.

@willb
yes ur right. thanks man
i'll edit my post

===================================================================================================================
i7 950@4GHZ 1.24V|Asus P6X58D-E|Dominators 10GB(2GBx5)1600C8|Corsair H70|Corsair 800D|Corsair HX850|EVGA,Zotac GTX 2x470|VX2433W FULL HD|X-Fi Plantinum|Creative S750 Gigaworks7.1|NZXT Sentry 2|7TB

@Robert

my friend if it is ur 754 socket processor, don't go for update right now. just wait for 4 or 5 months then better change ur system for AMD dual core with 6800GS video card if not 7800GT if money no matters.

because right now the price of dual core processor are costly and if u go for 939 socket single core processor e.g, Athlon 3500+ or 4000+ right now, they may be a good processor in games but they are very poor performer even in small multi-tasking operation which could be challenging for future applications.
trust me i have AMD 3500+ 939 ,this is great and awesome in single tasking but when compared to multi-tasking it was bad(very bad) then my previous P4 3.0 HT.

example , if I use TV card with recording simultan'ly downloading from net with Internet Download Manager, screen will move jerky in TV display where as for my previous P4 3.0 HT was nothing for it and ran very easily without any problem.

in india DUAL core processor are very costly and i decided to go for AMD 3500+ tempor'ly for now and later upgrade to DUAL core 4200+ when prize goes down after 5 or 6 months.
bye

===================================================================================================================
i7 950@4GHZ 1.24V|Asus P6X58D-E|Dominators 10GB(2GBx5)1600C8|Corsair H70|Corsair 800D|Corsair HX850|EVGA,Zotac GTX 2x470|VX2433W FULL HD|X-Fi Plantinum|Creative S750 Gigaworks7.1|NZXT Sentry 2|7TB

a 939 mobo whit agp, that´s very hard to find

sunil,

you have a point about waiting untill the prices come down but the whole problem with technology is that as soon as you upgrade the components are worth less than you paid for them. you have to buy what you can afford and are willing to pay at the time you want to upgrade. i could keep saying ill wait for dual core processors to come down in price, but when they do there will be a new type of processor thats faster better and more expensive! you could then say i'll wait for that to come down in price beore i upgrade and you will never end up upgrading atall

i'd say it was a good time to upgrade as the prices of the single core amd's is sinking due to the release of the dual core processors.

i have heard that amd's aren't as good at multitasking as the intel processors, but I must say I personally don't believe it makes *that* much difference. My amd's usually fine with multitasking and it's an athlon xp 2400+.

and who's to say the dual core processors will be better than the p4's?

wills

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/2006 11:57PM by Willb.

I've recently bought this computer:


- Motherboard ASUS P5GPL-X
- Pentium 4 3GHz HT
- 1GB RAM
- Maxtor 6V160E0 160GB
- LG DVD recorder
- Radeon X300 256MB
- LG 710E 17"



I don't know if it's beyond the money you have, but it runs pretty fine.

---

Um dois três quatro cinco seis sete oito nove dez
Eins zwei drei vier fünf sechs sieben acht neun zehn
One two three four five six seven eight nine ten
Один два три четыре пять шесть семь восемь девять десять



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/2006 11:50PM by Lex.

Lex Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've recently bought this computer:
>
>
> - Motherboard ASUS P5GPL-X
> - Pentium 4 3GHz HT
> - 1GB RAM
> - Maxtor 6V160E0 160GB
> - LG DVD recorder
> - Radeon X300 256MB
> - LG 710E 17"
>
>
>
> I don't know if it's beyond the money you have,
> but it runs pretty fine.


what you mean with "pretty fine"?

@willb

ur right ,as the day progresses the technology is developing just like our GP4. but here i am advising him to go to good system,so that he wouldn't want to upgrade each and every year if he gets medium high end system for good budget.If money isn't matter he can go for update right now itself.

NO OFFENCE
In case of multi-tasking i don't agree with u even 1 %, looks like u don't have experience with hyper-threading processor from intel. i had experience with them for 1 & 1/2 year where amd athlon XP(no way can't come closer) or athlon 64(ok but not better) single core are no not even match with them in multi-tasking.

AMD dual core

they outperformed intel dual core processors in multi-tasking also. athlon X2 3800+(dual core) outperformed in many tests when compared intel 560,even 840 dual core intel processors.imagine above 4200+dual core

USE GOOGLE my friend in searching these topics. U can't even beileve that AMD Dual core have consistently beaten INTEL DUAL core in whatever tasking

ok i think it's off-topic and far away from main topic .if u want to talk to me regarding this, mail to sunil14mca@yahoo.co.in.
bye


===================================================================================================================
i7 950@4GHZ 1.24V|Asus P6X58D-E|Dominators 10GB(2GBx5)1600C8|Corsair H70|Corsair 800D|Corsair HX850|EVGA,Zotac GTX 2x470|VX2433W FULL HD|X-Fi Plantinum|Creative S750 Gigaworks7.1|NZXT Sentry 2|7TB

it's just my personal opinion as I did say "i personally believe" although maybe you right . On the other hand don't the amd's overclock much better than the p4's? (not sure on this one)



wills

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