So, you're trying to get the most out of an old system. I see it time and time again: Should I upgrade component A, or will component B continue to be a bottleneck, making the component upgrade A meaningless?
As we all know, technology of cpus and graphics (and everything else, but let's just look at those two for now, in the context of gaming) don't move in lockstep. So, when you're putting together a system out of old parts (or upgrading an old system, which doesn't give you the luxury of testing different configurations), what are the things you need to look at in order to make a well-balanced system?
Chronology seems like an obvious candidate, but it simply isn't: Sometimes a graphics card will come out years after a cpu, and still be a viable upgrade for a computer using that cpu. Sometimes (I guess this is rarer) upgrading your cpu will show noticeable gains without upgrading your graphics card.
You could come to Tom's and ask the experts here every single time, I suppose. But I'm more interested in learning: What do you need to study in order to make these kinds of judgments?
As we all know, technology of cpus and graphics (and everything else, but let's just look at those two for now, in the context of gaming) don't move in lockstep. So, when you're putting together a system out of old parts (or upgrading an old system, which doesn't give you the luxury of testing different configurations), what are the things you need to look at in order to make a well-balanced system?
Chronology seems like an obvious candidate, but it simply isn't: Sometimes a graphics card will come out years after a cpu, and still be a viable upgrade for a computer using that cpu. Sometimes (I guess this is rarer) upgrading your cpu will show noticeable gains without upgrading your graphics card.
You could come to Tom's and ask the experts here every single time, I suppose. But I'm more interested in learning: What do you need to study in order to make these kinds of judgments?