4850, Ram, or cpu

[tbosscher]

Ok so I have studied up a bit and before I go any further here is my current setup:
amd 5200+X2
Asus M2NE Mobo
2GB gskill DDR 2 800
480W PS
Sapphire X1950XT

and I have the system left at stock clocks now because I use it to stream vids/etc to my Xbox360 MC extender.
previous OC's have gotten me to near 2.9, but with heat and high voltage (1.48+) (I have a Zerotherm Nirvana Cooler which helps).

My Question is this: lets say I have around 200 bucks to spend on an upgrade, and basically play First person shooters (COD4, soon to be Far cry 2, not enough nuts for Crysis yet). But also need to be 24/7 stable.

Options are:
#1- Radeon 4870
#2- Radeon 4850 and 4GB on Gskill PI memory
#3- Phenom upgrade
#4- Think about biting the bullet and going to a Intel 775 Platform with E8400, DFI MOBO, or Q6600 then consider GPU options

Please help, my thoughts at this point are that my CPU will not be a bottleneck, and that if I go with a 4850 and 4Gigs of ram I am on my way to a HTPC with my x1950 xt and spare 2 gigs of ram as well. My needs again are mostly high FPS with COD4, but then again I have not yet played COD5 or Far Cry 2, and they are giving away free Far Cry 2 with GTX260 purchase at Newegg (250$+). Thanks for any responses.

 

[anarchy4sale]

#2- Radeon 4850 and 4GB on Gskill PI memory

 

[the last resort]

Could try saving another $30. There is a 4850 on newegg right now for 139 after rebate, and then you could get the new 6000+ ($92) and OC it. Those together would provide a huge boost.

 

[tbosscher]

I thought about that as well- do you think a minor upgrage in cpu (5400 black edition or 6400+) plus a 4850 would be a better upgrade then the 4850 and 4gb of ram (my current cpu again is a 5200 plus @ 2.6-2.9). I have heard that near 3ghz there really is no bottleneck with CPU as far as games are concerned. Thanks again and any advice is much appreciated.

 

[silent_744]

#2- Radeon 4850 and 4GB on Gskill PI memory


You should see a pretty nice improvement, especially if you were running vista on the 2gb of RAM. I'd switch to an e8400/q6600 and a p45(or x48 if you really need it) MB on your second upgrade, but do the RAM/4850 first. You're probably GPU limited for now and a new CPU wouldnt net you too much of a gain.

I dont think you'd notice much at all switching to a 6000+ from the 5400+.

 

[tbosscher]

That actually makes a lot of sense to upgrade the GPU and Ram now and not the CPU as I will probably do the big no-no for an amd fanboy such as myself and switch to the darkside (probably a E8400+ decent OC Mobo) in the near future. Thanks a pantload, and any other suggestions are welcome as well (no sarcasm implied).

 

[jamesgoddard]

Not the time to be going S775 at the moment - if you really need a CPU upgrade wait for the 45nm AMD chips to arrive - should be compatible with that board.

As to the memory, if you are on 32bit XP I would not expect the extra 2GB to make that much difference, but Vista could use it.

The gfx card is the single biggest bang for buck upgrade available to you - get the 4850

 

[tbosscher]

Thanks for the reply- I actually bit the bullet today and ordered a Sapphire 4850 with an upgraded cooler from the 'egg, (150 shipped) and 4 gigs of Gskill PI DDR2 800 with a 4-4-4-12 latency at stock/1.8 volts which was also a steal for 70 shipped. I think I have chosen well for a $200 upgrade, what is the price looking like for the 45nm AMD's? will they work in socket AM2 without downgrading performance like the AM2+? Thanks again for any responses. Oh and I am running Vista Ultimate which I'm sure will happily make use of the extra ram, and I know that I will only see 3.5 or whatever, hopefully windows 7 will fix that issue.

 

[jamesgoddard]

What do you mean by downgrade the performance liek the AM2+??? The only issues are no split voltage (the chip runs a little hotter under idle but nothing much) and the HT link is limited to 2000mts rather then the 3000mts+ spec, but this is only a very very marginal performance drop, probably could not even measure it. As Asus are good enough to provide very good BIOS support, they will add 45nm to this mobo...

 

[jamesgoddard]

PS that memory makes me want to cry - I spent $400 on 2GB of DDR2 only 2 years ago

 

[tbosscher]

What I meant by that was the HT limit at 2000 vs 3000 with AM2+ for phenoms and such. I thought about the Phenom route but I figured the diff between the AM2 and AM2+ would limit performance to negligible differences due to this, I guess not though. It would certainly be nice if ASUS keeps support for M2NE for the 45nm AMD's, I like this MOBO and really hate changing components of this nature, if I did I would probably just go 775 and OC like a banshee with a E8400 or E8500. I am anxious to see what is to come of the 45nm AMD. Thanks again for the reply.