Is it the right choice?

[Bazzer40]

Hi,
currently running a P III 800 with 256ECC rdram, considering replacing my present GeForce256-32mb with a Radeon8500, main interest being MS Flight Sim 2002, will this upgrade give me the hoped for increase in frame rates, advice or suggestions for better alternatives appreciated.
Bazzer: :confused:

[spigidygak]

Using that card will be fine, but the limiting factor on performance will become your cpu.

[Bazzer40]

spigidygak,

thanks for the advice re the cpu being a limiting factor coupled with a Radeon 8500, I believe I can upgrade the cpu a little using the current main board, but what size cpu should I be looking at to get the full benefit from this, or any other video card of similar performance. :cheers:

[Cantacuzene]

General rule of thumb for me is make your upgrade double the old one, hence see if you can get a 1.6. An AMD 1.6 or P4 with a ATI 8500 will be more than enough to run Flight Sim.

[Hiro]

Originally posted by Cantacuzene
General rule of thumb for me is make your upgrade double the old one, hence see if you can get a 1.6. An AMD 1.6 or P4 with a ATI 8500 will be more than enough to run Flight Sim.
i do the same. i normally don't upgrade until they run twice as fast as what i currently have.

[Bazzer40]

Thanks for the reply`s guys, guess it`s back to the drawing board for a new mother board, and then the new video board.

advice much appreciated. :rolleyes:

[Ladogaboy]

Originally posted by Bazzer40
Thanks for the reply`s guys, guess it`s back to the drawing board for a new mother board, and then the new video board.

advice much appreciated. :rolleyes:

Well, you have to upgrade SOMETHING first, and if you don't have the money to upgrade both, get the video card first.

I don't necessarily agree with a lot of the people in this forum about upgrading processors. Your 800 MHz should still hold out for a while; it is your videocard that is really holding you back.

I think a better way of saying when to upgrade your processor is, wait to upgrade UNTIl you can get something twice as fast. But, honestly, software companies haven't been keeping up with the speed of the hardware. I'm still running a Duron750@820(give or take depending on stability) with 256 megs of ram. I don't have any programs that it can't run. :shrug:

IMO, get the videocard first. Wait on the CPU. Processor prices will continue to drop, so wait until you can find a good MoBo/CPU combo for a good price. Especially since, almost any upgrading you do will require new ram.

[sbp]

Price cuts on April 14th:

Upcoming Price-Cuts For Intel CPUs (http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/story.html?id=1015342615)

AMD: on the Coming Price Reduction (http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/story.html?id=1018506398)

[MJordanash]

Get the video card first.