I have had my current PC for 15 months: XP2100 Asus A7V333 512MB DDR GF4 4600 WD1000 JB Works fine, but only getting 10000 in 3DMark 2001, with all the XP stuff running. 2 questions: 1) What is the BEST score in 3DMark 2001 that any of you have achieved without cheating, i.e. at the default settings? 2) If I will get a big performance increase by upgrading, what way should I go- CPU/MoBo/RAM/graphics? I will keep my case/HDD/Samsung 191T, etc. There is no budget as such, but I am looking for value for money! I guess this means I won't be buying the absolute top-of-range CPU. Cheers
graphics to dx9 (ATI unless a 5900 ultra) and cpu. apart from that everything will b fine. then again i could go on about waiting till christmas for the amd64 etc for a while
you are going to ugrade your pc because you get low 3d mark scores??? if you have money and you don´t know what to do with it... donate it to a CARE organization or similar. Children die of stupid deseases because they don´t have money to buy medicines.
I'd check if your CPU is Palomino or TBred. If it's a TBred then invest in an NForce 2 board and OC your chip. Depending on the result and the CPU you could end up with anything between 1000 and 5000 additional 3D Marks. Will be a nice little project also.
upgrading you pc now would be probably the biggest waste of money. there is **** all point in upgrading to a dx9 card because there arn't any dx9 games out yet and getting a dx9 card simply to benchmark would be absolutely stupid. Unistall 3dmark now and ignore it forever. as long as your favourite games play ok then thats all that matters.
Jedi: I usually upgrade my PC when the performance levels effectively double. I was just wondering if that point had yet been reached....... I don't want to get into an argument about World Poverty or the ethics of Consumerism, although I think that fair trade and responsible foreign policies by the "developed" world's Governments would do more in the long-term than Aid. I reserve the right to spend my money as I wish. Cheers
olv: I have used 3DMark only to check if I have made things better or worse following any changes to my PC. Small decreases in performance can add up without being noticed over a period of time. I actually benchmarked my PC for the first time in over 6 months a couple of weeks ago, just to make sure it wasn't overheating after "silencing" my fans. I noticed that my score had dropped from around 12000 to 10000, presumably because of all the extra XP stuff going on in the background? I hadn't noticed the change whilst playing games, so I agree that benchmarking is not what it's all about. I would be looking for a BIG increase in performance to make me upgrade. I will probably wait until I get a game that is "unplayable" before I upgrade! (But, no harm in asking for opinions) Cheers
yeh sure. but from my point of view what you have its perfectly fine and i would hold out until athlon64 comes along and when the range of dx9 cards has increased.
Wait, Athlon64 is going to be the next time anyone should b thinking of upgrading, otherwise you are just chucking your money away imo. At stock I got aroun 9000 score in 3DMark, a tweak here, a tweak there (OC'in ) and i am in the 12000 now. 3000 points, for free! But you really shouldnt be worring about your system unless it doesnt do something you want it too. If it plays all your games, then leave it. -cLoWn
Seriously agree with everyone else... it is not time to upgrade. if you want to upgrade parts maybe a vid card and 1gb of ram (heard that 1gb of ram helps in bf1942 if you play it; not that it won't help out other apps too )
I wish my PC was that spec... I'm still running a Tbird 1333 @ 1600, with PC133 ram on an Abit KT7A-RAID motherboard, I also have a GF3, which is 2 1/2 years old in august. You don't need a faster PC unless you are going to be running things that you cant run on your original setup. I mean, I'd love to upgrade, but I don't think it's viable at the moment.
Thanks for the replies. The general concensus is not to spend any money for a while. I won't. I had a feeling that it would not be worth upgrading yet, which was why I asked. If there wasn't a doubt in my mind, I would have just gone ahead. Cheers
more reason for me to upgrade though, I just chipped my Tbird 1333, now only does 1466 (daren't up the FSB as I might fry it), it's already got scorch marks round the die
If you like to re-encode videos and audio then by all means upgrading will be useful but I would bet it isnt that slow now anyway. Getting some more RAM might be an idea though. You havent mentioned what you use your PC for. I know you said you wont upgrade now - wise choice! If you just use M$ Word then what you doing with such a fast computer??! It wipes the floor with my T-bird!
I mostly use my PC for general office type stuff and internet, and FPS games. I really don't need a faster PC, I just get the urge to spend some cash every now and then! I've reached the point in life where I have all the (material) things I actually need, so now I have the choice between putting my "surplus" cash in the bank for a rainy day (or retirement), or spending it. I guess you could call it retail therapy. I will be strong, and resist. I could do with some new furniture.... Cheers
Been there, done that (well, sort of) Ended up with a wife 12 years younger than me. Fun while it lasted. Hmm, maybe I should get married again. That's a good way to blow my cash. Cheers
i agree, the only reason i will EVER upgrade, is because the upgrade will do something that i want. for instance when doom 3 comes out i may get a new GFX card becayuse my GF2MX may not run it. however since your just upgrading for the hell of it, it is a big big big waste of money, but something cool, some clothes or something!