My upgrade question

[miltiary]

bascially at the moment my specs are 3200+ , 1 GB ram and 6600GT

On aqua mark 3d i get 57,000 which is ok for me, however i cannot play FSX well.

what would be best for me to upgrade? shall i put a 4200+ cpu or buy a 8600GT card ? its either one or the other for me since im not rolling in the money at the moment lol.

how much should i pay for in pounds, second hand?

XFX GeForce 8600 GT Chipset @ 620 MHz
540 MHz Shader Clock
256 MB 1.7 GHz DDR3 Memory
1355 MHz Shader Clock
1700 MHz memory clock
Dual Link DVI - Supporting digital output up to 2560x1600
HDTV ready, TV Out

many thanks, btw im newbie

 

[jay2tall]

First.. Welcome!
Second.. Is your current motherboard have a PCI-E or AGP slot for video
Third.. What will you be using it for? Games, Apps, video editing....etc

 

[miltiary]

thanks, um its PCI-E,

and mainly games especially fsx

 

[jay2tall]

I'd upgrade the graphics over the CPU if you only have those options. Research overclocking your CPU. I am not familiar with OCing the AMD's but I hear the lower end AMD chips are easy to OC to much higher speeds. You will benefit alot from that.

As far as the 8600GT, look up the ATI 2600XT card as well, it might give you a little better performance. That or the HD3650 card. What is your price range?

What is FSX?

What Power Supply do you have in your system? is it a home built PC or name brand?

 

[miltiary]

ok cool, i have overclocked the cpu and did make a difference but somtimes crashes. price range £50-60 so between $100 - 120

fsx is flight simulator x the new one very demanding!

and its a HIPER TYPE R TRUE 530 W - home built system

 

[geofelt]

I believe that FSX is one of the few games where the cpu is more important than the vga card. On that basis, the cpu upgrade would be the better. To get a better answer on this, go to one of the many forums that deal with flight simulators. Performance is a hot topic there.

 

[two bit hit]

Bear in mind that you can't just put in your money to the exchange rate, components are cheaper over there...you should be able to find an MSI 8600GT for about £60 from the main online retailers, I'll have a little look for you.
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141456 <--only 256MB
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/140585
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspxQuicklinx=4ZHJ&CategorySelectedId=11137&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11137,12 <--512MB

Just a quick browse, have a look yourself and see what you like, you can get some bargains once in a while on there.

 

[miltiary]

when i run aqua mark 3d i get 57000

when i overclock cpu i get about 5900
when i overclock gpu i get about 5780

when overclock both 5900

so i mean would i be better off upgrading my 3200 to a 4200
or my ASUS 6600gt to XFX 8600GT ?

i dont want to touch my memory or motherboard (NF4UK8AA)

thanks for those links Two bit

 

[stoner133]

40fps in FSX here, AMD 6400+ X2BE, 4GB of Muskin memory and Vista Ultimate X64. For FSX your gonna want the fastest CPU you can buy. I was running a 4800+ X2 which is no slouch but it would only allow graphics settings in the medium range, with two 3870's in crossfire. The 6400 allows me to max out all but autogen senery that still has to be one step below max. The 4800+ required no autogen to maintain 20fps.

 

[miltiary]

sorry i mean 59000
and 57800 respectively to the above post ( it wouldnt let me edit it)

 

[miltiary]

jeeeeez theres no way i can make a system like that, i just hate slow frame rates, i woundnt mind sacrificing a bit of quality