help selecting potential new gfx card(s)

[misanthrope]

my mobo is a skt 939 & is pretty much maxed out cpu wise. before i research overhauling everything, i thought i'd ask if i can upgrade my gfx cards one more time. here is my spec:

athlon amd64 x2 dual core 4600+
2GB RAM
radeon 1950PRO 512MB (crossfired) pcie x 16
asus A8R-MVP mobo
OCZTECH 600W PSU

can i put bigger gfx cards in or am i at the limit for my mobo?

are the HD3XXX or HD2XXX pcie 2.0 chipsets compatible with my existing mobo & can they be crossfired like my XP1950PRO's?

[randomness]

Yes u can use any crossfire capable graphics cards in ur computer, though i wouldnt recommend it...
Your going to run into massive CPU limitations which will do no justice even with such powerful graphics cards backing u up. Unless u have a very large monitor, say 22" then it should be slightly better.
Maybe if u do want to put 2 HD3xxx into crossfire, make sure your psu can supply enuf power.

[misanthrope]

thanks, instead of crossfiring two of these pcie 2.0 models which would appear to create a bottleneck, how about one of these?

Asus Radeon HD 3870X2

do you think performance would improve over my crossfired X1950PRO's?

[Lsdmeasap]

Off topic kinda.....How much improvement did you get from one 1950 to two? Been thinking of picking me up a second 1950Pro, although mine is only 256MB. Just been thinking of this because I just got a free 20 inch widescreen monitor

[misanthrope]

i bought two at the same time to run crysis/cod4. unfortunately the demos gave me 30fps. i ran 3dmark with both, i can't recall the exact results though i remember at being depressed how poor the crossfired result was & thought i hadn't set it up correctly. i disabled crossfire & reran the test & i'm pretty sure it was half as much.

i run bf2 on high settings & i get 70fps, yesterday a round became unplayable, at first i thought i was lag, so i joined another server but had the same issue. i ran fraps & had 30fps so i think a card dropped out which required a reboot.

even crossfired they're still not good enough for the new generation of games, so i'm thinking about one HD3XXX to run GTAIV in a few months time, maybe the price will drop by then.

[randomness]

U have to remember...your components will perform according to the weakest link in the chain!!!

Your CPU is just too outdated...the HD3870X2 will not help much, besides even the crossfire'd X1950PRO's are probably struggling with ur 4600+.

I suggest just letting this computer go to rest and buy some new components, preferably a crossfire chipset to retain the X1950PRO's

[misanthrope]

fair enough. can you help me as i'm not up to date with the latest gaming specs.

i want something that will run crysis/cod4 generation of games. i would prefer to spend on the best mobo i can which will still give me scope for upgrading the cpu & gfx cards in a couple of years time.

if you can give me guidance on the cpu i can then research the rest from that. amd or intel & if so what type?

[jlasich]

misanthrope, I'm in the same boat as you. I also have a socket 939 that I'm going to be replacing so I've been doing some research. Fro my findings so far, Intel's Core2Duo still seems to be the most powerful, despite the onslaught of quad processors; however, that will most likely change as more programs get coded to utilize the quad processors. On the price side, AMD is the cheapest, but they are pretty much tied with Intel in the quad market. Those are my findings, let me know if you find differently. As I said, my three-year old system is due for an upgrade from an Athlon 64 3000+ with a GeForce 6600GT GPU and 1GB of ram to something newer; I just don't want to break the bank doing it.

[misanthrope]

jlasich i had a look yesterday & this is what i've concluded:

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 2.40GHz
Asus P5K-E WiFi Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express
Crucial 4GB kit (2GBx2), 240-pin DIMM, DDR2 PC2-6400 memory module
BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 512MB

probably too expensive for you £450 ($900) but like you i've not completely overhauled my system for three years. it seems the key to getting maximum value is overclocking. i've been advised to consider E8400 or E8200 & OC them to 4GHz using a decent CPU cooler. i'm OK rebuilding a system, but having more money than technical ability means i can afford to ignore overclocking.