A system-specific question about my Geforce 6800 GT

[Chiggs]

I just received my eVGA eVGA 6800 GT on Friday. So far, I've been extremely pleased with its performance - especially in Doom III. The card is running on a P4 3.06/533mhz FSB with 1 gig of Rambus PC-800, so obviously, that's going to be a major bottleneck (and believe me, I have little desire to upgrade to 1 gig of PC-1066).

My question to you is: After reading up about eVGA's step up program, I realized I could get a Geforce 6800 Ultra for, like, $113.00 more (which is really not too bad); however, given my slightly dated system, would I even see any performance improvement over the GT I currently have? If so, how miniscule would it be? While $113.00 isn't all that much, I really don't enjoy throwing away money. Keep in mind, I'll probably be building a new system sometime in June/July of next year.

[Lfctony]

Performance will be there where the limiting factor is the video card and not the CPU, in games like Farcry and Doom 3 in HQ modes. I went all the way this time with my card, I was always getting the second best card for more value, but the Ultra is simply too fast for me to ever regret about it. :)

[Chiggs]

Of course, you're using an A64, though. :)

Even in more GPU-intensive/limited games, the CPU is still feeding the GPU information, so that could still be a problem.

I'm just worried that I unpack the Ultra and I end up with an extra 2 FPS in Doom III and Far Cry. That would be pretty lame.

[Lfctony]

Take a look at Hard OCP's tests on a P4 3.2C. That's is faster than yours but still, very similar. At 1024x768 8xAF, all cards are CPU limited. But, upon raising the resolution and cranking detail up, you can see that cards separate themselves.

http://www2.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjQyLDM=

I personally think that you should keep the GT and overclock a tad, to split the difference. Then you'll be more than happy. :)