Good upgrade for gaming

chin311

Distinguished
Dec 25, 2008
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my dad got this computer in store off the cuff so I didn't have any time to do any research on processors.. I figured a quad was good... but I believe my processor is bottlenecking my 9800 gt. not too sure though, my pc is a gateway.. what would be a good processor that I could upgrade to for gaming? my budget is around 100$.

right now I can turn up my res to 1440x960 with 16xaf and 16xaa and take no performance hit at all in unreal tournament 3, call of duty 4, bioshock and games like that.. these games play at around 30 - 60 fps with call of duty playing at around 60 - 90.. can't even really play crysis even at low... I get 20 - 30 fps.

Gateway GT5694
780g motherboard
AMD Phenom 9100e 1.8 ghz
5 Gb @ 333
550 watt psu
xfx 9800 gt XXX

computer specs..

http://www.gateway.com/product_spec.php?product_recid=529668104
 
I would go for the 5200 am2 or 5400 black edition. Both run much faster than your quad core. The high end quads aren't worth the money. Dual cores run games just fine. And you can sell your 9100 in the for sale forums of this or other websites, such as anandtech. It will go for around $80.
 
No. But I would still change your cpu; it's much cheaper. Newegg has the cpus I recommended for $60-67. If you want a new pc, get a dell core2 duo system; They always have them for $300-400. Frys.com has 2 amd refurbished systems for $199-219, made by hp or compaq. But changing the cpu is much cheaper. And selling your old cpu isn't hard. I've sold several items in the for sale forums.