upgrading question

For Gaming, you'll get a <i>far</i> greater performance increase by upgrading the Graphics card. See if you can stretch your budget to a 9800Pro, but a 9800 is a good card anyhow.

What motherboard are you using? It's possible that it won't run a P4 2.8 anyway.

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<font color=red>The preceding text is assembled from information stored in an unreliable organic storage medium. As such it may be innacurate, incomplete, or completely wrong</font color=red> :wink:

ive got an MSI it says it will take 3.0 or higher  

Definetly go with the videocard upgrade.

May want to consider a faster processor if you can find one cheap... it won't hurt to be sure, but your main problem at this point is video... I'd suggest a 9800. A 9600 isn't going to be massively different performance wise (except in dx9/aa&af)

Shadus

one person told me that a processor rarely pushes the limits of a graphics card? i assume from your responses (thanks by the way) that this is rubbish.

i guess there's no program that will tell me which is being pushed to its limits (CPU or Gcard) more?

Hi Sean,

I don't think there is such a program. What you can find usually is an article where some CPU/GPU combos are compared so you can see where is the bottleneck.

To put simply, some things that stress the GPU: lots of polygons/textures, play at high resolutions, use AA and/or Aniso, DX9/latest games, etc.

In the other hand, CPU are stressed by AI (Artificial Intelligence), physics (calculations of enviroment in real time), etc.

Currently a 2Ghz CPU can handle CPU tasks most of the times. But GPUs are usually where there is more work to do. Your "loe" frame rates are, IMO, due to your GPU.

I would also recommend, if you like to learn about your computer, to overclock little bit your CPU if you feel you need more power. This is also a way to see if X% morepower gives you a good return (the closer increase in FPS to that %, the clearer the bottleneck is in CPU; the lower, the less feasible the CPU is the problem)

Hope this helps.


Still looking for a <b>good online retailer</b> in Spain :frown:

thanks a bunch for the info. ill try overclocking. in my msi manual it says i can use fuzzy logic to overclock. is that any good?

I don't know what MSI means by "fuzzy logic", but I can tell you how a Pentium 4 is overclocked.

Pentiums 4 are multiplier looked, so the only way to overclock is via FSB. Usually in your BIOS settings there is a parameter dedicated to it. If you raise by some Mhz this frecuency, you overclock the CPU AND the memory (usually runs syncro, but depends on your mobo/chipset).

Important:
- Increase by small steps. That way if something start to behave strangly, you know you are crossing a dangerous line. Time to return to last stable value.
- Memory can be a bottleneck. If your memory runs above specifications, is also a source of possible problems. So don't blame always the CPU for not overclock as high as you would like.
- By your post I suppose you are not experienced overclocking. The best you can do is read a lot in internet. There are very interesting articles, helpfull tips, etc.

I could write a lot of paragraphs about it, but I am not the most expert and my intention is only to show you the path :wink:

And believe, is a very interesting experience!


Still looking for a <b>good online retailer</b> in Spain :frown: