PC upgrade - nVidia or ATI?

Hey all

I am contemplating upgrading some parts on my PC to be able to run some of my games better.

My system seems to struggle to run Grand Theft Auto IV and Race WTCC along with some others (Supreme Commander and more) and I was thinking it may be time to give it a bit of a boost performance wise.

My current system specifications are:

• Intel Pentium E2160 - 1.8 ghz dual core
• 2 Gigabytes DDR(2) memory
• nVidia Geforce 8600GT 256mb

I think the PSU is around the 250 watt range (not sure exactly, I know its not a super top range one but the brand is fine).

I was looking to upgrade maybe the power supply and maybe a new graphics card, the cards I am thinking of:

• nVidia 8800GT
• nVidia 9800GT
• ATI HD 5750
• ATI HD 4750

Also I was wandering if the CPU would be worth getting one of those Intel Core 2 Duo's, my motherboard is a LGA Socket 775 compatible board so I would not be able to get any of the i5 core CPU's and chances are they are too expensive for me to really consider.

Thank you.

You should do something to the CPU also, well either you spend a halfhour reading some guides of OC'ing and OC your CPU to at least 2,5Ghz or you buy a CPU for 60-100$ witch will give you the same performance as the halfhour you spend on yours. (I know it could be done in a few minutes but assuming you never done this before you'll have to learn what all things does exsactly.)

Out of the cards you picked out the HD5750 is better than the HD4770 witch is quite a bit better than the 9800/8800GT (88/98 is the same card with diffrent names.)

I should opt for a faster card if I was you, a HD5770 as impreza500 said is a good choise as it'll use less power than the weakest of the cards you've picked out. (the 88/9800GT)

Some interesting ideas here. I do like the sound of a better graphics card but realistically I would not want to spend over a hundered pounds on a GPU which I think would eliminate the ATI 5770 and the nVidia 260 due to their higher price points. A new CPU I am interested in as well, I will need to find out my motherboard model as I still am not totally sure what it is other than a Gigabyte socket 775 board. I do appriciate the help but my budget is limited in what I am willing to spend so the real top end stuff is not useful for me as I dont fancy spending several hundered pounds on a new motherboard, psu, memory, graphics card etc.Garfield360UK

A good PSU and a HD5770 wouldn't be so much, this is just for 214$ (OCZ 600w modXstream and a HD5770 XfX combo deal/20$ off.)

Since you are not getting new motherboard, you can still find some decent and affordableCPU on 775, like E8200 or Q9000 series.

You also need more RAM, get 4GB ram at least, and if you decide to upgrade GPU, I highly recommend you get a new PSU as well.

Your current PSU (250watts) is not going to be stable with new video card, and it probably doesnt have a dedicated power cable for high end video card, so you need a new PSU. Dont get a PSU with less than 400 watts.

If you spendmore than $250 onupgrade and you only want to play GTA4, why dont you get a xbox 360 instead? arcade360 with VGA cable is not going to cost you more than $250...My cousin had the same problem, and he bought a 360 instead.

Since you are not getting new motherboard, you can still find some decent and affordableCPU on 775, like E8200 or Q9000 series.

You also need more RAM, get 4GB ram at least, and if you decide to upgrade GPU, I highly recommend you get a new PSU as well.

Your current PSU (250watts) is not going to be stable with new video card, and it probably doesnt have a dedicated power cable for high end video card, so you need a new PSU. Dont get a PSU with less than 400 watts.

If you spendmore than $250 onupgrade and you only want to play GTA4, why dont you get a xbox 360 instead? arcade360 with VGA cable is not going to cost you more than $250...My cousin had the same problem, and he bought a 360 instead.

oajlu

ATI but man you need to SAVE SAVE for some serious upgrades. Hekynn

depends on the res. you want to play at and your budget , although the 8800 is over 2 years old it still performs amazingly at a res. of 1280. ! and about gta IV its the worst game for a pc to handle , my friend have an x4 955 and a 5850 and 4 gig of ram still cant get it to run smoothly at high settings ! but i'd say take a look at the 5XXX series from ati and the gtx 260-275 from nvidia if your budget allows , if not the gts 250 and 4850 are relatively cheap with solid performance !

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103772&Tpk=x2%206000x2 6000 cpu 54$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133304&cm_re=9800_gt-_-14-133-304-_-Product9800 gt 89$ after rebate

i would wait for fermi

i would wait for fermi

SLIisaownsystem

why would he want to wait for fermi ? a single card is worth more than a whole pc !!! and he's using xp , check the links i sent u

Get a new motherboard, CPU, and GPU, and PSU.

if he is gonna over clock may i suggest a 4870 and an e5300. the 4870 is round 100$ and the cpu is only 65$ at newegg.

if he is gonna over clock may i suggest a 4870 and an e5300. the 4870 is round 100$ and the cpu is only 65$ at newegg.

joshott

4870 is more then enough to play newer games, and f you get maybe a HIS, up the voltage and overclock to 4890 specs. oc the e5300 to 3.5ghz and he has a budget system that will outperform a q6600 and a 5770

depends on the res. you want to play at and your budget , although the 8800 is over 2 years old it still performs amazingly at a res. of 1280. ! and about gta IV its the worst game for a pc to handle , my friend have an x4 955 and a 5850 and 4 gig of ram still cant get it to run smoothly at high settings ! but i'd say take a look at the 5XXX series from ati and the gtx 260-275 from nvidia if your budget allows , if not the gts 250 and 4850 are relatively cheap with solid performance !

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103772&Tpk=x2%206000x2 6000 cpu 54$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133304&cm_re=9800_gt-_-14-133-304-_-Product9800 gt 89$ after rebate

sentenced83

That CPU isn't compatitible with his motherboard.

I would go with: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115056

Why is everyone suggesting a new processor? The E2160 overclocks like a champ; with only a few minutes of fiddling and a half-decent cooler, the OP should be able to hit the 3.0GHz+ range, and possibly top up at 3.5-3.6GHz. Even with the stock cooler he should be able to hit a solid 2.5GHz without red-lining the temperature, and at that speed, it would be able to run everything on his list except GTA4 and SupCom with 1500+ units.

Wait for Nvidia. Everyone that has bought the new game Metro 2033, states that running it on DX11 with tessellation is bad. Yet Nvidia will play it no problems. That's what the gamerecommendds, even though the card isn't even out yet.
This is going to be the start of what's to come. All games will start coming out designed for the Fermi and leave ATI like a sunken ship.
Why? NVidia puts more money in game developers, while ATI stay in their headquarters swimming in cash pools.
And yes I have an ATI card, afterreading how this game runs like on a 5970 with tessellation max, it's a major dissapointment.

if he is gonna over clock may i suggest a 4870 and an e5300. the 4870 is round 100$ and the cpu is only 65$ at newegg.

joshott

Why is everyone suggesting a new processor? The E2160 overclocks like a champMaoTheChimp

The two nVidia cards you listed are around 4 years old. However, nVidia has been way better than ATI in my experience.

I can't believe people are recommending high end video cards...

1. Most video cards ESPECIALLY 5770+ are gonna be bottlenecked on the clock speed of that processor. I would get a better one first or learn to overclock as much as possible.

2. That power supply would probably have trouble handling a 5750 let alone anything higher.

You need a better processor and better power supply investment, video card is lower on the list of problems. Your ram is fine if you can upgrade the rest.

I can't believe people are recommending high end video cards...

1. Most video cards ESPECIALLY 5770+ are gonna be bottlenecked on the clock speed of that processor. I would get a better one first or learn to overclock as much as possible.

2. That power supply would probably have trouble handling a 5750 let alone anything higher.

You need a better processor and better power supply investment, video card is lower on the list of problems. Your ram is fine if you can upgrade the rest.

Human-after-all