E6600 Vs 7600GT

[gayan]

Hi all...This is my problem
I have only limited money to do one thing, either
1)upgrade my CPU to a Core2Duo 6600
2)upgrade my VGA to a 8600GT

I can sell my old processor/VGA(whatever it maybe) for about $100, so my actual cost is 8600GT for $100 and E6600 for $150

What will give me the biggest improvement in my gaming play?? I play COH, Battlefield, Total War series, AWGR etc.

My current specs are
2.6GHz Pentium D 805 (Overclocked to 3GHz)
7600GS 256MB VGA(PCI-E)
1GB DDR2 667 RAM
ASUS 945 Chipset motherboard

Is my current system CPU bottlenecked or VGA bottlenecked. I dnt want to spend $100 only to see that I have upgraded the wrong component and to see there are no performance increase at all. :-()
So Plz advice me.....

REMEMBER- I can only upgrade one...

Thanks.

 

[Maziar]

definitely go for E6600 , because the 8600GT is a weak card , for the price of 8600GT u can x1950pro which destroys the 8600GT , but if u get it then your Current CPU will bottleneck it , thats why i say go for E6600

 

[asgallant]

So long as your motherboard supports Core 2 Duos, go with the E6600. The 8600GT is a POS that is on par performance-wise with the 7600GS. An X1950 or a GF 7900 would probably give you a bigger performance gain though (even with your CPU being a bottleneck).

 

[gayan]

so how about this.....right now I go for the E6600, then when I have some more money, I will go for the VGA......???
But I dnt think till I change my VGA, I will see any tangible performance differences, am I right???

 

[Maziar]

check the charts 8600gt isnt a big boost for 7600gs , x1950 has the same price and is a very good card

 

[gayan]

Dear All.......I live in a tiny tear drop shaped island on the middle of the ocean..... So the choice of cards/cpus are very limited. The x1950 never touched down here.
And after the 7600GS the next alternative is the 7900GS which is about $300 :-()
I can still try to get the 7900GS, but then I will have to wait till atleast anothr 1.5yrs to upgrade my VGA.....So thats Y I thot about the 8600GT, cos its a bit future proof.
But plz tell me if my logic is wrong...

 

[aevm]

7900GS all the way. The CPU is less important in games and yours is still acceptable.

 

[dobby]

it would help if you told us what you use your PC for

 

[gayan]

Mostly I use it for gaming (about 70% of the time)....Browsing the web(10%)....Some DVD watching(10%)....Word+Excel+Powerpoint(5%)....and Music(5%)

 

[starcraftfanatic]

Damn, thats an expensive 7900 GS, What games though, some are more CPU intensive and others are more graphics intensive

 

[Gravemind123]

Go for the upgraded graphics card then, although gaming will be somewhat bottlenecked by CPU, the graphics card is your current weak point in the system. The next weakest point is ram, then CPU. I would upgrade in that order, VGA, ram, CPU, as that would probably give you the best gaming performance in the end.

 

[gayan]

Damn, thats an expensive 7900 GS, What games though, some are more CPU intensive and others are more graphics intensive

Well you can say that again............remember "small island" vast expanse of water around us.....and then u have 7900GS going at $300.


Well about the games I play....I play COH, Battlefield, Total War series, COD, CIV4......
Are these processor intensive???

 

[gayan]

Go for the upgraded graphics card then, although gaming will be somewhat bottlenecked by CPU, the graphics card is your current weak point in the system. The next weakest point is ram, then CPU. I would upgrade in that order, VGA, ram, CPU, as that would probably give you the best gaming performance in the end.

You mean go for another IGb stick of memory, is it???
My mobo dsnt support DDR2 800...... So the best I can do is another 1GB of DDR2 667.
And when u say "upgrade the VGA" do u mean to a 8600GT or a 7900GS???

 

[aevm]

Yes, a second GB of RAM can make a huge difference in big games.

Yes, by VGA he meant the video card. You must be very young, you don't remember when VGA was the latest and greatest in computer graphics. Ah, 640x480, those were the good times :lol:

I assume your monitor is capable of 1280x1024 but not much more. At that resolution the 7900GS is better than the 8600GT in Battlefield, but the 8600 GT is better in Oblivion.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=855&model2=712&chart=277
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=855&model2=712&chart=296

Maybe you should just get the one you can get cheaper.

 

[choirbass]

both of those gpus (7900 and 8600) seem fairly evenly matched for gaming performance in DX9, so its really up to if youre going to play any DX10 games in the future, and even then, you may not like the performance drop of the 8600 if you do play a DX10 enabled game. the 8600 will allow for lower cpu usage when watching H.264 encoded movies, so thats a plus for it. so the 7900 may be the better choice then overall, since youll incur less of a performance hit if you start playing DX10 games (since the 7900 will still only be rendering in DX9 in the game).

as far as memory, you only have 1GB total now, having 2GB total in your system (regardless of speed) is much better from a gaming perspective.

and the cpu performance usually isnt very important when it comes to gaming, so you wont have to worry much there currently.

 

[gayan]

Yes, a second GB of RAM can make a huge difference in big games.

Yes, by VGA he meant the video card. You must be very young, you don't remember when VGA was the latest and greatest in computer graphics. Ah, 640x480, those were the good times :lol:

I assume your monitor is capable of 1280x1024 but not much more.

Yep I still remember the days when my friends came to my place to see how great the performance was on my spanking new Geforce FX5200(128MB, mind you).... :lol:

Well about the monitor.....it supports 1600x1200, but with the current 7600GS I have I rearely go past 1024x768 in games.

......... so the 7900 may be the better choice then overall, since youll incur less of a performance hit if you start playing DX10 games (since the 7900 will still only be rendering in DX9 in the game).

I dnt get this.....can anyone plz explain....I though if I had a DX9 VGA and the game is DX10, then I wouldnt be able to play at all....... Am I wrong??

So I can safely assume that my current build is RAM bottlenecked.......and once I get that sorted I will be VGA bottlenecked....and when that is cleared....I will be CPU bottlenecked.....
So I must go in the order of RAM, VGA, CPU...... I hope I've goten it.

 

[aevm]

RAM, VGA, CPU - good plan.

The 7600GT and 7900GS need under 40W so you are probably OK with your current PSU. What kind of PSU is it anyway? Is this a prefabricated HP or Dell?

 

[aevm]

I dnt get this.....can anyone plz explain....I though if I had a DX9 VGA and the game is DX10, then I wouldnt be able to play at all....... Am I wrong??
[quotemsg=1743168,15,55578


Most new games will work fine with DX9 until 2010 at least. They have to, or they lose 90% of potential buyers. Don't worry.

 

[gayan]

The PSU is a 450W Mercury.....have u guys ever heard of them???
Apparantly they manufacture LCDs, Mobos, Add-on cards, Speakers, Cameras ....the whole works.

 

[rockyjohn]

I recently purchased a 7900GS online from Fry's for $99 plus shipping. Sorry - not on sale right now - but it has been in the past also at that price. Are you not able to purchase from online stores?

Also it would be helpful if you provided your PSU model number - but at 450W it should be powerful enough to handle mainstream cards assuming it has a PCIe card power connector. However I am have not heard of that brand - nor is it listed at newegg or on the standard power supply quality reference list at Xtreme Systems - not a positive note.

 

[gayan]

I recently purchased a 7900GS online from Fry's for $99 plus shipping. Sorry - not on sale right now - but it has been in the past also at that price. Are you not able to purchase from online stores?

Also it would be helpful if you provided your PSU model number - but at 450W it should be powerful enough to handle mainstream cards assuming it has a PCIe card power connector. However I am have not heard of that brand - nor is it listed at newegg or on the standard power supply quality reference list at Xtreme Systems - not a positive note.

No, online stores are not a option here. All I can do is go to the local guy, who has an almost monopoly over the stuff.

http://www.mercury-pc.com here is the PSU guys site.
and I think this is the PSU I have http://www.mercury-pc.com/product-detail.php?link=p-powersupply&subtitle=Power%20Supply&productid=641#

 

[arafay1]

go for the processor... upgrade VGA later

 

[gayan]

go for the processor... upgrade VGA later

Well everybody upto now has telling me to go with the VGA or the RAM-->VGA-->CPU path...... so is there any special reason for ur choice....

 

[rockyjohn]

I look at the link you posted for your PSU. It appears to be an older model as its specs say it is compatible with P4 and comparable AMD MB but is silent on the subject of dual cores. It actually lists very little info - and no info on power on the various rails nor on connectors. Of primary concern here, I think - is does it have a 6 pin connector for a PCIe card? Alternatively does it have two available 4 pin molex connectors that you would then have to combine with a Y connector?

See the link below of you need additional information about what these connectors look like. The 6 Pin PCIe connector is near the bottom of the article.

http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html

 

[gayan]

Thanks.......
I looked inside, and there is no PCIe connector, but I do have available 2 molex connectors.....
And I have some new news.....
Yesterday I did a market visit and I found out that both the E6600 and the E6750 is selling at the same price (about $220), but if I go for the E6750 I will have to upgrade my Mobo as well, maybe to a Asus P5B-E which is an extra $160.......
So from the advice I have got upto now, I will first upgrade my RAM to 2GB.....
Then the VGA.....
Last CPU, but is it worth to spend an extra $160 on the mobo to get the E6750??? Is it blazing fast compared to the E6600???