[Baked]

I have a 3.4 Northwood for a CPU, and a ATI Radeon 9800XT for a video card. Newer games are starting to get a little choppy on it, and I am looking to upgrade to the 7800GS, but I want to make sure my CPU will not bottleneck the 7800GS too much.

Do you think my CPU is good enough to handle the 7800GS?

Thanks a lot,
Baked

 

[guitar22891]

The 9800xt I'm afraid....... but it really isn't that bad of a card.......... If you want a 7800gs I would first of all get a better powersupply... the 350watt dell gave you is probably cheap and crap....... you're 3.4 northwood should not be that big of a bottleneck... maybe a little........

 

[Robilar]

I agree. your cpu is fine. My cousin has a similar cpu with a 6800GT and he can run pretty much anything. Pick up a decent psu and a 7800gs and you should be in great shape.

 

[guitar22891]

Since you're not going to be needing that 9800xt can I have it

 

[Thumper]

Most of the 7800GS i have seen state a MINIMUM of a 350w PSU is required. I don't know about you, but I don't like using minimums.

You should definatly think about getting a new PSU sometime in the future, but if you want the 7800GS now, it looks like you could run it......but........

 

[Kopi]

My buddy has an ATI 9800xt...it works great! He has a Sempron 2400 and he plays CSS fine. The speeds on the FX5500 beat his even when overclocked

 

[mauguai]

Hmm this situation sounds familiar *stares at old 9800 pro*.

Do you have any benchmark scores for comparison?

In aquamark3 my cpu score and gpu score are very close (11k each)

 

[Baked]

Alright, thanks for the help. I'm going to do this upgrade (7800GS, PSU) over break, I just wanted the reassurance that it would be an effective upgrade.

I'll post some of my 3DMark05, and Aquamark benchies in a little.

Any Idea how much a used 9800XT is worth now?

 

[Ropey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kopi My buddy has an ATI 9800xt...it works great! He has a Sempron 2400 and he plays CSS fine. The speeds on the FX5500 beat his even when overclocked

Counter Strike was released ~6 years ago so the minimum system requirements of that year and the minimum system requirements needed to play more modern games will be fundamentally different.

System Requirements for CSS

* Minimum:

• Pentium III 500 MHz
• 96 MB RAM
• 16 MB Video Card
• 500 MB HD Space
• PC with Windows Operating System

* Recommended:

• Pentium III 800 MHz
• 128 MB RAM
• 32 MB Video Card
• 500 MB HD Space
• PC with Windows Operating System

The system requirements for more modern games have drasticaly evolved from the above requirements.

R

 

[selectodude]

can't be more then 100 dollars.

 

[Baked]

I got 9K for my CPU and like 6K for my VGA, why are they so low?

 

[ENTERPRISE]

I have the same CPU as you my friend and as said above it is your g-card i have a x1600xt and i have no problems.

 

[mauguai]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baked I got 9K for my CPU and like 6K for my VGA, why are they so low?

6k seems a bit low maybe for a 9800XT, my 9800 pro gave 6.8k when it was overclocked (410/370).

9K for the cpu may be about right, my cpu has almost 300mhz more in speed and 1Mb L2 cache compared to your 512kb on the northwood.

 

[Kopi]

really eh...i thought css was a strong game. One of my other computer buddies told me i wouldn't even run it! what a noob

 

[wudaddy]

My CPU on Aquamark gets 9.4k (P4 Northwood 2.6 @ 3.15 with HT). My 6800 is at 8.2k. Total score around 57k.

 

[busa]

Be sure that when you get a psu that it is DELL compatible.

 

[ENTERPRISE]

I forgot that i really should AQUAMARK my pc

 

[Namrac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kopi really eh...i thought css was a strong game. One of my other computer buddies told me i wouldn't even run it! what a noob

Counter Strike: Source is much more demanding. Ropey gave you the Requirements for the original Counter Strike. If your PC can play HL2 alright, then CS:S should be okay, too, since they are the same engine and were released at the same time. In fact, it would probably run it better, because there's no AI to bog down the CPU. (HL2 has a LOT of AI)

 

[mauguai]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ropey Counter Strike was released ~6 years ago so the minimum system requirements of that year and the minimum system requirements needed to play more modern games will be fundamentally different. System Requirements for CSS * Minimum: Pentium III 500 MHz 96 MB RAM 16 MB Video Card 500 MB HD Space PC with Windows Operating System * Recommended: Pentium III 800 MHz 128 MB RAM 32 MB Video Card 500 MB HD Space PC with Windows Operating System The system requirements for more modern games have drasticaly evolved from the above requirements. R

You're confusing Counterstrike:SOURCE (CSS) with Counterstrike
CSS was only released in 2004 bundled with Half Life 2 and is quite heavily CPU dependant due to the physics involved.

System Requirements:
Min: 1.2 GHz Processor,
256MB RAM,
DirectX 7 level graphics card,
Windows 2000/XP/ME/98,
Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

Preferred:
2.4 GHz Processor,
512MB RAM,
DirectX 9 level graphics card,
Windows 2000/XP,
Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

 

[mauguai]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kopi really eh...i thought css was a strong game. One of my other computer buddies told me i wouldn't even run it! what a noob

It takes a fair bit of power to run it on high res and detail but the great thing about it is you can still play with a relatively weak machine.

My cousin was playing it 640x480 low-med details on a 2.4ghz Dell with an MX440.