CPU or GeForce 3

[conan48]

I am considering either upgrading my Motherboard/CPU which is a P3 800 or my graphics card which is a Geforce 2GTS. What do you think would give me a better performance increase for gaming, a new 1200mhz chip with my Geforce 2 or my P3 800 with a Geforce 3. Thanks for your opinion.

 

[Frocer]

I would say CPU, then get a Radeon II or NV30 later on, GF2 GTS is plenty fast for today's games

 

[Guest]

though every major realeased 3d game from now on will be meatn for the geforce 3. Your cpu will do you good for quite some time to come. Upgrading the graphics card will have the largest effect for gaming but you cna always wait for the better video card to come out so it is really up to you. We are still several months away from Readeon 2 (someone say nov.? unconfirmed) or nvidia's next offering.

 

[ianmills]

what the hell?!?!

both your cpu and video card are good enough now. Wait maybe 6 months or so and then you can upgrade both for the same price that a geforce3 costs now.

Your setup should work great for 98% of the games out there today

 

[HolyGrenade]

You're like I used to be. My advise is don't upgrade. Nows a bad time to upgrade anything. Wait for a while. Let some northwood show if you're an intel guy. Wait for some proper Athlon 4 if you're an AMD Guy.

Also, ATI and nVidia will have their offerings on the table at the end of the year. So, may be around then you might be able to afford both a graphics card AND a cpu.


<font color=red>Tomorrow I will live, the fool does say today itself's too late; the wise lived yesterday

 

[HolyGrenade]

Who the hell told you GF3 doesn't do embm?


<font color=red><i>Tomorrow I will live, the fool does say, today itself's too late; the wise lived yesterday

 

[killall]

yeh cpu... mobo and ram would cost you around the same as a geforce 3 i should think... the g2gts is good enough for about another 6 months i should say... thats to run at highest resolution...

you do not strengthen the weak by weakening the strong

 

[koolman_]

Hmmmmmmm,you didnot mentioned your whole pc specs as far as i can tell you might have a BX mobo and 100MHz Ram i think you should dump the graphic card for the time bieng and go for the Cpu+Mobo upgrade you can get a 700MHz celeron and an Intel D815EPEA2 Mobo around 170$ if you shop around.this will not only increase your gaming power by running your TNT2 at AGP4X and more cpu speed but will also give you room for future upgrade (radeon2 and 1GHz cpu) i also went for the same approach and it worked great.

"Giving Up is the step towards failure"

 

[HolyGrenade]

He already has a p3 800. why the hell would he want to "upgrade" to a 700mhz celeron?


<font color=red><i>Tomorrow I will live, the fool does say
today itself's too late; the wise lived yesterday

 

[Guest]

Well i went for both CPU and a GeForce3
i got a P4 1.7ghz and Video card GeForce3 u all prolly know the specs about these so i won't have to say

 

[Guest]

I don't know where you saw anything about a TNT2 card in his post.

 

[Crashman]

I'll give you a big tip-you can't put a 1200MHz on your motherboard. There. If it's an 800E not an 800EB you might be able to overclock it to 1066MHz by raising the bus speed to 133MHz. Then again maybe not. A cheap way to go is to trade your processor for a 700, then overclock that to 933, this one is fairly easy and should be free. If you don't overclock, get the 1000EB.
The GeForce 3 will give you a lot more features but not much more performance in most games. A few of the newer ones, such as Max Payne, will take advatage of those features.
Looking at your current specs, a faster processor will give you the greatest speed increase for games, but I wouldn't even bother upgrading it right now. I'd wait a long while, until there is enough of an increase in technology to make your investment worthwhile.

Back to you Tom...

 

[Oni]

hes been licking random pieces of paper again, must have been lucky on a "magical" one.

Now if he said something about overclocking the celeron to 933 MHz or something I could understand.....but then again why not just overclock the 800.
I think your CPU is fine get a geforce 3 or ATI 8500. If your system is any good though OVERCLOCK IT. *grin(
If your P3 800 is a 100 MHz FSB (I think it is) then you should be able to up the speed a bit and get over 900 MHz. You might also be able to overclock your geforce 2 depending on the model/brand.
Overclock first, upgrade later. :-D

 

[Guest]

Conan48 my opinion is that you would gain more overall if you were to upgrade your CPU/Motherboard. As others have stated, there are few games which currently use the features of the GeForce3. You didn't state which motherboard you are using. If you are using one which supports AGP 4x then the decision becomes more difficult, but if it only supports 1 or 2x (like my Abit BH6) then IMHO it makes much more sense to go with CPU/Motherboard. I personally am waiting for mobo's with the new KT266A chipset to come out before retiring my BH6.

Hope this helps

 

[Matisaro]

His cpu is not going to be a bottleneck of his videocard, I think he would gain much more usable power by upgrading to gf3 or radeon 8500.

~Matisaro~
"The Cash Left In My Pocket,The BEST Benchmark"
~Tbird1.3@1.5~

 

[Guest]

Even if his AGP port only supports 1 or 2x ?

 

[Matisaro]

Yes, most modern mobos support agp 4x, but even if his dosent the difference between 4x and 2x is very small. (less than 100 pts in 3dmark2001 for example), the videocard will give him more gaming performance then the new cpu.

~Matisaro~
"The Cash Left In My Pocket,The BEST Benchmark"
~Tbird1.3@1.5~

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

video card will give you more performance! a p3 800 is fine.. show me a game that requires a cpu at 800mhz!? Now show me a game the requires a good 3d card!? you see those all over the place. Your processor is fine go get yourself a good video card! next year get the p4 2.2ghz with nvidia nforce with it's dual channle ddr this way you get the latest motherboard .. the geforce 3 or the radeon 8500 will be around for awhile. ya know?

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

good point i agree

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>

 

[Guest]

Yea, that's probably the best way to go.... Course, now there's the added "problem" of the new GeForce Titanium coming out

 

[Guest]

erm wtf are u talking about...tnt2? celeron? that would be a downgrade from his current system...