To Upgrade or Not to Upgrade...

[ContendeR]

I am wondering whether upgrading my current PC is worth it for gaming as gaming with the current system specs suck as far as my graphics is concerned. I lag during gameplay.

I was considering upgrading the following parts:

Motherboard

Ram

Graphics

... or would keeping the current CPU, limiting my ability to upgrade the Ram to only DDR2 800 and adding an ATI 4000 series graphics card would defeat my purpose or waste my time and money versus getting a new AMD Dragon system consisting of AMD CPU and Graphics card along with the ability to add DDR3 Ram?

[+PeterUK MVC]

Going by the link to your system setup Q6600 and 3GB of Ram installed what you should be looking to upgrade is:

Graphics card

PSU

New case

[ContendeR]

Going by the link to your system setup Q6600 and 3GB of Ram installed what you should be looking to upgrade is:

Graphics card

PSU

New case

Why do you suggest a Graphics upgrade, but no Motherboard upgrade as I would be limited to PCI x16 slot graphics cards which again limits me to at most a GeForce 9 series card up to a 9500 and not any Ram upgrade as wouldn't the current DDR2 667 Ram also be a limiting factor? I understand upgrading to new case as a new card would require more space as a larger graphics card would require a larger PSU, but as I stated above the Graphics card is the upgrade which you suggested I find confusing as to me I am still limited by my initial problem.

I have a 24" monitor capable of 1920x1200 and it would be nice to run games at higher resolutions than what I currently do @ 1280x720 and lower without much lag.

[+PeterUK MVC]

Why do you suggest a Graphics upgrade, but no Motherboard upgrade as I would be limited to PCI x16 slot graphics cards which again limits me to at most a GeForce 9 series card up to a 9500

You think, you know, someone told you....PCI-e 1.x @x16 can run PCI-e 2.0 cards and has more then enough bandwidth to run cards like HD 4890 or GTX 275.

...and not any Ram upgrade as wouldn't the current DDR2 667 Ram also be a limiting factor?

You think it would but really...No.

I have a 24" monitor capable of 1920x1200 and it would be nice to run games at higher resolutions than what I currently do @ 1280x720 and lower without much lag.

Your GeForce 8400GS has a lot to do with that (exaggerating by a lot... its way worse).

[trag3dy]

They are backward compatible. A friend of mine is running a 9600 gts which is pci-e 2.0 on a pci-e 1.0 motherboard.

As for suggesting a card for you we'd need to know your budget.

If you have the cash go for a gtx 295. If not a gtx 260 or 275 are solid performers. I dont know anything about ATI cards so I can't suggest any.

[Spartan Erik]

I've got a GTX 260 running on a PCI-E 1.x motherboard, and I can play L4D and CODWAW at 1920x1080 on a 22" HD monitor with their settings way jacked up and still get a good frame rate. Newegg had a sale a few days ago, you might want to wait if you're on a budget.

If you're in the market for a used 8800GT.. then I've got one for ya!

Oh and when you do make a graphics card purchase, make sure you've got a good enough power supply. The GTX 260 takes up 36A on a 12V rail. 8800GT takes up 22A I believe.

[ContendeR]

You think, you know, someone told you....PCI-e 1.x @x16 can run PCI-e 2.0 cards and has more then enough bandwidth to run cards like HD 4890 or GTX 275.

You think it would but really...No.

Your GeForce 8400GS has a lot to do with that (exaggerating by a lot... its way worse).

PeterUK I was unaware of this as I thought PCIe 2.0 could not run in a PCIe 1.x slot. No one told me this it was just something I thought wasn't capable.

[ContendeR]

As for the rest of the replies thank you for your suggestions and clearing/backing what PeterUK said.

If I am going to upgrade my graphics I am debating whether to go with something cheap, but still pack a punch like the ATI Radeon HD 4770 as the direct X 11 cards will be out before the new year arrives only a few short months from now. The other reason I'm liking the 4770 from ATI is its 40nm process and running cool and not a power hog.

I've watched youtube videos where people are showing off their 4770 running usually with 4gigs of ram usually DDR3 and on an AMD x3/4 and the framerates/gameplay seem real smooth and nice.

How would my setup compare with the addition of such a graphics change as compared to an AMD x3/4 and 3-4gigs of DDR3?

[abysal]

They are backward compatible. A friend of mine is running a 9600 gts which is pci-e 2.0 on a pci-e 1.0 motherboard.

As for suggesting a card for you we'd need to know your budget.

If you have the cash go for a gtx 295. If not a gtx 260 or 275 are solid performers. I dont know anything about ATI cards so I can't suggest any.

What he said ^ ^ ^

I think for 1920x1200 resolution, the GTX 275 or equivalent ATI card are great solutions for a medium budget. If you have the cash go with the GTX 295; you won't be disappointed.

But for these graphics cards you will need to move away from the m9040n tower case and transplant the motherboard into a new case with a new PSU; at least 600 Watts I would say; (750 watts ideal).

Also your board is an ASUS IPIBL-LA (decent board); it supports DDR2 800. RAM is pretty cheap, so 4 GB DDR2 800 would be good to get as well; even though if your running 32Bit OS you'll only see around 3.0 GB to (maybe) ~ 3.75 GB.

[+PeterUK MVC]

How would my setup compare with the addition of such a graphics change as compared to an AMD x3/4 and 3-4gigs of DDR3?

If anything your Q6600 & 3GB of Ram is being limited to your current graphics card a HD 4890 or GTX 275 would give it a overall balance.

You get more speed with a faster CPU then RAM but if you wanted to do that get a better Motherboard + DDR2 800 and overclock your CPU.

DDR3 is nice but I wouldn't die over it unless the CPU only supports DDR3 (like i7).

[ContendeR]

I don't see the point at this time to upgrade my graphics to any of the $200+ cards when direct X 11 is going to be here before the new year.

Wouldn't just upgrading my PSU to something more future-proof like a Corsair 750W and an ATI 4770 for the time being be fine or am I still bottle-necking my CPU?

Can these two upgrades be done without a case upgrade as the ATI 4770 doesn't look much larger than my current 8400GS?