Advice on hardware upgrade

[Germanicus75]

Hi guys (and gals),

I'm planning to upgrade for better performance and would like to run a few questions by you experts to get a range of opinions. I'm not a total hardware noob - I know most of the terms and usually have at least some idea of what most are about - but I'm not at the cutting edge and nor do I know what's considered the best in the way of graphics cards, RAM etc. at the moment.

Here's my system:

ASUS A8N-E
AMD Athlon 64 3800+, 2.41 Ghz, Socket 939 (Venice)
Club 3D ATI Radeon X800 XL PCIe 256 MB
Memory: 1.5 GB total: (using 3 out of 4 RAM slots)
1 x Kingston HyperX 512 MB module DDR 400 (PC3200)
2 x generic modules 512 MB DDR 400 (PC3200)
Creative Labs Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS (WDM)
Ultron UN-550PFC PSU (550W)
40 GB Samsung SATA II HDD, 8 mb cache
40 GB Hitachi SATA I HDD, 8 mb cache
160 GB Western Digital HDD, 8 mb cache
NEC 1760NX 17" TFT monitor
Sony DVD-RW + Samsung CD-RW
Logitech Z 560 400W, THX surround sound speaker system
Antec P160W-EU mid-tower ATX gaming case

My first question is: if I made one single hardware upgrade (e.g. more RAM, new video card) and my aim was better overall gaming performance (fps I suppose, but also more men/huge unit sizes on battlefield without lag), what would you recommend? Let's say I've got £350 to spend.

If you say a new video card, what would you recommend? I play Rome Total War + mods most of the time so I really want better performance in that (and I've heard elsewhere that Nvida cards are better for RTW), but I also play Call of Duty, Freelancer, various WW1 flight games, American Conquest. I'd also like a card which will handle Medieval 2: Total War well.

I hear that ATI cards are better for AMD-based systems - would you agree? Would this offset against the Nvida cards playing RTW better?

If more RAM is the best choice, what would you recommend?

In this connection, I'm probably looking to move up to 2 Gb anyway at some point. Would I be better off buying up HyperX (3 more 512 MB sticks) and discarding the generic RAM, or should I forget HyperX and buy a 2-Gb dual-channel set by someone else? How do you rate HyperX? Or is it true to say that as long as the RAM is CAS2 and dual-channel 2x1 Gb kit, it doesn't matter what the brand is?

At the moment, my 3DMark scores are as little as half the scores for some other systems using similar or even identical components. I have no idea why this is, but I'm not overclocking any of my hardware.

I may try later when I feel more adventurous, but right now, I'm interested in buying my way to better performance.

Thanks for any advice you may have! :-)

Cheers, Germanicus91

[rayzzz]

i think only the Graphics and ram seems to be the most in need of upgrade, not that its bad or anything but just out of the rest of your system thats all.
For the ram, i would get two sticks of 1gb ram, Brands would be: ocz, geil, kingston, corsair, pqi and G.skill. what is the performance of your system anyway? For graphics card, if you have a good budget then get a 7900GTX or X1900XTX(still first i think) or X1900XT. A lower budget then get a 7800GTX, 7800GT or 7600GT or 6800GS

[PyrrhusIV]

if you have a good budget then get a 7900GTX or X1900XTX(still first i think) or X1900XT. A lower budget then get a 7800GTX, 7800GT or 7600GT or 6800GS

All those are extreme overkill right now. Trust me, a 6800 GT will run any game on the market on highest settings almost perfect. A 7800 GT will be overkill. I have a 7800 GTX, when I bought it, it cost more than the 7900 does now. It will run all games on highest for a long time to come. I've actually read the 7900, although better in Pixel pipelines, is not as good as the X1900XTX. The XTX has 48 Pixel shader pipes.

As a matter of fact, ive heard the 7800, although it runs hotter, and is clocked on average 80 mhz lower, is actually performing better than the 7900.

[Incinerate_IV]

As a matter of fact, ive heard the 7800, although it runs hotter, and is clocked on average 80 mhz lower, is actually performing better than the 7900.

That only applies to the 7900GT, the 7800GTX and the 7900GT are about the same. I'm not sure how the 7800GTX 512 compares though. Probably somewhere between 7900GT and 7900GTX


Your RAM is fine, no games really require more than 1 gigs or RAM right now. If you really want to upgrade, get a video card that support SM3 and HDR, since those are some pretty nice features if you can get a good enough video card to use it.

[Aristocrat]

You could overclock your processor for something to do, and your video card, then you will have better performance for free.
Neither is hard at all, and I believe Asus supplies a free utility to overclock cpu's on it's motherboards, it's not as good as doing it yourself (or Asus Motherboards just aren't that good at overclocking), but it's easy as heck, and there are plenty of video card overclocking programs out there.
I can't remember the one people use for Ati though....I haven't had an Ati card for ages.

You don't need to go and buy anything new as it is, your computer is better than mine, I have 1gb of ram, an AMD 3500, a NVIDIA 6800GT, the same sound card, and 2 normal hard drives (Seagate 120gb 8mb cache, 7200rpm), and I can run games at the highest settings, including Oblivioon, the most taxing game on the market.
The only difference being that I've overclocked my parts.
My advice is don't upgrade till Unreal 2007 comes out as it will be the next leap in "next generation" games.

edit: Given what Incinerate said about your video card I would be tempted to get a new video card, HDR adds so much to a game.

[Lee1026]

I would say that what you already have is overkill.

[Incinerate_IV]

I think anyone who plays Oblivion with HDR on will notice that it make the forests and cities look much better, and make the game feel more cinematic. So if you really want to upgrade make sure you get a video card with HDR, because right now your video card, like what lee said, is already overkill.

By the way, there is no way you can get 10000 - 15000+ men to run on a PC smoothly (even if you purchase all top-of-the-line parts) unless you are willing to do some serious overclocking. Even then I have yet to see a computer that can run a battle with max men (~35000 I think) with reasonable FPS (to me its 10+).

[Timmius]

Hi guys (and gals),
ASUS A8N-E
AMD Athlon 64 3800+, 2.41 Ghz, Socket 939 (Venice)
Club 3D ATI Radeon X800 XL PCIe 256 MB
Memory: 1.5 GB total: (using 3 out of 4 RAM slots)
1 x Kingston HyperX 512 MB module DDR 400 (PC3200)
2 x generic modules 512 MB DDR 400 (PC3200)
Creative Labs Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS (WDM)
Ultron UN-550PFC PSU (550W)
40 GB Samsung SATA II HDD, 8 mb cache
40 GB Hitachi SATA I HDD, 8 mb cache
160 GB Western Digital HDD, 8 mb cache
NEC 1760NX 17" TFT monitor
Sony DVD-RW + Samsung CD-RW
Logitech Z 560 400W, THX surround sound speaker system
Antec P160W-EU mid-tower ATX gaming case

My first question is: if I made one single hardware upgrade (e.g. more RAM, new video card) and my aim was better overall gaming performance (fps I suppose, but also more men/huge unit sizes on battlefield without lag), what would you recommend? Let's say I've got £350 to spend.

Videocard. Not much to argue about there that hasn't been said already

If you say a new video card, what would you recommend? I play Rome Total War + mods most of the time so I really want better performance in that (and I've heard elsewhere that Nvida cards are better for RTW), but I also play Call of Duty, Freelancer, various WW1 flight games, American Conquest. I'd also like a card which will handle Medieval 2: Total War well.

The 7900GT is definatly the best bang for the buck atm. And it would really improve your framerate. But for RTW it is kinda overkill. But not for the newest games though, on the contrairy as some might say And if you are going to play oblivion by any chance, keep in mind that nvidia card don't do HDR and FSAA at the same time. Wich kinda rules out the use of it, since FSAA improves graphics much more than HDR (imo).

I hear that ATI cards are better for AMD-based systems - would you agree?

That would be based on crap. Te general rule is that ati is better at D3D and nvidia is better at OpenGL. But it's all relative and full of exceptions.

If more RAM is the best choice, what would you recommend?

In this connection, I'm probably looking to move up to 2 Gb anyway at some point. Would I be better off buying up HyperX (3 more 512 MB sticks) and discarding the generic RAM, or should I forget HyperX and buy a 2-Gb dual-channel set by someone else? How do you rate HyperX? Or is it true to say that as long as the RAM is CAS2 and dual-channel 2x1 Gb kit, it doesn't matter what the brand is?

HyperX or any other high performance RAM is hardly noticable, especcially in games. In stead go for something like this:http://www.twinmos.com/dram/dram_p_d...nel_ddr400.htm usaully.
But for you actually, do something else. You have 1 HyperX module. That means it isn't working as DDR and that means it's slower. It also means it slows the other 2 DDR modules down, since all your memory has to work at the same speed. So buy another (exactly the same) HyperX module and make sure all of your RAM works as DDR.

At the moment, my 3DMark scores are as little as half the scores for some other systems using similar or even identical components. I have no idea why this is, but I'm not overclocking any of my hardware.

That sounds wrong. I really advise you to make sure that you have all your drivers installed correctly. Motherboard, chipset, videocard, etc.. etc.. And pay attention to the chipset one. This one is often forgotten And fix the memory.