Is it my CPU or just my system in general??

You go check
Buy the fastest CPU there is, and I think you could afford a "decent" 256MB Nvidia GFX card after buying a motherboard,that's all I could say,not much helpful but I may have been able to put the spotlight on the "first things first"

First of all, you will not need a new motherboard just to get a 64-bit capable CPU. Your motherboard can support Athlon64s with the socket 754 so there's no problem there.

The maximum you can get for such a motherboard would be a 3400+ which is a bit easier to find then the 3700+ but if I'm not mistaken both have been discontinued (very hard to find on online stores).

Looking at this UK stores, you can only get the 3000+ it seems.

As for a good VGA card, there's the ATI X800GTO or nVidia 6800GS.

Well, for the list you've given.. I would say you'd need three upgrades in order to boost performance due to the variety of titles you have listed!

Battlefield2? You'd probably get the most bang for the buck by adding more memory if you play online (and who plays the single player anyways? hehe). I've noticed the biggest improvement in BF2 performance by simply going to 2 gigs. We have a similar system to yours (Amd XP2500+, 1 gig, 9600XT) and going from 1 gig -> 2 gig made a huge difference in performance.

FEAR? This game is substantially GPU/videocard bound due to it's complex shaders, particle effects and shadowing. Ramping up details here can even tax the most current dual-card/SLI and Crossfire systems at higher resolutions and settings. It's fairly well CPU dependent as well. Best bang for the buck here would be a 16-pipeline videocard.

QuakeIV? Boy are Doom3 engine games cpu and memory performance bound! We can see a *substantial* improvement between a P4-3.0ghz dual-channel memory system with 9600XT and the AMD XP2500+ with single-channel DDR266 with 9600XT. If you want to play either in their "Ultra" modes, you'll also need a 512mb/16-pipe (or higher) card.. but most play in the higher detail modes and scratch the Ultra mode.

If you are looking for a CHEAP upgrade that will help a bit, I'd suggest a 6600GT and perhaps a second gig of memory for Battlefield2. Sad thing is- only BF2 will see measurable improvement with that second gig. Quake4 and FEAR would still be sluggish in many spots but you should afford to increase several details.

If you have more budget, a new cpu/mainboard and videocard would solve all three and Diduo gave an excellent suggested system that would hit the marks for all games considered.

Tight spot to be in....

You're short on a few of things, and spending money to upgrade just one is the equivilant of flushing it down the toilet later...

You're on an old CPU Standard, 754...
You're on an old VGA Standard, AGP...
You're on an old RAM Standard, DDR...

So, heres what I say... you can:

a. Go as big as possible on your current platform, get the biggest 754 Processor you can find (will take some work) and get a 7800GS as a Video Card. Maybe get another gig of DDR as well...

b. Wait 3-6 months and buy a Conroe/AM2 socket system, with PCI-E and DDR2, Buy new RAM Processor Video Card and Motherboard... (i.e. new computer)

IMHO I'd wait and go for option b. Since option A is only going to keep you current for a year tops.

Just out of curiosity how did you know i was on DDR ram?? i need to learn more about that stuff myself.

k1n9k00p4 said:

Just out of curiosity how did you know i was on DDR ram?? i need to learn more about that stuff myself.

Click to expand...

The current athalon and sempron series do not support DRRII standards.

Cartz said:

You're on an old RAM Standard, DDR...

Click to expand...

DDRII has not shown a real significant performance increase. Not saying it doesnt help, but if sure would not upgrade based on that.

But its always tought to be in the middle of major releases of hardware.

Cartz said:

You're on an old CPU Standard, 754...

Click to expand...

I wouldn't call s754 "old", it is only 1 generation behind, and AMD seems to release new CPU sockets like there's no tomorow.. lol :haha: s754 didn't last very long because of it's lack of dual channel support. Which is why I never upgraded my socket A system until s939 came out. I probably won't upgrade to M2 until they release a new DDR3 supporting socket type, then M2 will be cheaper

Cartz said:

You're on an old VGA Standard, AGP...

Click to expand...

again... not old, PCI-e is a fairly new interface, and high end AGP cards can still handle most games out there. Once windows vista is released, along with directX10, games that are designed to run on DX10 will most likely not be supported by any video card other than PCI-e, but until that day comes, no AGP system is really outdated yet.

Cartz said:

You're on an old RAM Standard, DDR...

Click to expand...

again, not old... there is almost no performance increase from DDR to DDR2, by the time you see DDR2 actually make a difference... there will be a new socket type to support DDR3 and you will be calling DDR2 old

just because a newer interface exists does not instantly make all other interfaces outdated.

First, all those interfaces I quoted ARE old, they are NOT the current standards and NO new significant product launches will be made on these platforms... The industry has moved away from those technologies, I was making him aware of this because if he decides to upgrade, he should realize the upgrade path for that system is extremely narrow.

KingCody said:

just because a newer interface exists does not instantly make all other interfaces outdated.

Click to expand...

I agree, which you would have realised if you had read my entire post... I clearly said at the end of the post, an upgrade would keep him current for a year tops, then he'd be back looking at the same situation.

A suggested upgrade for BF2

Hello everyone iam new to this forum and would like to ask a question.

First off these are my current system specs

FIC AU31 mobo (socket A)
400 mhz bus (FSB 200mhz)
1.5 gig DDR 333 (this mobo only has a 333 mem bus even though i have PC3200)
AMD +3200 barton processor.
ATI X800 XL radeon AGP 8x (core OC'ed to 420mhz, Mem OCed to 549 mhz)
westurn digital 70 gig PATA 100.

How much better would it be for Battlefield 2 game play on my current setup to upgrade to a 939 socket mobo with a AGP bus and upgrading the processor to AMD64 1.8mhz +3000?

Ive read alot into BF2 benchmarks and have not notice much of a FPS difference between lower frequency processors to higher frequency processors of the same socket class. However all of the benchmarks ive seen with my Video card on a 939 mobo seems to be twice as high as my current performance with the card. Any suggestions?

hi ziggy, this post is over a month old now... when you have your own question you need to start a new thread.

by the way... welcome to TechSpot