> Being that racing sims are demanding ever more powerful PC's, I'm
> considering upgrading my CPU. I'd like to be able to max out my
> graphics settings in NR2002, GT2002, etc. Right now, my system is as
> follows:
> Athlon 1700XP
> 512 Megs RAM
> Radeon 8500LE
> Win 98SE
> I'm considering an upgrade to an Athlon XP2600 (266 FSB) because that's
> the fastest CPU that my mobo (Epox 8Kha+) will support.
> If I do the CPU upgrade, can I expect to see significant increases in
> framerates? Will I finally be able to max out the graphics? Or is my
> vidcard the bottleneck?
> Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
Well, a faster vid card is always nice, but unless you have the CPU to
feed it....so if in doubt, upgrade the CPU first and vid card next
I'm currently running an 8500LE myself on an XP2200+, and I still see
and increase in FPS when I OC my CPU, suggesting that the vid card,
while now a generation behind, still has some life left in it
Besides, you can always OC the 8500LE a little to prolong it's life,
mine responds very well to OC'ing and runs stable at 310/310 and with a
slightly OC'ed CPU I score about 9300 3DMarks
Beers and cheers
(uncle) Goy
http://www.theuspits.com
"A man is only as old as the woman he feels........"
--Groucho Marx--
