[zestron]

Okay I've gone and done some researching and here is what I've come up with from Newegg.ca

Current
MSI MS-7260
GeForce 8600GT
AMD Athlon 64 3800+

Upgrade
Foxconn A78AX-S $79.49
GeForce 9600GT $115.89
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 3.1GHz $85.49

Subtotal: $280.87

Handling: $36.67
Shipping: $18.75

Grand Total: $336.29

Thoughts? Comments?

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EDIT: I just ordered it

[zestron]

EDIT: I just ordered it

[jrm20]

EDIT: I just ordered it

Not bad at all for the money. later on if you get more into hardcore gaming you can upgrade the video card to more of a powerhouse. Will you be doing any hardcore gaming and what games do you play?

[zestron]

Hardcore? Not really. I'm fine with medium settings. I play Counter Strike: Source and Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty 4
I'm upgrading because I want to be able to play Left 4 Dead on 1680x1050, and so I can play games like Fallout, GTA IV, and such.
Oh, and I do some video editing ( real video and games machinima )

EDIT: Well I guess once I get the new stuff I can;
1: Crank up my settings for any games that I currently play
2: Sell my 8600GT, 3800+, and MS-7260 to my dad, for like $150? Does that seem reasonable?

Happy New Years!

Edited by zestron, 31 December 2008 - 10:18 PM.

[jrm20]

Hardcore? Not really. I'm fine with medium settings. I play Counter Strike: Source and Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty 4
I'm upgrading because I want to be able to play Left 4 Dead on 1680x1050, and so I can play games like Fallout, GTA IV, and such.
Oh, and I do some video editing ( real video and games machinima )

Happy New Years!

Ya glad you said GTA4, as I have it and I get it to play correctly but many people are having problems getting it to run high fps. The #1 thing they do though is try and max all video card settings and they end up getting like 7-20fps and they complain, even on newer video cards it just varies on the whole pc setup for me to fully explain in detail.

Anyway on gta4 with that setup you need 2gb ram minimum and you will be able to play medium texture quality which will be locked by default, then medium render probably and for the view distance probably around 50%max,detail distance 50% max,vehicle density 50% or so and shadow density I recommend keeping it low or turn it off for a FPS boost. Gta4 takes quite a bit of power to run correctly and I know what I'm talking about. I have a few videos on my youtube account trying to help people out on settings etc. I know my stuff. I just wanted you to know about the issues before you bought the game. It will run fine if you know how to optimize the video card settings correctly.

[zestron]

Oh yeah, I know how much it takes to run the game. I'm fine with running on medium settings, I don't have $800 to spend on upgrading my computer, so I have to deal with it.
Too bad how much computer cost though. The point that a $400 XBOX 360 can run it perfectly makes me mad.

EDIT:
Oh yeah, I have 3G DDR2 RAM (5400 I think)

Edited by zestron, 31 December 2008 - 10:33 PM.

[jrm20]

Oh yeah, I know how much it takes to run the game. I'm fine with running on medium settings, I don't have $800 to spend on upgrading my computer, so I have to deal with it.
Too bad how much computer cost though. The point that a $400 XBOX 360 can run it perfectly makes me mad.

The 360 version of the game runs at :-

1280 x 720 with 2 x AA and runs at around 29-30fps

Texture Quality = Medium
Render Quality = Low
View Distance = 21
Detail Distance = 10
Vehicle Density = 33
Shadow Density = Not available on the consoles

Pc versions can run the game at a much higher resolution/texture quality/render quality/view distance/detail distance/vehicle density/shadow density though.

Even at medium settings on PC it looks a lot better than the PS3 / Xbox360 consoles.

[zestron]

Oh yeah, because consoles strech the resolution for the TV, good point.
Well, I can't wait to get my stuff and get goin with some new games

Hopefully this new motherboard will accept my 4th G of ram.

[zestron]

Should I use both cards I'll have do you think?

[jrm20]

Oh yeah, because consoles strech the resolution for the TV, good point.
Well, I can't wait to get my stuff and get goin with some new games

Hopefully this new motherboard will accept my 4th G of ram.

all 4 gb will not show up if you have a 32 bit version of windows. If you have a 64 bit version of windows you will see all 4 gb register correctly within windows.

Should I use both cards I'll have do you think?

You talking about using both of your video cards??? No point in doing that unless you want to run a multiple monitor setup but the extra video card will not help in performance in any games at all. IF you had 2 of the exact same video cards with a SLI mobo and you bridge them together you will see a performance increase though.