DOOM3 is an exception as for most games, current and future, a 9800pro is more than sufficient. Anyway, I play D3 on a 9700 on high detail with no problems, with antialiasing and anisotropic filtering to boot (1280*1024). yes, doom3 puts a load on video, more so than other games. Regardless, the tests run at anandtech show that there is performance to be gained by going A64 in doom3, but of course, in that game, a video card would be better.

A 3Ghz P4 really is enough. I would put off upgrading until the Athlon64 chipsets get PCI Express around November. Also, the intro of PCI express won't make AGP obsolete; there will be plenty of AGP cards for at least a year. Don't forget only a handful of the market is PCI-Express, the vast majority is AGP (espeially the hardcore gamers, which largely go AMD).

 

Thanks for the plethora of replies. I think I'm gonna go with the 6800 GT or shell out some more for the X800 XT Plat.

Cheers,

Bryan

 

if i were you i would not upgrade
a little overclocking will help your performance
and doom3 will run perfectly fine on your system, unless you do some intense gaming with unrealeased top secret games that actually use 64bit processors...
i don't see a reason to upgrade

 

Bragging rights?

 

Right.. I don't see a reason to upgrade either. Other than bragging rights, your system is fast enough to run anything decently.

However, if you're itching to spend some cash for some bragging rights, a video card will definitely net you more gain than a CPU will in 3D games. That was my point earlier. Regardless of what you buy in the 3D market, it will be outdated in roughly 6 months. I have to double check on this but I don't think you can buy the fastest Intel processors without upgrading your video card to PCI Express as well.

 

Thing is, I'm only running Counterstrike : Source at a measly 30-40 fps with this system. >:|

 

actually there are boards out with the LGA775 socket and the 865/875 chipset with DDR and AGP.

But, you were partially right in that the fastest intel cpu is only avaliable for LGA770 (I think socket478 was hitting its limits in current delivery...those prescotts use 150+ watts [100 of which is waste heat]).

 

with all this talk about waiting for the amd64 chips getting better and just to hold out, i might as well buy a maxed out athlon system, for i know that it is the best it will be. thanks guys, ill just buy a 9800 pro

 

Your video card definately should be upgraded if you want more performance. It only has 128 megs of ram. Doom3 requires 512 of video ram to run on it's highest settings. I have a 9800xt with 256 megs of ram. Coupled with a p4 2.4 (800 FSB) and 512 megs of ram, I get more FPS than 30-40-fs in counterstrike source. I can run Doom 3 at high detail, 1024x768 and it runs smoothly.

 

Even if you wait until pci express comes out to buy a card, it will outdated as soon as you get it.