Upgrading from an Nvidia 7800GT :)

T

TooMuchButtHair

New Member
Here are my pc's specs:

cpu: AMD 3800x2
RAM: 1GB pc3200
Motherboard: pci express (it's a generic one, I believe).
PSU: 500 watt
GPU: 7800GT
Monitor: 1920x1080 23 inch

I mostly play Medieval 2: total war, these days. I play at a fairly low resolution - 1172x768, if I remember correctly. Detail is medium, so are textures (everything, as a matter of fact). I'm wondering what kind of an upgrade I'd see if I did nothing except get a new video card, say an ATI 5770 1GB (any brand). The most I'm willing to spend is about $200.
 
Your CPU and RAM will bottle neck any good card. And what make is ur PSU, if it's generic I wouldnt risk with expensive GPU as PSU might go off and take out as well.

GTX 260 seem a good deal, but again, it will not use all of its juice.
 
I believe the ATI card you mentioned is the top of all ATI cards currently. The GTX 260 is also a very good deal, but you definately need to upgrade your RAM and probably CPU as well. I am guessing your RAM is DDR so you may need to get a new motherboard to support DDRII.
 
I don't want to upgrade the RAM, or the CPU. RAM is DDR, and CPU is socket 939. Hard to find either, and I'm content with both. I'm well aware that the GPU will be bottlenecked by the CPU, but meh, I can live with that. What kind of performance increase can I expect? Can I expect to max out textures and such on that game and play at 1920x1080 at a good frame rate, even while only upgrading the GPU?
 
at that resolution and the cpu speed/ram you wont see very much increase at all if any. You need a better name brand psu and faster cpu/ram to notice a increase.
 
For instance, at the beginning of my "building carreer" I had P4, 3GHz
I bought 4850 and popped it in, and I was getting the same FPS as I had with 8500GT. Every component in your computer work together, your system will only be as fast as slowest component.
 
The worst thing in your computer is the RAM, not CPU

1GB ram is not good for gaming. You should get at least 2GB ram

Medieval 2: total war is old and not very demanding game. So, even 9800GT or GTS 250 can easily max it. Also, your CPU is not bad for this game.
 
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