Its a Core 2 Duo normally @ 2.67 clocked to 2.90, P5B motherboard, 2 GB of Corsair Twin3X (1066 MHz, got a bargain on demoware!), Sapphire Radeon X1950XTX 512MB full retail (currently clocked at 700 MHz).
Its still a decent rig but newer games (Crysis, CoD 4, Assassin's Creed) don't run too well on it and I like to have full effects and the whole nine yards!
My two biggest issues is RAM and GPU, I think I'll just buy another 2 GB of the same kind, the prices have gone way down on memory now and I'll try to find me a 3870 X2 1GB, it costs a lot less than the 1950 did back when I bought that and will probably tide me over for a while!
But I need Vista for full DX10, right?

Mummelmann said: Its a Core 2 Duo normally @ 2.67 clocked to 2.90, P5B motherboard, 2 GB of Corsair Twin3X (1066 MHz, got a bargain on demoware!), Sapphire Radeon X1950XTX 512MB full retail (currently clocked at 700 MHz). Its still a decent rig but newer games (Crysis, CoD 4, Assassin's Creed) don't run too well on it and I like to have full effects and the whole nine yards! My two biggest issues is RAM and GPU, I think I'll just buy another 2 GB of the same kind, the prices have gone way down on memory now and I'll try to find me a 3870 X2 1GB, it costs a lot less than the 1950 did back when I bought that and will probably tide me over for a while! But I need Vista for full DX10, right?

Well you do... But only if you want the absolutely most bleeding edge effects. Otherwise XP is fine and most people can't tell the difference seriously between the two. I run on Vista and an 8800gt. But if you wanna wait a couple of months at most, AMD is coming out with the 4870x2 and the 4870! I am willing to bet that the 4870x2 could push crysis up to high on every resolution maybe even very high. From what i've seen in terms of rumors it looks like it will have 40%+ more performance than the 9800gx2!

Squilliam said: Mummelmann said: Its a Core 2 Duo normally @ 2.67 clocked to 2.90, P5B motherboard, 2 GB of Corsair Twin3X (1066 MHz, got a bargain on demoware!), Sapphire Radeon X1950XTX 512MB full retail (currently clocked at 700 MHz). Its still a decent rig but newer games (Crysis, CoD 4, Assassin's Creed) don't run too well on it and I like to have full effects and the whole nine yards! My two biggest issues is RAM and GPU, I think I'll just buy another 2 GB of the same kind, the prices have gone way down on memory now and I'll try to find me a 3870 X2 1GB, it costs a lot less than the 1950 did back when I bought that and will probably tide me over for a while! But I need Vista for full DX10, right?   Well you do... But only if you want the absolutely most bleeding edge effects. Otherwise XP is fine and most people can't tell the difference seriously between the two. I run on Vista and an 8800gt. But if you wanna wait a couple of months at most, AMD is coming out with the 4870x2 and the 4870! I am willing to bet that the 4870x2 could push crysis up to high on every resolution maybe even very high. From what i've seen in terms of rumors it looks like it will have 40%+ more performance than the 9800gx2!

 What will the price range on that card be?

Ben - Probably typical release prices 200-249ish for the 4870 and 400-500 for the X2 version from tentative pricing I saw few months ago. But it does fit in with the pricing scale they used for the last launch.

I'll keep scouting for a new GPU and some more RAM, I feel that the GPU is the most hampering at the moment though!

I'm looking to spend about $100-$200 on a good graphics card...preferably an 8800GT unless there's a better card under $250 out there.

I could wait a couple months if there's going to be a better deal soon though.

A 9600gt benchmarks SO close to an 8800gt its amazing and you can get some fantastic $110-130 deals if you're willing to wait on Newegg.

What games and what resolutions?

But if you go to Newegg right now there are a couple of good 9600gts on there for $125 with MIR vs $180 or so with the 8800gt. Thats the perfect price for an awesome card. It performs at circa 3870 levels, consumes less power and accelerates HD video.

If you want a better design and the same performance a 3870 consumes the same ammount of power but it has dual slot cooling, which means the 150 watts of heat at load are exhausted out the back of the chassi. $157 after MIR

Lastly the 8800gt - Great performance, not as much higher than the 9600gt as to justify paying 50% more for it. Also single slot cooler which is the same and worse than the 9600gt because it introduces more heat into your chassi. This causes your PSU fans etc to run harder and makes more overall noise IMO.

shio said: Mummelmann said: Trouble is; even with the top of the line GPU's, they'll be outdated in 18-24 months so this is an "investment" you'll have to do 2-3 times in one consoles lifetime to maintain the edge. PC gaming is serious bussiness and it costs a lot no matter how you spin it, especially here in countries where hardware is NOT dirt cheap... I remember how much I paid for my GPU in September 2006; 3800 NOK or roughly 700-750$ and there were those GPU's that cost over twice as much. So, to me, PC gaming is never going to be cheaper than console gaming, rather the other way around. I'll have to modify my rig for over 4000 NOK again this year to stay with it, newer PC games are really taxing my PC. Only Console gamers use that as an excuse to bash PC gaming since consoles are outdated from the start, or Graphic whores who are jealous of the people who are playing the sames games with better looks. No one upgrades their GPU 2-3 times in 5 years, because thing is, PC gamers in general aren't so hung up on graphics (aka. graphic whores) that they would be forced to keep the edge: we just want the graphics to be "good enough".

Really?  You upgrade your GPU less than once every 2 and a half years?  Do you recall what GPUs you've had since, say, 2000 and give us a timeline?  This really surprises me, because I thought that lots of people were upgrading their graphics cards more like every two years, ESPECIALLY if they were going with less-expensive cards. 

I won't blame you if you can't remember, but if you can it'll be a really interesting, albeit anecdotal, example.  Proof that it CAN be done. 

Important followup question:  Were you always able to play the latest games at some level?  Or did you content yourself with older games and play the heck out of them, and then upgrade when you wanted to move on to a newer game that was beyond your system's capabilities? 

probably around $500.00 to get console results tomarrow youcant play a graphics card alone!

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-graphic-game,1810.html

Final-Fan said: shio said: Mummelmann said: Trouble is; even with the top of the line GPU's, they'll be outdated in 18-24 months so this is an "investment" you'll have to do 2-3 times in one consoles lifetime to maintain the edge. PC gaming is serious bussiness and it costs a lot no matter how you spin it, especially here in countries where hardware is NOT dirt cheap... I remember how much I paid for my GPU in September 2006; 3800 NOK or roughly 700-750$ and there were those GPU's that cost over twice as much. So, to me, PC gaming is never going to be cheaper than console gaming, rather the other way around. I'll have to modify my rig for over 4000 NOK again this year to stay with it, newer PC games are really taxing my PC. Only Console gamers use that as an excuse to bash PC gaming since consoles are outdated from the start, or Graphic whores who are jealous of the people who are playing the sames games with better looks. No one upgrades their GPU 2-3 times in 5 years, because thing is, PC gamers in general aren't so hung up on graphics (aka. graphic whores) that they would be forced to keep the edge: we just want the graphics to be "good enough". Really? You upgrade your GPU less than once every 2 and a half years? Do you recall what GPUs you've had since, say, 2000 and give us a timeline? This really surprises me, because I thought that lots of people were upgrading their graphics cards more like every two years, ESPECIALLY if they were going with less-expensive cards. I won't blame you if you can't remember, but if you can it'll be a really interesting, albeit anecdotal, example. Proof that it CAN be done. Important followup question: Were you always able to play the latest games at some level? Or did you content yourself with older games and play the heck out of them, and then upgrade when you wanted to move on to a newer game that was beyond your system's capabilities?

I've had 2 main graphics cards since early 2003, a Radeon 9800 and a Radeon x800. I play COD4 with the x800, it's definitely on lower settings, but I don't really mind, it looked ok. I plan on getting a new card pretty soon here so I can up the graphics on all my games. The x800 plays TF2 on max settings, with some AA and AF, at about 30-40 fps.

Also, I just realized I'm OVER 9000!!