For GAMING: Which to invest, video card or processor/ram ?

unfortunately, since my budget is limited.... i need a few advice...

which setup is better in terms of PURE GAMING especially Oblivion run at max resolution and max settings...

1st setup
E6300
8800 GTS (320mb)
1 GB Ram

2nd setup
E6600
7600 GT
2 GB Ram

thanx alot !!!!

1st setup by a few miles

i dont think 6300 is low end by any means. also, i thnik the first setup would become far more better if u add another gig of ram to it

I would pick the first choice but with 2Gb of ramage.

Especially if you're using vista, need more ram.

The E6300 is the best buy in the last couple of years and it's not a low-end cpu, this cpu is for enthusiasts that are into overclocking.With right overclocking you can make this cpu better than stock speeds of X6800.

When it comes to gaming, no contest whatsoever.

Option 1 will murder option 2.

Oblivion will run very nicely on an 8800 GTS and e6300...

...but terribly on a 7600 GT, no matter what CPU you have. No way you can run that at high detail 1024x768 without stutter.

You can always buy more ram later, for cheaper.

I've been running a 1GB machine for some time now, and it really isn't that bad for gaming. A bit longer load times, but gameplay is smooth.

A e6300 and 8800 GTS with 1GB/ram are far preferable over an e6300 and 7900 GS with 2GB/ram... for gaming anyway.

I would go with the first. You can always add more ram at later date while keeping the rest of the system.

With the second, you probably will be changing the graphic card within a year, making the purchase of the 7600GT a waste of money.

I'd say the first setup for pure gaming, if you simply overclock the e6300 to the max it can go (and i have actually seen a 4ghz e6300 on a modded mobo), then you'll be far better off when gaming time comes. But depending on what resolution you game at, I would decide between the 8600gts 512mb or the 8800gts 320mb, I'd say once you hit 1680*1050, that would be the time to pick the larger memory, or go for the 8800gts 640mb if you could afford it. Perhaps an 8600gts with 2gb of ram might be the smart idea for a high resolution

Naw, I'd say an e6300 with a ds3 would be the better choice, people can hit over 3.5ghz on an e6300 while most get stuck around 3.2ghz on an e4300 just because conroes can clock higher, and since I've seen a ds3 hit 540fsb, anything is possible

Option#1 easily.

Also, go with the E4300.
This will save you a couple dollars.
If you wait two weeks, the price should drop enough that you could afford another GB of ram to bring it up to 2gm.

If nothing else, you would definately save enough to get 1.5gb.

Even if you are forced to skimp on ram to start, this is easy to add later w/o losing an initial investment.

For once, I will agree with you, as I previously stated, teh 8600gts 512mb version will be teh card of choice for ultra high res and detail on oblivion, because the 8800gts 320mb doesn't have enough memory to handle it. the 640mb of the gts would be the card of choice if you can't afford the gtx, or especially the r600 with it having 1gb of ram and up to 2 (or was it 3) on one of the extreme enterprise editions. You could try to wait for the x2900xt and see if you could get a 512mb ram version of that, since my guess is the xt will also use 512bit memory, but it might not at the same time, so something like the 8600gts that is guaranteed to have 512mb of ram is a nice winner

I disagree, did you see the 8800gts 320mb compared to the 7900gtx? It got a pathetic 20fps at 1600*1200 with just 4aa and 8 while the 7900gtx mustered something like 40fps because of the ram increase, the 640mb surpassed teh 7900gtx by a long shot, but the 320mb just failed. Ram makes a big difference in the higher resolutions than you think it will, and once they perfect the 8600gts's drivers, I think that will be a nice card to have, especially with all the pipelines it has

I''d you to find me a benchmark once they are released comparing the 8600gts 512mb to the x1950xt 256 in oblivion at 1600*1200 with detail enhancements, even though the 8600 ultra failed at first, I think it was a driver issue for the most part considering how many unified shaders it has compared to the 7900gtx

But I thought that was for the 8600ultra with just 256mb of ram, or did nvidia change the name of it from ultra to gts?

Sorry for hijacking, but it's really weird, when I plugged in my new dvd burner into my computer and tried to boot up windows xp pro x64, I got blue screens, when I unplugged it, it worked fine. Then I tried using the burner wtih regular xp, and it worked fine there, what the hell is with that? Would it be my copy of x64 is messed up, or for some reason does x64 not like sata dvd drives? :? this is really pissing me off right now, if it wasn't that bad I wouldn't be hijacking a thread, but I can't access my files in x64 since a lot are on my desktop to be burned in order to reformat the drive, and something's wrong with my copy of regular xp, I did a complete reformat, and even then I get some weird lag when ever I scroll up or down with my mouse :x Is it possible for a virus to hide in that 8gb of unpartitioned space taht xp uses for its drivers etc?

I'd wait to see what ati has in store with the x2900 (pro or whatever the lower model from xt is), but sounds like a plan

ATI's X2Ks are due somewhere in May, but when they hit the shelves it'll simply mean that, a couple new expensive video cards; don't expect price cuts too soon. ATI has some fine prices on most of their actual stuff anyway so I don't think they're in any rush to reduce prices.

the bad thing is..... im not just gonna upgrade.... ima buy a whole system....

should i buy after april 22nd ? or should i buy after nvidia gives price cuts ? thx alot!

IMO wait at least until you see the new cards by AMD and their press released MSRPs/launch times.

I suspect that the price of both GTS and TX will come down.
You might be able to get a GF8800GTS-640 for near what you initially expected to spend on a GTS-320, but even if not, worst case scenario you lose 1 week and gain the interest on your cash.

For Oblivion you may want the 640MB so you can play with some of the mods.

Anywhoo I think there's a lot of reasons to wait just a week, and only one (playing your new rig) not to. Which matters more to you knowledge, price cuts, available options /or/ playing right now?

almost no difference between 6600 and 6300. huge diff between 8800 and 7600. 1 gig of ram is good but 2 gig is even better but u can upgrade down the road.

That's a tough one. If it helps, I can tell you that Diablo 2 works acceptably on a GeForce MX 4000 ($40 or so).

really ?? the 6600 and 6300 has only a few difference in performance ? now im inclining to buy a 6300 instead if thats the case.. and get 2 gig ram..

about the video card.... how bout a very cheap 7300 ?

That would be the smart move, oc the e6300 to 3.3ghz (if you have the cooling) and get two gigs of ram, that would offer the most fps for you

you could go with a 7300, I'm just saying the 7200 will be cheaper and almost as powerful, but it's not out yet and I don't know when it will debut

The 7300gt should be able to do that, but going with the 7600gt would be the safe choice

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814141035
That's as cheap as they get, my friend uses one so I know it will at least get the job done, but don't expect anything big