PLS HELP! Upgrade to Q8300 or HD4890?

[skate9345]

My current system is a 22"(1680x1050), 4850 512mb, pentium dual core E5200 2.5ghz @ 3.25ghz oc, 500w psu with 2x 12v rails(17a and 18a, don't know the brand) but im not satisfied with the performance(im an enthusiast) because i can't max out the graphics (and AA) on any of the following games without lag : Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, Crysis(obviously), Gta IV, Assasins Creed.

from what ive heard, all of them support quad core(correct me if im wrong but i think fallout 3 only support dual and not quad) so i should gain a huge advantage in the games i play if i upgrade to a Q8300, but i should also gain a big improvement jump with a 4890.

Im confused with what to buy(i've also checked the Q9300 but the 2mb extra cache doesn't give enough improvement over the price difference, correct me if im wrong)

PLEASE HELP!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Maziar]

Well you have a pretty fast CPU,an E5200 @ 3.2 would be fine for all of those games,getting a QuadCore doesn't help you much in performance because all of those games run fine with Dual Core,the only game between those that may give you a boost is GTA IV,but games are mostly CPU limited than GPU limited.
About VGA,well upgrading from a HD 4850 to a HD 4890 would give you a performance increase in games,but if you can go for ATI HD 5850 instead,it has newer tech and its priced well and will give you almost double performance increase.

 

[life626]

I agree with what Maziar said. Those games should run pretty well with your cpu oc'd. Getting the video card, like the HD4890 would help you, but not as much as the newer HD 5850 depending if you could afford the price. I think you will see much more of and increase in performance in your games with a new video card and not as much with a new processor.

 

[skate9345]

Well you have a pretty fast CPU,an E5200 @ 3.2 would be fine for all of those games,getting a QuadCore doesn't help you much in performance because all of those games run fine with Dual Core,the only game between those that may give you a boost is GTA IV,but games are mostly CPU limited than GPU limited.
About VGA,well upgrading from a HD 4850 to a HD 4890 would give you a performance increase in games,but if you can go for ATI HD 5850 instead,it has newer tech and its priced well and will give you almost double performance increase.

ok, tnx

 

[Maziar]

No problem glad to help

 

[Maziar]

Overclock more to 4Ghz and Get a 5850

I don't think that's not necessary because a 3.2 Dual should handle it fine,the OP doesn't play at a very high resolution either so there won't be bottlenecking problems either