Upgrade Graphics Card or whole system?

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As things were tight at Christmas time I ended up building my 7 year old a PC from components I had squirrel'd away over the years (i'm a horder :rolleyes: )

The main spec's were, if I remember correctly:
AMD A64 3700 San Diego
an SLi capable Foxconn 939 motherboard
a reasonable 500w Modular PSU
and an old Radeon 800GTO graphics card.

Its playing all his basic games like all the LEGO series and stuff like that but he's getting more into his gaming so I got him Batman AA. Unfortunately it comes up saying the CPU isn't fast enough and the graphics card doesn't support the right shader model. My fault for not checking!!

Question is, if I OC the CPU up a bit closer to the 3ghz it says it needs (I know it won't reach that though) and say, bought an ATi 5770, does anybody reckon this would run some of these newer games or am I looking at upgrading the lot.
 
Caporegime
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The 5770 will be massively bottlenecked by the CPU.

It would be cheaper to get a XFX4850 £80, but even that will be held back by your CPU.

That CPU is a single core isn't it? How much ram?

Realistically, I don't think it will play batman in its current form, needs either a major overhaul, or more realistic games it can cope with.
 
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The 5770 will be massively bottlenecked by the CPU.

It would be cheaper to get a XFX4850 £80, but even that will be held back by your CPU.

That CPU is a single core isn't it? How much ram?

Realistically, I don't think it will play batman in its current form, needs either a major overhaul, or more realistic games it can cope with.

Yep, its just a single core with 2gb RAM.
I was hoping that I'd get away with just upgrading the GPU but realistically thought it would need a major upgrade. Was just looking for other opinions, so cheers for the reply.
 
Soldato
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Hi, what about something like this?...im not sure if the motherboard will take the cpu?i tried to check, but for the same price of a top end 5770 you could get a new cpu and gpu to be able to atleast run the game, i overclocked my x2 240 to 3.5Ghz on stock cooling etc.

crapw.jpg
 
Caporegime
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Hi, what about something like this?...im not sure if the motherboard will take the cpu?i tried to check, but for the same price of a top end 5770 you could get a new cpu and gpu to be able to atleast run the game, i overclocked my x2 240 to 3.5Ghz on stock cooling etc.

crapw.jpg

Did you bother reading the first post?

How's that CPU going to fit in a socket939 motherboard?
 
Soldato
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Hi, what about something like this?...im not sure if the motherboard will take the cpu?i tried to check, but for the same price of a top end 5770 you could get a new cpu and gpu to be able to atleast run the game, i overclocked my x2 240 to 3.5Ghz on stock cooling etc.
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Nice idea, but unfortunately he has a s939 board - which is incompatible with AM2(+) and AM3 processors.

To provide a meaningful boost to CPU power, the OP will need to do a full system upgrade. However, the OP should have a look at the selling prices of his motherboard, CPU and RAM on a popular auction site. You will be surprised at the prices - it certainly makes a full system upgrade seem much easier to afford.
 
Caporegime
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Yep, its just a single core with 2gb RAM.
I was hoping that I'd get away with just upgrading the GPU but realistically thought it would need a major upgrade. Was just looking for other opinions, so cheers for the reply.

Getting a 4850, is a better move, even with the bottleneck.

It might not just be a 3.0ghz speed that the game needs, newer cpus have increased instruction sets(sse2,sse3) so even if you got the CPU upto the required speed, it still might not pass the games specification test.
 
Caporegime
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If it was a socket939 dual core athlon, they get silly money on fleebay.

Not sure about a single core.

Just try games in the power range of the computer.

And start saving for a re-build.
 
Soldato
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Can you seriously get anything for this old stuff? :eek:

I reckon I will have to look at some of the AMD set ups. All things considered, they seem to be fairly well priced for what you get.

You really would be surprised :)

Seriously, head to "a popular auction site" *wink, wink* and type in "939 sli".

Also, DDR1 RAM goes for hilarious prices. Search for "ddr1 2GB" or similar and have a look.

Then spend all the money you make on a new AM3 system on OCUK - everyone wins :D
 
Soldato
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Here is a spec that won't break the bank - if you sell those s939 bits:

220x2.png


+ either a 4850 for £81 or a 5770 for £136 - depending on how much you want to spend.

Also, that motherboard can do CrossfireX (the 2nd slot is PCIe v2.0 4x speed - which should be fine for either 4850 or 5770 in crossfire) which is nice to have for in the future.
 
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