adviced needed on upgrade

[drako]

my currrent specs are :
c2duo e6850 3.0ghz w/ corsair liquid cooling
asus p5k-e wifi app mobo
g-skill -6400 ddr800 4-4-4-12 4gbs
xfx ati 4890 XT 1gb stock
corsair 750 watt psu
2x 500gb hdds

i got 300$ to spend (canadian)
i shop at NCIX.com - Canada's Premier Computer Store - Great Technology, Service and Selection.

i am debating between getting a
q9550 2.83ghz quad core cpu or getting another 4890xt

what do u guys think
what would be the better way to go ,
i play on a 24" mainly looking for gaming performance increase

[jcmaz]

maybe another 4890??? but why don't you save up for i5 or AM3???

[Dwayne]

Well, unless you OC the quad higher it is not going to help your gaming much. I would spring for another video card and CrossFire the pair. Should improve frames at 1900 x 1200 or 1920 x 1080 (depending on your monitor setup).

[MpG]

Under the circumstances, I'd probbaly look at a second video card. That's a pretty well-balanced rig you have there, and a slower-quad isn't going to help on 95% of the games out there. The second video card is going to be a little bit overkill for your display, but it'll definitely increase framerates in most games, or give you the option of turning up the graphics quality without giving up playability.

For the record, another possibility is a sound card. It won't increase framerates, but if you've got good speakers or headphones, it can do a lot to improve your gaming experience over a motherboard's onboard sound.

[JD]

As far as I know, P35 has poor Crossfire performance because the 2nd slot runs at a mere 4x rather than 16x.

I don't think putting in another HD4890 will be that beneficial. A single one should be plenty for 1920x1200, and unless you're having issues running a game that fully supports Crossfire, I wouldn't bother wasting the money.

Getting a Q9550 would improve overall system performance IMO. Though at the same time, if you don't run any multithreaded apps, then it's nearly pointless too.

Probably best off just saving up your money for a larger upgrade.

[jcmaz]

Actually it increased my fps by a little bit b/c it decreased the load on my POS cpu.

[drako]

wut if i swapped the mobo? and gota another card

[MpG]

Originally Posted by jdrom17

As far as I know, P35 has poor Crossfire performance because the 2nd slot runs at a mere 4x rather than 16x

My bad, got my Asus model numbers mixed up, thought it was an X38 chipset. Yeah, a P35 chipset isn't the best choice for multi-GPU.

[Safearus]

Well if you swapped the mobo you might as well upgrade your CPU at the same time, otherwise it's not worth swapping your mobo really. If you go that route, than you're looking at almost an entirely new rig. Choice is entirely yours of course, but there is not much point in holdnig onto an LGA775 CPU when you could upgrade to a higher grade i7 or AM3 (Just my opinion ofcourse, LGA775 is NOT entirely obsolete as of yet, but the i7 and AM3 have more room to last than the LGA775)

[drako]

ok would this combo work
Gigabyte EX58-UD3R ATX LGA1366 X58 DDR3 2PCI-E 2PCI SATA2 RAID Sound GLAN CrossFireX Motherboard
G.SKILL F3-10666CL9T-6GBNQ 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1333 CL 9-9-9-24 Triple Channel Memory Kit
core i7 920 cpu

and does that mobo have good xfire support?