how often do you upgrade?

I upgrade every year.

 

I was under the impression that the first PC title to be powered by UE3 will be UT2007.Also, I think that Gears of War=Unreal 3 pretty much, I`m not sure they`ll do any other SP game in the unreal universe.

And upgrading now for an at best early 2006 title is a bit...hasty, but everyone is free to do as he wishes

 

I used to upgrade whenever I was bored - which was pretty often. But now I have to 'feel' the upgrade. Have a Modstream on the way to replace my X-connect - probably won't make a lick of difference but at least it's got some funky UV cables and should be quieter.

 

You appreciate that's a new mobo needed as well?

 

Not helping!
Since it didn't support the latest features, and was recent, I'm assuming it has to be something from ati's X series. However, it's not qualified what it was faster than, sure the x800xt was faster than the 6800 ultra, but it wasn't very overclockable.

CPU and memory prices seemed to have dropped, while video card prices have sky rocketed. You can take a sub $100 754 sempron and overclock it and get 90% of the performance of a FX-55, yet you can't even take a $300 video card and do that. It used to be the high end video cards only cost $300, and the $200 video card was the clock lowered version.

Hmm, sort of reminds me of the geforce2 gen right now. The current cards provide way more performance than is needed for current games, prices aren't dropping fast, but even the castrated cards give enough performance to outperform the last gen and be considered a killer gaming machine.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do for an upgrade. I've gotten most of the performance I can out of my current athlon xp/agp pc...yet the cost of upgrading my PC to what I want isn't very attractive. Since dual core is the future, I don't want to spend money on an upgrade that doesn't include it, I want the super good low latency overclocker's memory, and the only video card upgrade that seems worth it over what I currently have is the 7800GTX.

Hmm, I could just upgrade the cpu, motherboard, and buy a mid range video card like the 6800GT and upgrade the memory and video card later.(evga's stepup program looks semi attractive)
Ah, I'd want a new case and PSU too!

 

Now that wasn't hard, was it?

I mean the whole X series, not "something from".

 

Yes ofcourse. Not only do I need a new cpu socket, but I also need a PCIe slot.

 

doomtrooper:

dt has a point. i've been disappointed by alot more titles than i've been impressed with. still im hoping rather than the industry tanking or wallowing in formulaic gameplay and stereotypical b movie themes, that perhaps some next gen gizmos (eg PPU) and advances may inspire some really immersive experiences...in both sequals and new franchises.

i wish i could convince more folks to pc game since i started a few years ago. most who don't, don't wanna spend the money on the rig. or think it's a 'kiddy' pastime...if only they knew the math that went into stumbling around a 3d landscape and wacking stuff!

for me, it's taken place of most of my tv / free time. i feel 'trapped' by movies!

anyway gotta have 64bit, PCI-E, (extra PCI slot for PPU), crossfire ready...not so sure if dual core is required IMO at this point. i wonder how long before that gives us a 'bang' in games?

 

Ive put about $450 more into my PC in the last two days. 2x512 Mushkin PC4000 Redline (total of 4x512 now) today, and a PC Power&Cooling 510 SLI PSU yesterday.

Once I get some cash for selling my old PC Power&Cooling 510 ATX Deluxe, Ill hopfully be down to about $300. If anyone wants a great PSU with PCI-E adapters.. feel free to pm me.

 

I'm more interested in dual core than anything else, at least dual core speeds up general desktop usage, most of the games I don't even play.

BTW, does anyone know how much the 2T command time hurts performance for having 4 sticks of ram with an athlon 64? Is it enough to counteract the performance benefit of having the super expensive low latency high speed ram? Might it be better to just have 2 1GB low latency PC3200 sticks?

 

Its a few 1-3 frames. Nothing to really worry about. In Sisoft its a lot, but thats why we plays games, and not synthetic benches.

 

I've had a Compaq: Athlon XP 1700+ with minor upgrades Fx5700, 768MB RAM for the past 4 years 8) just upgrade to a AMD 64 3500+, 2GB RAM, X800XL, ASUS A8V, PSU and I still use the same 40GB HDD

 

A few frames at what settings?

I've seen benchmarks with low latency high fsb ram where performance can increase 20%-25% over a normal fsb and latency athlon 64 in cpu limited situations.

 

We are not talking about low latency by itself, but the 1T and 2T settings. The benches you say were not just different in 1T and 2T, I can assure you of that.

I had 2x512 Mushkin Redline PC4000. It runs at Cas2 2-2-6-1T to DDR500 speeds, above that actually. But its only guaranteed to 250fsb. I just added two more sticks for a total of 4x512, with the same latecy speeds, except its now 2T. It is not noticable in games at all. In the limted "benchmarks" I did formyself, it was like I said, just a few frames.

 

Like some I do a CPU & GPU & Memory (added if games dictate )upgrade about every 9-12 months. About 1 1/2 yr to 2yr I do a complete upgrade. My PC is ready for the overhall at a little under 2 yrs so Im hoping the R520 shows me something because it would be perfect timing if it works out. If not, I will just fall back to a NV 7800 etc.

 

I haven't seriously upgraded my desktop for 3 years, other than picking up a Audigy2 ZS cuz the gamer pack was $50 after rebate at BB. And some RAM I guess. Cheap stuff though. PC3200 CAS2.5

Right now at home I have a AthlonXP Mobile @ 2.2Ghz/1.75v, Shuttle AN35 nForce2U400 board, Radeon 9700 NP @ 380/280, 1.5GB PC3200 CL2.5, 2-120GB WDSE's, A2ZS, DVDburner+a DVDROM.

I don't plan to upgrade it until maybe I see Oblivion or Gothic 3 and like them. I don't play many games these days. Doom3 and HL2 were disappointing in their longetivity and overall innovation really. I play mainly older games now days, like Total Annihilation and UT2004/UT99. KOTOR2 as well but that's old tech too.

Notebooks on the other hand I've been buying a lot of. I'm on my 3rd machine in 2 years now. Went from a Sony Vaio subnote, to a eMachines 6805, now to a Dell Inspiron 9300. I have a 6800Go and P-M 2.13GHz in this Dell so I think I'm good for quite awhile.

I just don't play many games at home really. And most games I do play are titles that don't demand the latest tech right now.

Honestly I think upgrading before you have a game in your hands that doesn't run well enough is foolish and wasteful. You are throwing away money that could've been spent on far more powerful hardware down the road when you need it. I'm tired of reading of people who want to buy things for UE3/UT2006. Obviously these people must be very new to PC gaming and not know how these things turn out.

I don't think there are any games out right now either that warrant SLI or even 6800Ultras. I don't think SLI will ever be a worthy purchase as single boards, by their nature, must carry the market since people en masse are not going to buy SLI systems. It will be interesting how long SLI is around this time. Voodoo2 wasn't big for very long. Though with two companies doing it now I imagine it could very well be around for a long time.

$1000 CPUs are obviously soaking those with major money and no other hobbies (lol). Even A64FX is pointless for gaming as you'll hardly see the difference between that and a cheapie nonFX A64 in real world situations, especially if you take advantage of 90nm and overclock it. Dual core is far more interesting than FX/EE and I'm excited to see it finally arrive.

My biggest peeve with the industry right now is that people are building rigs that suck half a kilowatt. Talk about wasting electricity. To me it is completely ridiculous. I'm all for the arrival of more power-conscious rigs, like Intel's forthcoming P-M dual cores and maybe the future of Turion. I want a system that can be left on 24/7 folding and be silent and not put a major MAJOR dent into the electric bill.

I am very interested in seeing what MS does with their new Xbox. You have to know they are pushing consoles to be far more than game machines. If a XBox360 has a keyboard and mouse, that little sucker will be one fantastic general PC potentially. I realize they aren't going to go that far, but I'm sure things will be different than Xbox1. Xbox 360 would be a great quiet, low-maintenance platform for web browsing/gaming/computing. Heh.

 

I buy a top of the range PC, all the best parts I can for around £3000, use it for three to four years and then start all over with a new PC right down to the monitor. The old one I keep for whatever use comes to mind later.

I got lucky this time around, bought just as the processor market began to stagnate (so it stayed top of the line for a good year) and when graphics cards weren't going anywhere fast. In fact, my PC is still pretty hot now... damn the market is boring right now

I've already got my next PC mapped out though and it's hard not to buy it already

 

Just upgrading the whole damn lot is increasingly tempting. I've lost the time & inclination to research individual parts and sort out compatibility issues, not to mention physical rebuilding...

Maybe it's time to go Mac... how many decent games get Mac versions? Was there a Mac Gothic?

 

If by "decent" you really mean "decent" then about 2, if you meant "decent" like in "good" I'd be sticking to the PC if I were you.