Best upgrade for this system?

[Kingston]

What would be the most cost effective (in terms of priceerformance) way to upgrade this system? Looking for higher frame rates in MS Flight Simulator. My intuition tells me that upgrading the graphics card is the best way to get the performance that I want, but I have read that 3D rendering also puts a huge load on the CPU. Thinking about replacing the 4200+ with either a 6000+ or an FX-64.

Asus M2N4-SLI
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (2.2GHz OC'd to 2.4GHz)
1GB Corsair DDR2 667
WD Raptor 74GB SATAI
WD Caviar 120GB EIDE
BFG nVIDIA GeForce 7600GS 256MB

 

[proof]

get another raptor and RAID them.

get an 8600GTS.

get the 6000+.

 

[alcattle]

which version of flight sim? ver x I would go for a video card, best 8800 your could afford. Older versions you can still bump a level to the 79xx or x19xx and then add 1 gb RAM

 

[runswindows95]

8800gts.

 

[skyguy]

CPU is fine. GPU is crap. Get a better GPU: 8800GTS 320mb.



Here's CPU/GPU for Gaming 101:


-average CPU + great GPU = great gaming

-great CPU + average GPU = average gaming

 

[proof]

CPU is fine. GPU is crap. Get a better GPU: 8800GTS 320mb.



Here's CPU/GPU for Gaming 101:


-average CPU + great GPU = great gaming

-great CPU + average GPU = average gaming

Great CPU + 7950GX2 SLI = awful gaming

 

[skyguy]

Note I said GPU, not GPUs

 

[Farhang]

a GeForce8800 Series card will Rock your system.
so get a 8800GTS 320MB/GTS 640MB/GTX.
if you have additional money, first upgrade your memory to 2GB DDR2 800MHz & then get an AMD 64 X2 6000+ or X2 5200+.
Important:just make sure that your power supply can handle a 8800Series graphic card. :!:

 

[enforcerfx]

CPU is fine. GPU is crap. Get a better GPU: 8800GTS 320mb.



Here's CPU/GPU for Gaming 101:


-average CPU + great GPU = great gaming

-great CPU + average GPU = average gaming

Great CPU + 7950GX2 SLI = awful gaming


Lol. :lol: Agreed.

Look for the 8800GTS 320mb, 6000+, and 1GB of ram. And you'll be set.

 

[jeff_2087]

a GeForce8800 Series card will Rock your system.
so get a 8800GTS 320MB/GTS 640MB/GTX.
if you have additional money, first upgrade your memory to 2GB DDR2 800MHz & then get an AMD 64 X2 6000+ or X2 5200+.
Important:just make sure that your power supply can handle a 8800Series graphic card. :!:

Best suggestion except I wouldn't bother with upgrading your CPU. It really isn't worth the $240 or whatever a 6000+ is for another 600Mhz. But you should certainly get another gig of RAM and an 8800.

Don't do the Raptor+8600GTS+6000 suggestion. You wouldn't see any improvement really with raptors in RAID for games. And the 8600GTS is an overpriced, poor performing card and your system deserves better.

 

[skyguy]

I agree. 8800GTS and another gig of RAM is definitely the way to go.

 

[sirrobin4ever]

Flight sim is the one game that really needs all the texture memory that you can get. I mean, other games use all of it, but flight sim in general is particularly dependent because it uses LOTS of textures. The 8800 GTS 640 mb version is probably your best bet. Other than that, definitely another gig of ram. If your feeling ambitious you could probably overclock your CPU a bit more also.

 

[proof]

a GeForce8800 Series card will Rock your system.
so get a 8800GTS 320MB/GTS 640MB/GTX.
if you have additional money, first upgrade your memory to 2GB DDR2 800MHz & then get an AMD 64 X2 6000+ or X2 5200+.
Important:just make sure that your power supply can handle a 8800Series graphic card. :!:

Best suggestion except I wouldn't bother with upgrading your CPU. It really isn't worth the $240 or whatever a 6000+ is for another 600Mhz. But you should certainly get another gig of RAM and an 8800.

Don't do the Raptor+8600GTS+6000 suggestion. You wouldn't see any improvement really with raptors in RAID for games. And the 8600GTS is an overpriced, poor performing card and your system deserves better.

i disagree w/ the Raptors...

 

[jeff_2087]

a GeForce8800 Series card will Rock your system.
so get a 8800GTS 320MB/GTS 640MB/GTX.
if you have additional money, first upgrade your memory to 2GB DDR2 800MHz & then get an AMD 64 X2 6000+ or X2 5200+.
Important:just make sure that your power supply can handle a 8800Series graphic card. :!:

Best suggestion except I wouldn't bother with upgrading your CPU. It really isn't worth the $240 or whatever a 6000+ is for another 600Mhz. But you should certainly get another gig of RAM and an 8800.

Don't do the Raptor+8600GTS+6000 suggestion. You wouldn't see any improvement really with raptors in RAID for games. And the 8600GTS is an overpriced, poor performing card and your system deserves better.

i disagree w/ the Raptors...

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2969&p=8

Whoopee! One second quicker if you're lucky. This also goes to show why I tell people to not waste money on even single Raptors for gaming purposes.

 

[proof]

Yeah, I didn't say it was a HUGE bonus, but it is a bonus... DON'T JUDGE ME!!!