Upgrades for aging Athlon 64 pc.

[mrjohnstrange]

I have an old PC that has an Athlon64 3200+, 512mb PC3200 and a Geforce FX5950. The motherboard doesn't have any PCI-E slots.

I really don't use it enough to justify spending a lot of money on a real upgrade but would like to try out a few newer and upcoming games like Stalker, Fallout 3, etc.

It seems that for around £100 I can either upgrade the ram to 2GB and add a new graphics card (would a 3850 be going too far?) or I can upgrade the ram and swap out the motherboard and cpu for say an Athlon x2 5200+ which would give me integrated graphics (better than the geforce FX?).

Anyways what would give me the best bang for my buck? I know that upgrading the motherboard would allow me to get a PCI-E graphics card, however I probably wouldn't do that as I don't want to spend much more than £100 and just want a little more oomf! So what graphics card/motherboard/processor?

thanks ! !

 

[Davros]

if youve just got £100 to spend then i would go for a gfx card
i

ps: why not ask here im sure many people have good agp cards sitting in cupboards
3850 is a good choice

i was in your situation i bought a asrock board that supported agp + pci-e it cost £36 that way when i bought a new gfx card i knew i would not have to throw it away when i upgraded to a core 2 quad

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Would that be of much use with just a 3200+? I dont think you'd get a really big increase. Atleast not one that I would spend 100 pound on. I'd say save up some more money and buy something that will really help you notice the difference.

 

[Davros]

you'd be supprised i have a p4 and a 7600gt and it does quite well most games are not cpu limited but gpu limited

but it would be better if he got a board that supported his cpu + pci-e that way he could carry the gfx card over to his new pc when he gets one

 

[Npl]

AGP seems a deadend, games also get more and more CPU-hungry, even if its at a much slower pace. So you might end up in the same spot after a while if you only upgrade GFX-Card... and then need a full set of Mobo/CPU/GPU anyway. Not to mention that AGP-Cards cost more than the PCIe Versions nowadays.
You could be getting a Athlon X2 + 780G + 2GB RAM now and try getting a cheap used GFX-Card or save some money for buying a good GPU later.

 

[Tim]

I have an old PC that has an Athlon64 3200+, 512mb PC3200 and a Geforce FX5950. The motherboard doesn't have any PCI-E slots.

I really don't use it enough to justify spending a lot of money on a real upgrade but would like to try out a few newer and upcoming games like Stalker, Fallout 3, etc.

It seems that for around £100 I can either upgrade the ram to 2GB and add a new graphics card (would a 3850 be going too far?) or I can upgrade the ram and swap out the motherboard and cpu for say an Athlon x2 5200+ which would give me integrated graphics (better than the geforce FX?).

Anyways what would give me the best bang for my buck? I know that upgrading the motherboard would allow me to get a PCI-E graphics card, however I probably wouldn't do that as I don't want to spend much more than £100 and just want a little more oomf! So what graphics card/motherboard/processor?

thanks ! !

Neither would give you very good bang for you buck.

AGP graphics cards are overpriced (a 3850 agp is about the same as a 4850 PCIe - correct me if I am wrong) And it would not leave you any upgrade path. Most of the new games take advantage of at least two cores - so you CPU might be a little to slow (DDR is overpriced compared to DDR2 too).

Integrated is not going to give you a good experience in newer games.

I would spend the extra money and do both - but if you are set on not spending any more then a 3850 would give you the best gaming experience of.

 

[Freak'n Big Panda]

That PC is pretty much a dead end. If you want something faster I'd recommend saving your pennies until you can afford an athlon x2, cheap mobo, 4850, and 2gb of ddr2.

 

[Blazkowicz]

a used 6800GT AGP or similar and a new stick of 512MB PC3200 (or a good deal on a 1GB stick) wouldn't cost you much and would do wonders for that PC.

 

[mrjohnstrange]

I went for 2GB and a x1950pro. The difference is like night and day. Games that I wouldn't even think about running before work brilliantly, I don't have many newer games but on things like Quake 4 I can turn everything right up and the system doesn't seem bothered at all. Tried out the Crysis demo and can walk around the beach with everything turned up to high (except 1 option that's greyed out and set to low) at a great framerate (better than what I'm used to on the average xbox360 fps). Sadly within 10 minutes or so Crysis will always lock up the system.

Other games will sometimes randomly lock up the pc too, though it seems very stable when not playing 3D games. My PSU is definitely good enough, and heat doesn't seem to be an issue (the x1950 doesn't get above the high 40s) so I'm going to leave it running memtest86, see if there's anything I need to change in the bios, etc. blah pcs.

 

[pjbliverpool]

Out of curiosity, why didn't you go with the 3850? Its quite a bit faster.

Anyway, I think this thread is a good reminder to people that you can actually get great results with some very outdated hardware. The latest and greatest certainly isn't a requirement to enjoy PC games.

 

[mrjohnstrange]

The x1950 pro was about 1/3 of the price and is probably being held back by my cpu anyway.

 

[pjbliverpool]

The x1950 pro was about 1/3 of the price and is probably being held back by my cpu anyway.

Ah fair enough, with that kind of difference its well worth it. Not sure about it being held back by your CPU though, you can always add more AA/AF/resolution etc...

Anyway I would put the X1950pro in about the same league as Xenos. You obviously have a RAM advantage but your CPU is a little slower than Xenon.

Overall though you seem to have brought your PC from "last generation" console performance to right up there with the current gen of consoles for a mere £100.

Great job!

 

[ShaidarHaran]

I went for 2GB and a x1950pro. The difference is like night and day. Games that I wouldn't even think about running before work brilliantly, I don't have many newer games but on things like Quake 4 I can turn everything right up and the system doesn't seem bothered at all. Tried out the Crysis demo and can walk around the beach with everything turned up to high (except 1 option that's greyed out and set to low) at a great framerate (better than what I'm used to on the average xbox360 fps). Sadly within 10 minutes or so Crysis will always lock up the system.

Other games will sometimes randomly lock up the pc too, though it seems very stable when not playing 3D games. My PSU is definitely good enough, and heat doesn't seem to be an issue (the x1950 doesn't get above the high 40s) so I'm going to leave it running memtest86, see if there's anything I need to change in the bios, etc. blah pcs.

The x1950 pro was about 1/3 of the price and is probably being held back by my cpu anyway.

Let me guess - you bought a used X1950 Pro? That's the only way I can see you getting one for "1/3 the price" of a 3850. That's too bad because it sounds like someone sold you a bad card. To be sure, can you test the card in another AGP system? Also, could you give us the specs on your PSU (what amperage on +12v rail(s))? I know you've stated it's "definitely good enough", but I've no idea what you're basing this assumption upon and to be quite frank, I have my doubts about its accuracy.

 

[mrjohnstrange]

Let me guess - you bought a used X1950 Pro? That's the only way I can see you getting one for "1/3 the price" of a 3850. That's too bad because it sounds like someone sold you a bad card. To be sure, can you test the card in another AGP system? Also, could you give us the specs on your PSU (what amperage on +12v rail(s))? I know you've stated it's "definitely good enough", but I've no idea what you're basing this assumption upon and to be quite frank, I have my doubts about its accuracy.

Calm down man. The card is new so if it's bad I can send it back, no worries there. The PSU is 480W and has 35A on +12v. I believe ATI recommend a 450W & 30A. Other than the x1950 all that's connected to my PSU is the mobo/cpu/ram, a harddrive and a dvd drive. I'll get it tested in another system as I think you might be right that it could be a bad card.

 

[ShaidarHaran]

I am calm

What brand PSU do you have? 35A is adequate, but if it's an off-brand with poor reliability I wouldn't trust specs so readily.

 

[Davros]

you really got a x1950pro fro around $40 thats a hell of a bargain
i guess the 3850's being on agp made the price fall as usualy the fastest thing on a perticular system (in this case agp) has a sky high price

 

[mrjohnstrange]

The PSU is by Xilence.

It seems that the problem was my motherboard bios, I tracked down an update (latest version from 2005 haha) and that seems to have mostly fixed things. I have been able to play through The Witcher demo with no issues (before it would lockup or restart the computer within seconds in game) as well as a few others I was having similar issues with.

The Crysis demo still messes up though. The video freezes (with some display corruption, usually a random pattern over the game graphics) whilst the sound carries on for a few seconds and then a black screen. It's an old demo that I think had a lot of issues anyway, right? I'll see if theres a newer demo or if I can borrow a copy.

I'll play a few more things, for a bit longer, this evening. Hopefully it's sorted

 

[the maddman]

I buddy of mine gave me a x1950pro with a dual slot cooler that was horribly unstable in his machine, and it was rock solid in my system. We went back and forth until it finally dawned on me.

His case is a Lain Li that holds the mobo upside down, and was flexing the heatsink in the opposite direction it was designed for. Flip my computer upside down = crashing, his upside down = stable.

 

[Davros]

good job you dont live in australia then