Gaming upgrade question

B

brentsg

[H]ard|Gawd
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Mar 8, 2003
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My aunt has asked for my help in upgrading my uncle's computer for gaming. All he really does is web surf and game.

Presently he has a Northwood P4 @ 3.25GHz with a 9800 Non-Pro and 512MB of PC4000 HyperX memory.

I believe that his best bang for the buck is to replace his video card with a 6800 GT for ~$350. He has asked his wife for 1GB RAM for Christmas to replace his 512MB (prob ~$265).

I was just asked to find the RAM since I built his PC. I figure that he will be disappointed with the RAM upgrade, though he is dead set on it. Maybe some games will get some benefit, maybe decreased loading times. The videocard I figure might approach a 50% performance improvement since his CPU is still solid.

Anyone have any suggestions? When I put in my 6800 Ultra, I added the RAM at the same time so I don't have a solid frame of reference.

Thanks

B
 
512Mb to 1Gb is a good upgrade that should benefit most modern games. On my PC:

- Enemy Territory peak use c600Mb
- Doom 3 1600x1200 - 850Mb High quality, 1.1Gb at Ultra quality
- Half Life 850Mb

Pretty much everything goes past 512Mb RAM use nowadays if you give it the extra headroom. Saying that, if I had a PC using a 9800/512Mb I'd take a 6800GT over an extra 512Mb any day of the week! Bit of a price difference though...
 
get a better video card and another 512 of the same ram type, no need to forkout for another 1gig when you already have 512 of good ram.
 
fazzman said:
get a better video card and another 512 of the same ram type, no need to forkout for another 1gig when you already have 512 of good ram.
Click to expand...

Nah, there's a good chance he'd have to drop his FSB from 250 back to something way lower to run 4 sticks dual channel vs. 2. Either that or run his RAM on a divider to do it...

I don't have easy access to his PC to fiddle with an overclock so I have to do something that I'm really confident in. Running 4 RAM sticks in a heavily overclocked system isn't something I'd put much faith in.

He's on a 2.6c @ 3.25GHz completely Prime stable right now. I'd hate to compromise his current performance to grow RAM. I should have mentioned that in the first post.

B
 
Sell the old Ram and video card on Ebay to defray the costs. Get the 1gb and a newer video card, maybe not a 6800 Ultra though. Too pricey. Maybe a 6800 GT or X800 Pro though.

If I had to pick one I'd upgrade RAM. 1 gig is the new 512.
 
I want my adult relatives to be as cool as yours! Nobody in my family games at all. They all see gaming as a vice.

Damn them! Damn them all to hell!
 
rdytorave said:
If I had to pick one I'd upgrade RAM. 1 gig is the new 512.
Click to expand...

yup.. that is certainly true. was like night + day when playing UT2k4.. upgrading was a smart idea back then. Now i wish I had MORE ram, since alt-tabbing with HL2 isn't really a fun thing atm.

on the thread:

do the ebay thing to offset the cost. Get a plain vanilla 6800 and try to unlock the pipes.
 
I had no problem unlocking the pipes on a BFG 6800nu and it's overclocked out of the box. It's a nice card, especially since it's easily softmodded. No idea what they are going for now, but I got mine for 299.00 at Best Buy about a month ago.
 
I would go with another stick of 512mb and a vid card such as the X800pro Vivo since he likes to overclock or the 6800GT.
 
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