CPU or GPU upgrade?

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veivorne

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Hello guys,
I know this is a usual question
So my current spec is:

Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 @ 2.40 GHz
Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT 512 MB
450watt PSU
1440x900 res
(I know it's pretty old :p)

As for my limiting budget,
I'm wondering which one should I upgrade?
CPU upgrade to i3 core type processor (including new MoBo and RAM)
or
GPU upgrade to .. maybe HD 5770? (including new PSU)?
 
Solution
zooted
For gaming, overclock your cpu the best you can, and get a new graphics card. The c2d can still pretty much run any game out there. So the new gpu will give you the biggest boost in games.
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zooted

zooted

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For gaming, overclock your cpu the best you can, and get a new graphics card. The c2d can still pretty much run any game out there. So the new gpu will give you the biggest boost in games.
 
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wathman

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upgrading the GPU will get you more performance for your dollar, but you are going to most likely run into bottlenecks in your current system so it won't perform as well as it is able to. As you suggested you probably will need a new PSU to go with it. When you are able to update your other core components you can keep the HD 5770 in it.
 
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veivorne

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Additional info:
I'm currently using winXP, i want to change to win 7 but my current MoBo doesn't support it

I'm going for long-lasting upgrade here, I might upgrade the other part later.
So is it still upgrading GPU will give me better result?
 
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zooted

zooted

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Yes upping the gpu will give you the best result, can you list what brand and model the psu is? If it is a high quality unit the 5770 will be no problem at all to run. Your mobo doesnt support it???? I dont understand. What mobo do you have, I doubt that it doesnt support win7.
 
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wathman

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yeah, the GPU would give you a greater increase in fps since you'd be bumping that up a few generations of tech. The CPU upgrade would be a small incremental increase in tech since you can't upgrade very far with that socket type on your board.
 
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veivorne

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the PSU is the type that came with the mobo, so i think it sucks :p
my mobo is ASUSTeK P5GC-MX/GBL, it said in asus website that my mobo doesn't support win7 because it doesn't have the driver compatible for win 7 OS. But it support win vista though.

@wathman
so the cpu doesn't give fps boost?
 
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zooted

zooted

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Let's look at it this way, what is your budget to work with. Yes the cpu upgrade will offer some fps boost but nowhere near as much as the gpu upgrade. Windows 7 is prettty much plug and play it should automatically find the drivers for your motherboard.
 
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wathman

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Also, with older hardware, sometimes they don't bother to update compatibility when the product is no longer being actively marketed. Vista and Windows 7 are based on similar code, any computer that can run Vista will run Windows 7 and probably perform better anyways since Vista was a bloated and inefficient OS that only worked well when you had tons of resources to throw at it.
 
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