It was inevitable, but my geforce4 ti 4200 has finally met its match. The latest batch of games (Doom III, F.E.A.R., FarCry, etc.) run like a slide show unless squeezed through a tiny 640X480 resolution with virtually all the eye-candy options turned off. The F.E.A.R. demo looks like the original Half-Life on my computer. So here's my question: should I upgrade? My specs right now are:
Pentium 4 3.06ghz 533mhz fsb w/ ht enabled
Intel D845PEBT2 mobo with AGP 4X
1024 mb pc2700 ram
nvidia geforce4 ti 4200-8x, overclocked to 300/564
I've been eyeing a XFX geforce 6800 ($164) and a XFX or leadtek geforce 6800gt ($289-$299). I'd rather not go with an ATI card... I went through several of them when I replaced a voodoo4 way back and finally went with nvidia and never looked back. Thing is, with everything moving to pci-e, and the geforce 7 series out, would I be shooting myself in the foot buying a geforce 6? I don't have the money to build an entirely new computer.. and a new video card is probably a little ways down the road as well.. The 4200 held out a long time (I think I've had it 3 years) and I'm hoping upgrading my video card will hold me out for a couple more years. So... Upgrade the video card, or bite the bullet and hold off on the shiny new games until I can build a new computer? What are your opinions?
(And sorry this got so lengthy!)
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by goldbaron on 10/13/05 04:34 AM.</EM></FONT></P>
Pentium 4 3.06ghz 533mhz fsb w/ ht enabled
Intel D845PEBT2 mobo with AGP 4X
1024 mb pc2700 ram
nvidia geforce4 ti 4200-8x, overclocked to 300/564
I've been eyeing a XFX geforce 6800 ($164) and a XFX or leadtek geforce 6800gt ($289-$299). I'd rather not go with an ATI card... I went through several of them when I replaced a voodoo4 way back and finally went with nvidia and never looked back. Thing is, with everything moving to pci-e, and the geforce 7 series out, would I be shooting myself in the foot buying a geforce 6? I don't have the money to build an entirely new computer.. and a new video card is probably a little ways down the road as well.. The 4200 held out a long time (I think I've had it 3 years) and I'm hoping upgrading my video card will hold me out for a couple more years. So... Upgrade the video card, or bite the bullet and hold off on the shiny new games until I can build a new computer? What are your opinions?
(And sorry this got so lengthy!)
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by goldbaron on 10/13/05 04:34 AM.</EM></FONT></P>