jobi8259 Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 I'm looking to upgrade my system but can only afford one component at this time. My 2 constraints are $120 budget and an AM2 motherboard that only accepts up to Phenom 9650 with newest BIOS. Which would be the better choice - CPU or GPU? My current system can handle 800x600 pretty well, except when there is alot of action, then it lags badly. My goal is to get 800x600 with minimal lag. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shammy Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Well you should get at least 512MB graphis card. But also GTA IV uses alot of memory when running so upgrading to 3 or 4 GB of RAM will definatly help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadowpope17 Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 upgrade your graphics mate, get a 9600 or 8800gts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jobi8259 Posted January 21, 2009 Author Share Posted January 21, 2009 I've been looking at the 4830 512 mb and 1 gb models. Would the extra video ram make a difference? TIA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ron123 Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 A little in GTA IV. but big in other games, note: your rig is really old, you won't be able to play modern games in the near future, you should think of buying a new rig in 350$-500$ without buing a screen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK47-Maximus Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 Wow people are actually satisfied playing a game at the lowest settings at 800x600 ..... damn, that sh*t would be unacceptable to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FenixDelta753 Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 I'm looking to upgrade my system but can only afford one component at this time. My 2 constraints are $120 budget and an AM2 motherboard that only accepts up to Phenom 9650 with newest BIOS. Which would be the better choice - CPU or GPU? My current system can handle 800x600 pretty well, except when there is alot of action, then it lags badly. My goal is to get 800x600 with minimal lag. Thanks! seeing that you already have a 4200+ CPU, you could look into maybe at a 5000+ And for a video card how about an HD 4830 that's what i got But if you want to get them both together, do what I did, save about $160 and get the 5600+ and 4830 now I got them when they were both on sale so they are a little more expensive now, but just wait till this weekend newegg usally has sales on these things weekly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anus Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 (edited) You should go for a CPU upgrade because even if you get a good graphics card, you won't really notice a big performance increase because the CPU will be bottlenecking the hell out of any good video card. Best is to buy a completely new Intel rig, but if you can't afford that, just upgrade. Get this CPU. Then save up and buy a graphics card. Edited January 26, 2009 by Warlord. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FenixDelta753 Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 You should go for a CPU upgrade because even if you get a good graphics card, you won't really notice a big performance increase because the CPU will be bottlenecking the hell out of any good video card. Best is to buy a completely new Intel rig, but if you can't afford that, just upgrade. Get this CPU. Then save up and buy a graphics card. Because $120 is just not enough to even buy a low end gaming card. I disagree, i bought my 4830 for 89 dollars and that card can be overclocked to outpreform the 9800GT and the 4850 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anus Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 Dude, nowhere did I mention anything about a 4830 .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FenixDelta753 Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Dude, nowhere did I mention anything about a 4830 .. right but you said that you couldnt get a gaming card for under 120 bucks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leik oh em jeez! Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 You don't need a huge gaming card for 800x600, and the extra memory on most graphics cards is used at extremly high resolutions, so the extra cash for the extra memory wouldn't help you. I'll go into more detail tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anus Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Dude, nowhere did I mention anything about a 4830 .. right but you said that you couldnt get a gaming card for under 120 bucks Ah yes, my mistake. But for the OP, I still think that a CPU upgrade is best though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FenixDelta753 Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Dude, nowhere did I mention anything about a 4830 .. right but you said that you couldnt get a gaming card for under 120 bucks Ah yes, my mistake. But for the OP, I still think that a CPU upgrade is best though. Yes if he wants to run at 800x600 than his Gfx card is plenty but why don't you want to run at larger resolutions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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