CPU Bottleneck?

[malignant]

Hi guy im thinking of upgrading to an radeon 9700, i already own the 8500. I want to know if i upgrade to the 9700 if ill ever see lame 10-20 fps i get sometimes with the 8500. I know ill be able to run with lots of detail with the 9700 but would also like to keep a steady 30+ fps. Should i upgrade any other components or wait for a while. Thanks for any help. Here are my specs:

ECS K7S5A Mobo
256 crucial 2700 ddr ram
AMD XP 1600+ (1.4ghz)
Maxtor 30gig 7200 hdd
radeon 8500
Turtle beach santa cruz audio card

 

[Ghostdog]

That 1600 seems a bit limiting.

<font color=red>I´m starting to feel like a real computer consultant.</font color=red>

 

[icy_oblivion]

I agree that the 1600 at stock speeds will be a bit slow. I do know that the 1600 overclock's very nicely though if you are willing to OC.

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[dhlucke]

What settings are you running at that gives you 10-20 fps? Are you running at 1600x1200 with the highest settings?

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[malignant]

Hi thanks for the replies. I usually run the games at either 1024x768 or 1280x1024 with medium details. I get 10-20 fps when theres a lot going on. So you guys think I should upgrade cpu/mobo along with the vid card? When does the xp 2600+ come out? I know the speed is around 2ghz, I was thinking that or p4 2.5ghz but it depends when the 2600+ comes out. Thanks.

 

[Ghostdog]

If you can afford a full upgrade then do it.

Check with the motherboard manufacturer to see how fast of a processor your current board supports, you might be fine with a new processor. If you want the new hardware now and want to stick with AMD, the 2200+ should provide enough performance. If you can wait, the 2600+ should be out soon but will cost a bit. Then again if you wnat top-notch perf. then you could swith to Intel products.

Keep in mind that CPU-dependency varies from game to game.

<font color=red>I´m starting to feel like a real computer consultant.</font color=red><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Ghostdog on 09/22/02 10:44 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[malignant]

Thanks, well i wont have the money until late october. I'm thinking of going intel. Asus P4S8X and p4 2.53ghz and a stick of corsair ddr400 512 ram. Thanks