Upgrading System

[mersonix]

Hello,

At the moment my specs are


CPU Model
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400

Video Card:
Zotac 8800GT AMP! Edition

Motherboard:
Giga-Byte P35 DS3L

Ram:
DDR2 4GB PC6400 OCZ

Storage:
Samsung 320gb IDE 7200rpm

Soundcard & Speakers:
Onboard sound

Power Supply
700w Tagan SLI Certified

Case
NZXT LEXA BLACKLINE

Operating System:
Windows Vista Home Premium x64

Monitor:
Acer AL2016W @ 1680x1050


Now that's out of the way. I was just playing Empire: Total War, and to my dismay, I realized that even running the game on High, my framerate frequently dipped into the twenties and teens.

my questions are as follows (my budget is roughly $350-400):

Does it make sense to upgrade now, or in a few months (ignoring games, simply from a technology standpoint)?
Should I upgrade video card, mobo, RAM, or cpu (or some other combination)?

Is new hardware coming out in the near future?

I'm not sure what to upgrade while keeping the cost down. My gaming budget until November is roughly $400, that includes games, so if I buy lots of hardware i can't' play anything on it...

The only games that give me issues are Empire: Total War, Crysis(all of em), Far Cry 2, and other games that are technologically advanced.

Sorry for any weird spellings and poor grammar.

 

[MykC]

Far Cry 2 should run fine on High Settings.

Crysis is limited by your videocard mainly. At 1650x1050 you should be able to play medium with high physics. You can take everything up to high but as soon you get to the town or dockyard areas (places with lots of buildings) your FPS will drop significantly.

I don't have any first hand experience with Empire: Total War but from what I hear a quad core cpu works good with that game.

Ok... so what were you asking? Is it worth it to upgrade? Not really. I'd wait until the next generation of midrange video cards comeout before spending anymoney. You may want upgrade your CPU this time next year to a quadcore.

 

[dougie_boy]

Agree with MycK, your pc is pretty good as it stands.

have you overclocked the system?? i am assuming so but if not, get your self a nice big HSF and a GPU cooler and overclock the system.

the E8400 can reach 4.0ghz with some attention.
http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=717&p=1

might give you a bit more oomphf until your next big upgrade.

 

[Onus]

From a couple of reviews, it looks like your GPU already has pretty high clocks on it. Try overclocking your CPU some (if you haven't), but your GPU may not go much higher. Within the next month, some more GPUs might be coming out that will affect prices. At that time, going to something like a GTX 280/285 or a 4850 X2 might be worthwhile, but as MykC said, at least wait until those new cards are out.