New video card? Or entire new system?

External Since: Jan 11, 2004 Posts: 26

I currently spec is

Athlon XP2400 Tbredb
KT333 chipset
512mb RAM
Radeon 8500 64MB retail

Obviously my video card is struggling in the latest games so I'm thinking
about upgrading to the Geforce 6600GT and maybe purchasing another 512mb of
RAM. Or would building a new system - Athlon 64 3400, PCI-E motherboard, and
possibly the Radeon X800XL be more justifiable?

Bascially all I'm asking is will my current system with the Xp2400 and
geforce 6600GT be able to keep up with modern games (doom 3, half life2) at
max settings 1024*768 x 4FSAA 8x AF? If not I'm going to splurge and
upgrade. The Athlon 64 3000 90nm looks like a good overclocker on stock
cooling?

Cheers
Dan

External Since: Aug 21, 2004 Posts: 37

"Dan" <d.RemoveThis@d.com> wrote in message
news:41e7d75b$0$19163$cc9e4d1f@news-text.dial.pipex.com...
>I currently spec is
>
> Athlon XP2400 Tbredb
> KT333 chipset
> 512mb RAM
> Radeon 8500 64MB retail
>
> Obviously my video card is struggling in the latest games so I'm thinking
> about upgrading to the Geforce 6600GT and maybe purchasing another 512mb
> of
> RAM. Or would building a new system - Athlon 64 3400, PCI-E motherboard,
> and
> possibly the Radeon X800XL be more justifiable?
>
> Bascially all I'm asking is will my current system with the Xp2400 and
> geforce 6600GT be able to keep up with modern games (doom 3, half life2)
> at
> max settings 1024*768 x 4FSAA 8x AF? If not I'm going to splurge and
> upgrade. The Athlon 64 3000 90nm looks like a good overclocker on stock
> cooling?
>
> Cheers
> Dan
>
>

If you can afford it, do an entire system overhaul, there is little point
installing a new AGP card and then expecting to be able to use it when you
decide to upgrade to a new motherboard, PCI Express is coming whether we
like it or not and there is no point throwing money at old technology is
there.

I have an AthlonXP2500+ with 1G DDR400 on an nForce II Ultra 400 with my
trusty Radeon 8500 64M, this weekend I will have an Intel P4 530J on and
Intel 915P motherboard with my old RAM but with a new MSI 6800 256Mb PCI
Express card, I didn't see the point in wasting £150 on a 6600GT AGP when I
know in 6 months I will need a new motherboard etc.