Hey guys its that time again that I need to upgrade my Video Card -

My Specs

Cpu 939- AMD 3800 x2 dual core Toledo clocked at 2.0 stock currently - if I have to I will oc it to 2.5+
Mobo - Asus A8N-E
Ram - 4 Gb of DDR1 Ram
Hd - 320 GD WD
Case - Antec 900
PSU - 520 hw

I am not going Sli at all and I want to play mordern games such as BioShock and Star Craft II when it comes out.. also like to get my hands on crysis

People have told me to go 8800GT but I think I will Bottleneck for sure.. What card is best at my current 2.0 GHz or if I OC it to at least 2.6 GHz ?

I was thinking 7950 X2 or a 7900 GTX Thanks for your help

It wont matter if it bottlenecks or not, Ill say it again, the single most benefit a gamer gets out of upgrading is the graphics card. Period. You may bottleneck your card with that cpu, but getting 20 fps with a 7900gtx vs 35 with a 8800gt even bottlenecked is the question you need to ask yourself. Sure, if you had a 3.6 GHZ QCD you may get 45 FPS, but 35 is STILL better than 25

Your CPU would be fine with a 8800GT

Oh thanks guys .. should I then OC it from 2.0 to 2.5 for any benefit
Thanks for the quick reply guys much faster than other forums.

Perfect answer. I see way too many people asking this question. So what if a higher end GPU won't run to it's absolute full potential? As jaydeejohn said, it will still kick the pants off of a lesser GPU.
I would like to know that I have extra horsepower left in my graphics card if I ever wanted to upgrade other parts, instead of knowing that upgrading is useless since my GPU is maxed already.

Ok I guess I am going 8800GT if I can find it in stock - Thanks for the answers.

I remember an article from THG about the 939 series, at 2.2 and above it wouldnt bottleneck a 1900xt. So Id OC if it will/you can

Your CPU would be fine with the 8800GT. Sure you may bottleneck the card a bit, but it's very unlikely it's anything you'd actually notice. CPU bottlenecks are generally only observed at low resolutions with low graphics settings.

That's not true. I went from a 7900 to an 8800GTS with absolutely no gains. If there were gains, it was 1-2%. You can't just upgrade one part and expect a miracle, everything gets slowed down to the slowest part in your system. After upgrading mobo and CPU, I doubled, and in some cases tripled, frame rates while being able to up the AA/AF settings.

Wait so ^ so you upgraded from a 7900 to a 8800 with no gains? Wow I am getting some mixed opinions ... anyone with a 939 board confirm this.. I am not planing to upgrade till I graduate in 2 years since I bot 4gb of ram

Wouldn't this also depend on the resolutions you game at? Lower resolutions require more of the CPU than the higher ones do. I think if you game at anything less than 1280x1024, you may not see much of a difference since it will be CPU bound. If you play higher than that you should see some difference. We need an investigation on this. If only I had the money to experiment with my old Dell.

This statement is right and wrong. It goes both ways. Let me explain how I understand it:

A higher end card can give you more Frames Per Second @ higher resolutions then a lower end card. This does not mean you'll be getting 50 FPS @ 1280x1024 and magically receive 90 FPS @ 1600xWhatever resolution. It just means that the GPU has higher processing power than it's predecessor at higher resolutions.

Let's say as an example (both rigs we'll assume are using the same hardware besides the GPU):

7900 runs @ 1280x1024 w/ 50 FPS
@ 1600x1250 w/ 25 FPS (50% loss because it's relying more on the GPU)

8800 runs @ 1280x1024 w/ 70 FPS
@ 1600x1250 w/ 68 FPS (A very small % drop because the GPU is more powerful)

All in all, your CPU is not going to make you frame rates at a lower resolution less than they would be at a higher resolution. You'll just see less of a performance drop when moving to higher resolutions.

Ok cool guys from what I get I am going to bite the bullet on the 8800Gt - I think 35 fps is fine for me since I will be using it at 1280 x 1024 .. going to see what Bioshock is like. As long as I get above 30 FPS on games anything is fine. Also I will oc my cpu to 2.5-2.8 to balance out the bottleneck.

A bottlenecked video card simple means you're getting the absolute most out of your processor. At the current price for an 8800GT, I'd say it's well worth it.

So what if it bottlenecks? then you don't need a new card when you upgrade the proc and you get a nice bump in graphics performance. At the price of a 8800GT, it's worth it.

The alternative is you get a new proc, new mobo, and graphics perf is the same. you'll be disappointed.

I'm using a socket 939 4400+ X2 2.2Ghz and was previously running a 7800GT card, but with my new 2900Pro I have seen huge gains in performance.