I have an ageing system and I'm planning to upgrade it. the important parts are: it runs on Win XP 32bit Intel E6700 OC'ed to 3.2ghz 4 gig corsair Ram ATI 4870 512m x2 WD Raptors in RAID 0. (not sure if I'll keep the RAID) My options are: (I plan to get Win 7 64bit in any case) 1. Upgrade the GPU from ATI 4870 to the 5870 or 5850. Is it worth it I wonder? Or will I just unbalance the system with a great GPU and old CPU etc.. so I don't get the full benefit, I'm not sure. 2. revamp the whole thing (i7, 6gig DDR3, GPU, mobo & cooler) £700+ Which I know will work but the cost stings a bit! So the question is, shove another new GPU in it and wait till next year to upgrade the whole thing. OR say scr*w it, rip the guts out and start afresh.
depends on what yo do. if you game mostly, and the 4870 struggles at the rez your monitor can handle, then grab a 5850. maybe even a new monitor if the current one is aging. for gaming, your processor would be fine and even an upgrade to 5870 wouldnt bottleneck it i dont believe. if you render and all that good stuff, a look at an i7-920 or maybe even an i5-750.
Yeah sorry should have said. I play mostly FPS type games and some flight sims. I try to play at 1680x1050 but I notice I can't play new games (like Bad Company 2 and Modern Warfare 2) at this res any more with x2 AA. Cheers
grab a 5850 and a new monitor maybe. hopefully you have a good psu. if not maybe look at that as well. the e6700 will be fine for gaming for awhile yet, although an i5-750 will add a few fps, but not worth it in my opinion.
Yeouch. Your "aging" system is better than the system I bought under two years ago. Thank goodness I'm two years behind in gaming ;-)
If you like you can upgrade to win 7. Win XP and win 7 will have various differences among them. Google "Win XP vs. Win 7" and see. Then you can decide. And if you cant play games with your graphic card you should upgrade it as trig said.
the cpu is fine, The graphics card is as well tbh 5850 is a big cost for what it is ( sold out in way too many places has increased the price alot) and if you can hold out id wait and see on that front
Thanks for the advice. I wonder, I know I'll get a small performance drop by changing to Windows 7 64bit. Will this be offset by being able to use all the RAM available as I use XP 32bit ATM?
Depends on games you play win7 has a wierd support list anything older than 2004-5 and you may get issues
The increased RAM should make a considerable difference to not just your gaming but pretty much everything you do on the computer. I'd upgrade (well, obviously - I did) and I wouldn't worry about compatibility unless you play some seriously ancient 16-bit games that both Vista and 7 no longer support. If you're worried, put a dual-boot XP installation on there too and play 'em from there. I'm actually with the others here; if gaming is what this computer is for, games still aren't coded properly to take advantage of the hardware advances because probably a good half of PC-game players don't know jack about hardware/cannot afford to stay at the bleeding edge of technology. So your CPU/MB should be fine for the moment. Personally, I'd get a new graphics card, and maybe upgrade some other 'carry-over' bits that will survive the transition to your new computer - so new HDDs if you need them, a good PSU, a new monitor - all sounds good. You'll have to upgrade eventually, but at the moment I don't think there's much pushing you to pull the trigger on it now.
Yeah, sounds like a plan. I'll see what happens when I install Win 7 64bit, it's getting round it is the problem. I have to install from a ISO image on a memory stick and wait until the planets are aligned and so on. The oldest game I play is Battlefield 2 and there are some known issues. I'll cross that bridge when I..... I have a good basis for a new machine anyway. Corsair 650 watt PSU, Antec P182 case, x2 WD Raptor HD's.
One thing to remember about Win7's support for games versus XP is the ability to play DX10 exclusives (or should I be saying DX11? ). As time goes on the list of games Win7 no longer supports or has issues with will be shorter than the ones XP can't play. Buy a copy of Shattered Horizon and you'll be too busy having awesome DX10 exclusive space battles to remember BF2!
