Ok so heres the question im looking at getting a 8800gt 512mb, and a new psu ocz stealthxstream 600w.
but i'm scared the rest of my pc could bottleneck the performance of the 8800 allot,
my rig:
amd althlon 64 3800+ (2.4ghz)
ecs kn1sli extreme motherboard
1gig ddr1 Kingston
will this limit the 8800 im looking at getting, i am going to upgrade the rest when i have the cash, but realy will it give the 8800 a big drop in performance when playing high spec games like cod4 or will the 8800 still give me a huge boost from my 6600(LOL)
I'd say that your CPU is the biggest bottleneck of all, the 1 Gb of RAM the second;
- get a dual core: COD4 likes cores. A X2 4200 should give you a huge boost for a small price.
- if you have a single 1 Gb stick of DDR, add a second - and enable dual channel. Second boost cometh. If not, add/replace with a new pair of DDR sticks (DDR is not much more costly than DDR2, and since DDR3 is around the corner, I'd advise you to wait DDR2 out)
Then, cleaning up will remove overhead:
- disable Theme service and sounds,
- remove as many taskbar icons and related softwares as you can,
- use a light antivirus like AVG instead of Norton,
- disable spooler service if you don't have a printer,
- disable Microsoft file sharing and Server service if you don't share folders between different computers,
- disable system restore,
- use Pagedefrag and JKdefrag,
- remove unneeded peripherals like COM and Serial ports in BIOS...
This helps make your system nimble enough to handle pretty much anything - for zero cost.
------------------------------Efficient coding leads to impressive software; sloppy coding leads to Vista.
Reply to mitch074
DDR2 ram is dirt cheap right now, Quality 800mhz ram can be had from $35-50 for 2gbs. My opinion about getting the card now is based solely on price, let them come down to MSRP before you get one.
You are about to answer a thread that has been inactive for more than 6 months. If you still wish to proceed, please ensure that your posting is original and does not duplicate or overlap any prior responses to this thread.