Author Topic: More memory or better video card? (Read 569 times)

RedGiant · « **on:** December 02, 2007, 05:55:08 PM »

Ok, so I'm pretty savvy when it comes to hardware and stuff. But, I need your opinions if you'd like to share them. And please, only those who know what they're talking about.

Ok, here's my set-up:

Processor: Intel 3.2ghz HT with 800MhZ fsb and 1 meg cache OC'd to 3.6ghz running smoothly. No lock ups or anything.

Memory: Crucial Ballistix 1gb (2X512) PC4000

OCZ GamerXtream 650 watt PSU

BFG GeForce 6800GS AGP with extra pixelpipelines enabled (makes it a 6800GT/Extreme).

Ok, here's my dilemma. I want to do an upgrade but I'm not sure which will be more viable.

Here are 3 my options: adding another gig of ram (the same exact ram I have now which would be 2X512 Crucial Ballistix pc4000)

Or Upgrading my Video Card to a Geforce 7900GS which I'm not sure if it's a significant enough of a difference between it and the 6800GS to warrant that kind of upgrade.

Or the Geforce 7800GS and another 512 (2X256 of the Crucial Ballistix PC4000).

Now, I'm not going to be upgrading to PCI/E anytime soon.. This PC is still working pretty awesome for most games I play/utilities I use/music I make.
But lately, I've been playing some rather newer stuff and my framerates leave something to be desired at times. Any incite would be appreciated from any EXPERIENCED users/gurus/tech/etc. Thanks!

I'm leaning towards getting the Geforce 7900GS but I'm concerned about bottle necking. Would more memory help avoid the bottleneck?
I will eventually be upgrading the processor to the P4 Extreme HT 3.4GHZ.
I believe the higher cache and FSB speed will help at least a little.

Thanks again!

Krusty · « **Reply #1 on:** December 02, 2007, 07:40:38 PM »

It's fairly close. My opinion is that the video card in question will give a much more significant boost than just the RAM alone.

I could be wrong, though.

P.S. The 7800 and 7900 (if you can get it!) blow the 6800 out of the water, totally.

EDIT: You currently have:
Intel 3.2ghz HT with 800MhZ fsb

You said:
"I will eventually be upgrading the processor to the P4 Extreme HT 3.4GHZ.
I believe the higher cache and FSB speed will help at least a little."

I believe that's got the same fsb. It won't help that much. We're talking a minor upgrade here, really.

RedGiant · « **Reply #2 on:** December 02, 2007, 09:03:24 PM »

Right on, thanks for the thoughts..
Still pricing out the 7900GS.
Saw a 7950GTX AGP, but from what I've read so far, there's been MAJOR MAJOR issues with those. I'm sort of concerned about bottlenecking, too.

Perhaps a small memory upgrade will help to alleviate that.

Krusty · « **Reply #3 on:** December 03, 2007, 12:03:26 AM »

Ge7900 or X1950 (ATI) those should be your "top end" AGP aspirations.

The 7800 is decent, too!

The Fugitive · « **Reply #4 on:** December 03, 2007, 07:38:20 AM »

I don't know, Tom's hardware doesn't show that big a jump between the card you have now and the ones your looking at. I'd go with the ram upgrade, and here's why.

The upgrade in video card isn't that big a jump, and its most likely going to be the last one you make before you switch over to PCI-Express card. If you blow money on a marginal upgrade, when you switch to PCI you'll just be throwing it away, the RAM on the other hand can come with you to the new MB.

You say the machine is running pretty good now, and upgrade in RAM never hurts, and it will most likely hold you untill its time to make the jump to PCI.

Just my opinion, take it for what its worth, Good luck.

Krusty · « **Reply #5 on:** December 03, 2007, 09:02:59 AM »

Toms might not have that right. Going from a Ge6800 to a Ge 7600+ is a big leap. The GPU chip itself is just leaps beyond, not even counting the rest of the card (frequencies, RAM, pipes, etc).

Going to a 7800 or a 7900 is almost the top end of AGP, and 6800 is mid-range these days. It would be a jump, definitely.

All speculation, mind you, but a semi-educated guess.

Fulmar · « **Reply #6 on:** December 03, 2007, 10:48:11 AM »

We also have to consider, is his Video card like a 7800 or 7900 going to be stretching the limit of the AGP slot. I know there was talk about it when they first came out and the transition to PCI-E was still on the table really. Where the AGP slot really wasn't provide enough data transfer to keep up with a PCI-E version.

So benchmarck of a 7800-7900 you may be reading, are based off of the PCI-E slot benches, not AGP.

Krusty · « **Reply #7 on:** December 03, 2007, 10:53:12 AM »

There was much talk of the higher bandwidth that PCIe supplies over AGP, however in reality neither AGP nor PCIe were anywhere near being fully utilized.

The real reason? It's cheaper to make motherboards and video cards in PCIe. The higher bandwidth is just icing on the cake

Getback · « **Reply #8 on:** December 03, 2007, 11:27:57 AM »

For me, always memory first. I've read the game is more processor intensive than video intensive.

Fulmar · « **Reply #9 on:** December 03, 2007, 11:39:22 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Krusty
The real reason? It's cheaper to make motherboards and video cards in PCIe. The higher bandwidth is just icing on the cake

I'm not sure why PCI-E would be cheaper to manufacturer. PCI-E cards used to be more expensive when it first came out and now they are cheaper. Simple supply and demand.

wabbit · « **Reply #10 on:** December 03, 2007, 11:39:56 AM »

I'm running a 6800GS on one machine and a 7800GS on another and I'm seeing little of no difference in any of the games I play, especially Aces. After running them for 30 days, I swapped them from one system to the other and ran them for another 30 days, finding no appreciable performance changes.

I only bought the 7800 to upgrade my AGP, so I wouldn't have to buy a new mtb, in case they stop selling AGP, which now they're talking about continuing.

I'd go with the memory upgrade first. Memory upgrades are usually you're cheapest upgrade for the buck.

Wabbit

RedGiant · « **Reply #11 on:** December 03, 2007, 05:33:43 PM »

Thanks for all your incite, guys. Very much appreciated on this end.
Just to re-affirm, I have infact done my homework on all this and yes: the cards I was researching were AGP and not PCI/E. I think what I'm going to do is go ahead and bump up to 1.5 or 2 gigs, get the P4 EE 3.4 processor (I know it's not a that big a leap from what I have, but they're only $49.99 for Christ's sake!)
and then go with the Geforce 7900GS. I should see at least some sort of improvement from doing all of that! I'm playing a few other games that go beyond the hardware reqs. of AH. Stuff like Crysis, Oblivion, Star Trek Legacy, ETC. If I was just playing AH, I wouldn't even bother with the video card, but my current card struggles a bit while playing Crysis ( I have to put everything at or near the bottom for detail levels and effects).
I hear they're thinking about making the Geforce 8600GT/GTS for AGP.
I don't think AGP has the bandwidth to support detail levels akin to DX10, so what's the point? Oh well.. Again, thanks for all the suggestions and such.

Fulmar · « **Reply #12 on:** December 03, 2007, 06:55:54 PM »

That'd be a waste for the 8600's in AGP, but the 8600 suck, period. I'm sure their poor performance can be taken on AGP yet. AGP doesn't supply enough power to run bigger cards that are power hungry. PCI-E was designed in aid of that, but even a 8800GTX has two extra power connectors to power it.

acetnt367th · « **Reply #13 on:** December 05, 2007, 11:36:50 AM »

Best AGP card wrt to bang for buck is X1950 pro. See here : http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/12/03/best_graphics_card/

Or you could wait a bit and buy the Ati AGP HD card (38x0 series)when released shortly.

Acetnt

MrRiplEy[H] · « **Reply #14 on:** December 05, 2007, 12:49:43 PM »

AGP is a complete dead end so please don't waste money by getting an AGP card. When the time comes to upgrade your mobo/cpu it will be obsolete and therefore lost money.

For gaming performance graphics card is 99% of time the most crucial component so it pays off to buy a cheap intel mobo/cpu combo and a pci-e displaycard. You can then upgrade the memory and cpu later.