Gaming Graphics Card or Processor?

[toejam316]

If your box is thin, you won't have any real upgrade paths, as low profile cards with performance are impossible to get.
If not, grab a 9600GT (brilliant for what you have), and sit on that until you have enough money to buy a completely new PC.

 

[Dangy]

With your budget, you don't have any real options. Why spend 100 dollars to upgrade a shitty cpu/gpu to a slightly less shitty cpu/gpu? Save your money, and make your purchase count.

because everyone needs a i5 and a 5770 right? whats been suggested so far is going to be a definite improvement over what he has now, and it will be able to play new games fine at lower resolutions.

i've got a slightly worse set up (amd 64 x2 5000+, 4670) running new games without a hitch, Bioshock 2, ME2, BC2 maxed @ 1280x1024. STALKER CoP on medium, the only game i've had trouble with that came out recently is avp, but avp is a buggy game all around.

To be honest, the only game I play (and have played for the past 6 months.) is A.V.A. by ijji, and I just want to bump the graphics up on it.

 

[playallday]

Get a 8800GT locally for like $40.

 

[67birdman]

Get a new processor, the celeron is pretty weak... Get like an E6300, their pretty good.
I think that will help with most of it.

 

[ZeWarrior]

With your budget, you don't have any real options. Why spend 100 dollars to upgrade a shitty cpu/gpu to a slightly less shitty cpu/gpu? Save your money, and make your purchase count.

because everyone needs a i5 and a 5770 right? whats been suggested so far is going to be a definite improvement over what he has now, and it will be able to play new games fine at lower resolutions.

i've got a slightly worse set up (amd 64 x2 5000+, 4670) running new games without a hitch, Bioshock 2, ME2, BC2 maxed @ 1280x1024. STALKER CoP on medium, the only game i've had trouble with that came out recently is avp, but avp is a buggy game all around.

You make it sound like the 5770 is a high-end card.. it isn't.. 5970/5870/5850 are high end.

 

[Cermage]

generally i5 and 5770 are viewed as the best "bang for your buck" parts you can get. main reason why i listed it.

 

[Joe88]

the 5770 is basically a 4870 but just performs right under it

so yea, it could be considered high end right now

 

[playallday]

the 5770 is basically a 4870 but just performs right under it

so yea, it could be considered high end right now

I saw a review and they were within like 1-3 fps in most games.

Not worth my extra $50 if you ask me.

 

[ZeWarrior]

the 5770 is basically a 4870 but just performs right under it

so yea, it could be considered high end right now

No. The 4870 right now is mid-end, unless you choose to ignore the high-end 5000 series cards. I'm not saying the 5770 is a bad card, its great, but its not high-end anymore. Period.


QUOTEgenerally i5 and 5770 are viewed as the best "bang for your buck" parts you can get. main reason why i listed it.

Disagree. For gaming you can get a Phenom II X4 955 + an HD 5850 for about the same price as an i5 + 5770. The AMD rig will do better in gaming, while the i5 rig will be a bit better in calculations and such.

 

[Cermage]

http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3634&p=8
http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.a...i=3634&p=16
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?opti...mp;limitstart=7
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews.php?...7&pageid=20
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/intel_...ance/page13.asp
http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i5-750-...-review-test/18

you'll notice in the end they perform more or less the same (955/965 vs i5 750), in some games 955/965 pulls further while in others the i5 pulls ahead. not to mention the 955 is clocked at 3.2ghz per core while the i5 is clocked at 2.66ghz per core. i5's o/c easy to 4.0+ on air, while most people are lucky to reach 4.0 on air with the 955. even though its been recorded that the 955 has reached some amazing clocks, they are out of reach for most people (some team in finland reached 7.1ghz per core, cooling and vcore weren't recorded)

also where are you getting your prices from? i5 750 is about 200, the 955 is about 160~. while the 5770 is 160~, 5850 is about 300. Cheapest am3 board is about 70, same with the cheapest p55 board.

 

[Kroatien99]

I would choose graphic.