9800GT +Pentium D or HD 4670 +Athlon64 x2

Need help guys,

I plan to buy a new vga card, my old system are Pentium D 820 and Asrock 775 DUal VSTA. Since the mobo only supported 4x PCI-e (am i right?) im gonna need a new mobo (PCI-e 16x).

Another problem, bcoz i have to change mobo anyway im looking around and read that Athlon64 x2 easily beat Pentium D and very cheap too (type 4800 +/- $50)

So for my tight budget, what should i pick:

a) Keep my Pentium D, buy a LGA775 mobo (ASUS P5KPL-AM SE /GIGABYTE GA-G31M-S2L) and 9800GT (Leadtek)

b) Buy Athlon64 x2 4800, an AM2 mobo (ASROCK N68-S) and HD 4670 (Sapphire)

I think both options are still on the same price range

Note: i only have 400Watt PSU (Silverstone ST400), 2GB DDR II 667

Any suggestion? many thanks.

Hold it right there the X4 slot isn't as much of an issue as you think.
You can put a C2D in the board and depending on what you are upgrading from Graphics wise im betting you can get a decent card in there that will increase the performance no end.

These guys http://forum.micromart.co.uk/Topic173777-19-1.aspx (especially Slipstreem) know a thing or two about getting the best from your board. Check out the system specs at the bottom of his post There's plenty of gas in your board yet ill bet. Just so you know he says the 3870 is restricted by the slot but only slightly. Anything below that will be fine. Trust me he knows what he is talking about.
have a look at the link then either ask over there or post back on here with any questions.

Mactronix

You do make me sad

it is Pentium D 820 (2.8 ghz) but overclocked to 3.1 ghz

So are u saying that Pentium D 3ghz (o.c) with a 9800GT in PCI-e 4x mobo is ok for gaming?

let say Crysis 1280X1024 2xAA high quality? not to forget my 400watt psu

Ati cards use the bandwidth a lot better than Nvidia cards do last i checked, if it was me i would go with the 4670. The CPU really needs updating whatever you decide to do. Its going to hold most cards back. You have a 775 socket so the choice of cheap overclockable CPU's is pretty vast.
Do check your Bios edition for compatability though. The Asrock 775 DUal VSTA will support a loy of differant hardware as long as you have the correct Bios, this isi especially true for the GPU's

Mactronix

What resolution are you gaming at? One way i believe will ease the bottleneck on the pcie is to increase the frequency.

use to play in 1280*1024

increase the freq..u mean OC'ing the graphic card?
is there any exact percentage number how should i increase the core &memory clock gpu card in pci-e 4x, so it will give the same performance like if it used in PCI-e 16x?

Thanks, youve been helping much

I've been wandering around and it seems quite much ppl who use the same mobo as mine with the latest gpu card, because i always thinking it'll be waste of money using a good gpu card if only get 50% from their full potential (i never got the exact number how much it'll be bottlenecked in 4x PCI-e).
But considering those people maybe im worried too much. Then i checked to ASRock and an 4670 or 4770 is not enlisted in this mobo supported vga, where i can find this correct bios? (and i really hope it came with manual how i should flashed it )

In my opinion i would go with with the 9800gt.
In your bios there is a setting called pcie (bus) frequency 100mhz. You can up that to maybe to 110-115mhz it should help the pcie x4 a little.

Between those 2 options, go with the 4800+ and the 4670. Look, I've got a 5200+ and it's not bad with my 9600gt. Do this, go with an AM2+ mobo that will support phenom II chips, which it appears the ASROCK will, get your 4670 and 4800+, OC the processor for extra performance, then down the road when you can spend more, grab a better video card, and maybe a phenom II chip, along with better memory. If you do it this way, then you are going to a path you can upgrade out out of without doing a full rebuild later. Because otherwise what's the point b/c LGA 775 is a dying socket, no sense in upgrading to dead end tech. Been there done that.

It translated so a bit garbled in places but you should get the idea
http://translate.google.com/transl [...] es-flashen
Mactronix

go for athlon and 9600gt
your graphic card wont be fully used by processor if you chose first option
yet,the athlon x2 with 9600gt is best option

Sorry to threadjack, but should I be worried about having a Pentium D (3.0GHz) and am planning on getting a 9800GT? Will there be any bottleneck?

I saw someone put the idea for the 9600 gt. The 4670 should be about the same performance as the 9600gt. However, the 9600gt is supposed to have a higher power draw. That being the case, and not knowing what PSU the op is running, I'd reccomend the 4670. To whoever is asking about a 9800gt, check your PSU to be sure it can actually run this card.