Upgrade CPU or Graphics Card?

[elrasho]

I have an AMD Athlon 64 3200, 1GIG ram and a GeForce 7600 GT graphics card. Im getting Rainbow 6: Vegas soon and Im thinking I'll need to upgrade.

My aging Asus A8N-SLI motherbaord can take a AMD Athlon X2 4200 (which is ?100)

Then Im thinkin a GeForce 8800 GTX will make more of difference in games like Rainbow 6: Vegas. I only wanna play on all details medium and at 1024*768

Do I need an upgrade to play this game?

 

[DreamThrall]

I think that if you get a 8800, your processor will be holding back the video card in a major way. I'd go dual core and get that 4200 for now because they're ridiculously cheap, and then wait for the 8800 to come down in price a few notches. If you aren't on AM2 yet, you might consider upgrading your mobo and RAM. You could get a decent AM2 mobo/ram/proc for less than the 8800, and I think you'll be better off in the long run for it.

 

[3ssence]

I'd recommend upgrading your CPU first, maybe to a X2 4200 as you say, but if you want a cheaper upgrade then get hold of a 3700+ (single core) for around 60 pounds, and overclock it to 2.6-2.7. Then when you can afford it maybe get one of the next gen mid-range cards, like the 8600 ultra, or something along those lines. 8800GTX is overkill for anything below 1920. Or if you wanted something slightly more powerful than mid-range then you could for an 8800GTS or equivalent.

There's no reason why that motherboard and ram shouldn't serve you well for a decent while. I have a 939 3800+ running at 2.72 and it doesn't bottleneck my current X1800XT in the slightest, and whilst the new cards such as the 8800GTX are even faster, any bottleneck would still most likely be a mild one and therefore negligible. I certainly plan on upgrading to a high end DX10 card sometime this year, and have no worries whatsoever about my current setup holding it back in any noticeable way.

I hope some of this helps.

edit: chances are your current setup would run R6:Vegas at middle of the road settings anyway, don't quote me on that but i wouldn't be surprised if it would.