Which to upgrade first -

[madmarvin]

My current system has:

4GB Kingston Ram
AMD 64 X2 6000+
ATI HD 3850

and I am going to upgrade to

8GB Ram
AMD 965
ATI HD6850

My question is which to do first to get optimum performance in TF2 at 1920x1200 (current system cannot run without significant lag)? I am thinking the processor is the main issue right now.

 

[jackspeed]

I am assuming that you are talking about the phenom 965 which is what I would go with but you may need a new mobo for it. (which means pretty much a new computer) so are you talking about the phenom and if so can you post your mother board specs? and an answer to yor problem at that resolution both your processor and your gpu are going to cause lag.

 

[madmarvin]

Off hand I don't have the MoBo specs in front of me, but yes it is the Phenom II 965 Denab Black Edition and my motherboard does support it. It's pretty much the fastest CPU it supports. I will post when I get home. I figured the RAM was not the main bottleneck, but for $50 I can probably upgrade to 8GB.

I am hoping to upgrade by the time Skyrim and D3 come out. I think this system should be able to handle those games pretty well and should only cost me about $250 - $300 to do the whole upgrade. But, at the same time my wife is pregnant with twins and I don't want to overspend if there is no need.

I am thinking I should just start with the proc and see how it goes.

 

[madmarvin]

Best answer selected by madmarvin.

 

[sarinaide]

Wouldn't a X 4 955 be a better option and save a few bucks in the process? This is of coarse if the MOBO supports it.

 

[tsnor]

tf2:
Minimum: 1.7 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, DirectX® 8.1 level Graphics Card (Requires support for SSE), Windows® 7 (32/64-bit)/Vista/XP, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

Recommended: Pentium 4 processor (3.0GHz, or better), 1GB RAM, DirectX® 9 level Graphics Card, Windows® 7 (32/64-bit)/Vista/XP, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

You might be better off starting with video. ATI HD6850 is great card. So is GTX 460 1 GB (not the SE version, the full version). Then wait and see if Bulldozer makes price of CPUs fall in spring ... ?