PC Improvement, Which Is Best?

[Kencelot]

I have some extra cash burning a hole in my pocket and I would like to improve my PC performance. I do mostly gaming.

By looking at my system specs below, what component would offer the best improvement. New Nvidia 6800 GT, 1Gig PC 3200 RAM, or AMD Athlon XP 3200? The video card is open to suggestions.

Or is there something else I could do?
Any and all suggestions are welcome.
Thanks for your time and input.



__________________
Athlon XP 2500+, Asus A7N8X Dlx rev. 2.0 BIOS 1007, 1GB PNY PC2100 - Bnk 1&3, PNY NVidia 5700 Ultra 128MB, Creative Labs Audigy 2, WD SE 80GB 7200 RPM w/8MB Cache-Primary, WD 160GB w/8MB Cache-Secondary, Antec True430, Windoz XP Proffesional SP2

 

[Didou]

Well first of all you need some decent ram. I can see per your signature that you have 1GB which is nice, but the fact that it's PC2100 kills everything. The 2500+ needs PC2700 to work properly so you are already crippling the performance of your current.

I would suggest you get PC3200 ram as it would allow you to move to a 3200+ later on without having to change ram & there's very little price difference between PC2700 & PC3200 to justify going with the slower of the two.

Once that is done, the choice between a VGA card & a CPU is quite hard. Both will improve performance in many games as newer games do not tend to tax only the visual components, thay have complexe physics & AI that tax quite a lot of CPU power. I think it would be a better upgrade to get a 3200+ (if you do not wish to overclock your current CPU) & a Radeon 9800 Pro. It's a more balanced upgrade IMO.

 

[vegasgmc]

Id get 3200 ram and then see if the processor will run at 400mhz bus. That will turn the 2500 into a XP 3200. You might even be able to bump your 2100 ram up to 2700. I was able to do that with Corsair value ram. But running the ram and processor synchronously is the bast way to go.

 

[acidosmosis]

I would say, one of the last things on your list would be upgrading the processor. Concentrate on other upgrades, like Didou mentioned.