Which components should i upgrade? Bottlenecking?

[zhakar]

I built my first gaming rig a few years back and want to upgrade some components. I've notice some minor visual lag in BF:BC2 when there's gpu intensive scenes. However, I want to make sure I'm not buying a GPU or RAM (or any other component) that my system will not support or that is "overkill." My current specs on my system are below:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core (overclocked to 3.2 GHz)
GPU: XFX PVT88GYDF4 GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 (runs way too loud/hot when overclocked to ~710 MHz)
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2
MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s

I'm looking to upgrade under a budget of about $400, and have found the GIGABYTE GV-N465UD-1GI GeForce GTX 465 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 to be a reasonable answer...
(link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=14-125-332&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=2#scrollFullInfo)

Would this be a wise buy? Should I be getting DDR2 1066 RAM as well to replace my DDR2 800 since the mobo doesnt support DDR3? Thanks ^_^

 

[MadAdmiral]

It's the GPU. The CPU is just fine and gaming doesn't require that much RAM.

I wouldn't touch the 465. If you insist on sticking with nVidia (and you shouldn't), the only card worth it's money is the GTX 460 1 GB, but that's not as powerful as you could get.

Without knowing what resolution you're playing at, we can't really give you a good answer. I know that the best GPU you could afford is the HD 5870. It runs $370, but you don't need to spend that much if you're not playing at 1080p. If your monitor has a resolution under that, I'd get the HD 5770 ($130ish) or the HD 5850 ($255 is the current low price). The 5850 is a bit overkill, but if you upgrade the monitor, it will still be a great performer.

If you have a lower resoltuion monitor, I would buy the 5850, possibly add a Samsung Spinpoint F3 500 GB or 1 TB drive for some added HDD speed for $55-75 more, and start saving up a bit for a 1080p monitor. If you've already got a 1080p monitor, sink it all into the HD 5870, which will be good enough to carry into a future build either by iteslf or with a second one, assuming you build a new machine in a few years.

 

[zhakar]

Thanks MadAd. I'm running at 1680x1050 with my main monitor, sometimes dual monitors but that's only in CPU intensive apps. Since's it's just short of 1080 lines, I'll probably snag the 5850 and maybe a 500 gig drive.

 

[zhakar]

Best answer selected by Zhakar.

 

[MadAdmiral]

You could easily get the 5770 for that resolution, if you don't play a lot of games like Crysis.

 

[guanyu210379]

OW...already solved?
Actually I just wanna say that 8800 can still serve you well.
You can consider getting an SSD for your system.

 

[MadAdmiral]

"Already" solved? It had been a good week...

The SSD wouldn't do anything for gaming performance. It'd be a waste of money right now when there are better things to upgrade in the build and SSDs will only get cheaper and faster.