I am having a domestic! Advice appreciated

[jasper1106]

Heya guys

Well I have been playing a variety of the latest games and my PC is starting to struggle. You know when you get that awful feeling of "dammit why can't I put the video settings to max" well I am feeling that big right now.

My current PC spec:

CPU: Intel 2.8 HT
RAM : Corsair 1GB
GFX : XFX Geforce FX5600 XT 256mb
HD: 160GB
PSU: 450W
MoBo: Asus P4P800-E Deluxe (AGP only NO PCI-E)


My problem is that I really want to upgrade my system to run the latest games in all their glory.... yeah yeah you heard this all before I know and by the time I have probably decided on what to do my system will be out of date again.

I purchased my motherboard earlier this year Jan 2005 on some recommendations from close friends. Me not being to "UP" on the techno decided to take their advice and as you can see bought and Asus board. Which is fairly decent in my opinion and hasnt given me 1 problem UNTIL NOW!

Of course the problem suddenly arose that the companies were bringing out PCI-E compatible cards 3 months afterwards. (Yes I did kick myself).

So I have ended up with a not so great board that is less than 10 months old. (Which i know in technology terms is a fairly long time).

My question is : What should I do? Buy a Geforce 6800 AGP 256mb card or buy a new motherboard and save up to my next pay packet for a 7800???!
I know what I would LIKE to do but money is the big issue here. Is there a major difference between the 6800 & 7800 with regard to performance?

I would appreciate your views and recommendations on what I should do and maybe the best place to buy this kind of stuff, price wise??!

Thanks for the attention and hope to hear from a few of you ;)

[Zelda_fan]

yeah big difference in performance, get the 7800. But you're gonna need to upgrade your CPU as well (sorry it's gotta be done).

[Zelda_fan]

honestly, I'd wait until Vista ships. That's what I'm doing. I think by then we'll have a good picture of what the next gen games are really going to need.

[DoomUK]

One thing I will say: If you're going to do a complete overhaul of your comp, do it before 2005 is out or wait until next summer; there are many technological advancements right around the corner - AMD's new Socket M2 platform incorporating either DDR2 or DDR3 memory bandwidth, Windows Vista's DirectX10 API, and thus we'll have DX10-class video cards to look at.

As of right now howver what is your budget, i.e how much are you willing to spend?

EDIT: jonk got there before me, damn...

[jasper1106]

Hey guys

Thanks for the honest quick responses.

I havent got a great understanding on the technologies I just want something to run the games but I do have to agree that if I was to take the plunge I will most probably be disappointed 4 - 5 months down the line.

My budget well between the range of £100 - £250 (I know I am a tight wad when it comes to stuff like this). It is just the constant thought of "it will be out of date in a few months anyway"!

Heya Jonk what sort of CPU would you recommend?

Where do you guys purchase your stuff from? As you said Doom maybe wait a while and go without. :( it is easy for you to say that going by your signiture spec it looks like you have an awesome machine.

I bought BF2 the other day not realising that my card wasnt supported. It runs but I can bearly play for more than 10 minutes before the game crashes back to desktop. I loved the realisum in the movements and sound so I quite patiently wait 10 minutes for a game to hook up! (yes no joke) so as you can imagine it is quite frustrating when I get a crash 10 mins later!!

[DoomUK]

Assuming you're in the UK, Overclockers.co.uk have an XFX 6800 GT for £240 plus p&p. If your budget is £250, forget about upgarding the rest of your system right now, but I'm sure a 6800GT/Ultra will do you a world of good for now. Shop around though for a better deal on a better model (like the overclocked 6800 GT from BFG, for example). Try out:-

www.dabs.com
Gladiator Computers (forget address :o )