If you just played some games from time to time I would say just grab yourself a new agp card and be happy for a year or so (I have an AGP 7800gs and am very happy with it) but given that you have stated that you want a new pc primarily to satisfy an urge to just have new shiny things, I'd say wait until vista comes on the market.

Like you said, you can play the games you are playing at the moment perfectly well, so any upgrade now is unneccesary for your present needs, and just means that in a few months time when games come out that you would need an upgrade for, your computer will not be able to play them as well as if you had waited.

For comparison, I have a p4 3ghz, 1 gig of ram and an agp 7800gs and I'm planning on holding off on any further upgrades (except for getting an extra gig of ram in the near future) for 12-18 months. 

Okay yeah....except I don't have any urge to have shiny new things!! Just to make sure I'm getting the balance right with upgrading.

What 7800 Gs do you have?? 

order yourself a quake logo bling-bling! 

XFX 7800GS EXTREME 8X AGP

On current generation games I haven't had any problems with anything, I run Doom3 and Prey at 1440*900 with the settings maxed and it's still nice and smooth. 

What Meg is that??

I need to find some benchmarks for these things, ugh.

Basically I think it might be an idea to do as you're doing, spend �250 or so now getting a decent card and extra gig of ram, then not have to upgrade until next winter.

Lusting after Gothic3 has nothing to do with my decision of course... 

It's 256mb.

I like it, and got it cheap AUS$350 off ebay. If you can get ram that you can transfer over into your new machine when you do upgrade in a year or so it could be a good idea, just keep in mind that you are going to be buying a videocard that in a year no-one will want. :) If the ram will still be usable though it's not a bad deal. 

they moved to ddr2 (bastards)
so your current ram (ddr1) will not fit into the new system
oh and there is sata2 replacing pata(IDE) complitely. as if pci-e and constant socket change was not enough ...

7800gs agp is like 350$ (USD) - overkill for an old system. but whatever 

Can get it for 200 notes maybe less http://shopping.kelkoo.co.uk/ctl/do/search?siteSearchQuery=XFX+7800gs+&catId=100164013&fromform=true , okay it's a fair bit but if it keeps me going for another year. I mean having not upgraded at all in the last 3 years...

Is there anything specific to it being "EXTREME"?

Thing is, yeah okay it will be hampered by the system but surely it's got to piss on the 9800 Pro a bit...? 

It will, I upgrade my 9800xt ati card fir an ati 7900GT and I would say peformance almost doubled.

A good example is doom3, with the ati I was running 1024x768 no AA with an average fps of 30 or so. With the new nvidia card I can run 1280x1024 with 2x AA at 30-40fps average frames per second, also games on source (hl2 etc) run great on it at 1280x1024 4x AA, HDR and 16x AF at a pretty constant 40-60 fps. 

The extreme part is just to do with it being factory overclocked, nothing special. That price does seem high considering how long you will have it for, like I said I got mine for a great price.

If the benchmarks make you think you will be happy with your systems performance for another year with it in though why not go for it, you're spending a bit extra now but then when you go the full system upgrade you'll be able to get a lot more power for your money for when you actually need it. 

DAZZ 1280x1024 with 2x AA at 30-40fps average is patheticly low for 7900gt. You have old cpu or what?
http://www.ixbt.com/video/itogi-video/0906/itogi-video-d3-wxp-aaa-1280-pcie.html

Doom3 and HL2 are quite heavy on CPU (D3 engine especially, and cases of physics frenzy in hl2)

btw, 350$ gets you low end sempron 3000+(it still onwns p4 3ghz or xp3200+) AND okish PCIE mobo AND 7900GS. go figure... 

these are numbers off teh top of my head, for all I know they could be higher.

For the record though I have a 64 bit athlon 4000+ overclocked slightly. 

I have been investigatorising this a bit more.

Had a look at Tom's:

http://tomshardware.co.uk/2006/11/07/the_best_video_cards_for_your_money_uk/page5.html

They recommend the 7600 GT over the 7800 GS for performance/value combined.

(As an aside, looking at some benchmarks, from last year and this year, 6800 Ultra pisses over 9800 Pro for most things, especially Doom3 etc at higher quality, and the 7600 GT is a bit ahead of the 6800 Ultra)

They also say "With this in mind, if you have the money to spend on an AGP card, you may be much better off purchasing a PCI-express motherboard, CPU and PCI-express video card.". Fair enough except that I can get a 7600 GT for �130 - http://www.cclonline.com/product-info-pc.asp?id=9568&pc=nextaguk - and I am sure as hell not going to get MBO, new RAM, CPU and PCI card for that price (not least since this is supposed to be a stop-gap and if I was doing the whole lot I'd got for a p1mper GFX).

So there is an option to get 7600 GT + 1gig ram for about �220 in total which seems like a fair choice for the next year?? 

Don't really know the benchmarks for it.

I's really just a decision on whether you want to spend more now or later, if you're happy with only getting it for a year then you should be able to run the games you want until you do upgrade. 

Possibly the last question or for today at least...

Ram (400mhz DDR):

I've got 4 slots and 2 x 512 in two of those slots already - any reason to go for 2 x 512 or 1 x 1gig?

Also, any makes to recommend or any to avoid? Have looked around t'web a bit, but don't really know who's who.

Ta.

It is quite possible I might order something soon! 

d'oh.
I think you better choose 1x1gig because then something does not need to be divided. Sorry, can't remember where I read it. 

sometimes not, depends mostly on the motherboard I think. Just go to crucial and whack your pc model (or mobo if you built it yourself) into their menu thingy. Also, buy your RAM from crucial. 

Cheers....I tried Crucial already, and I'm struggling to find my model there (EVolution something, can't find the model number), and all the ones that should be similar have a different number of RAM slots. 

Apparently ATI are pulling a bizarre move and releasing AGP versions of the X1950 Pro, don't know how the price compares but it could be worth doing a look around for information on. :) 

If you current motherboard supports dual-channel, it would be wisest to use an additional 2 x 512mb set assuming you can find and buy the EXACT same sticks you already have. If you can, great, all 4 sticks will work in dual-channel, if you can't then go with whatever ends up cheaper.

Dualchannel requires all memory sticks to be installed in pairs and requires all installed sticks to be from the same manufacturer and same ram model. For example 2 x 512mb ram will actually work 2-4% faster than 1 x 1gb ram. 

You seriously need to benchmark, with AMD 4000+ and any 7900 card you should be getting at least 120fps on those settings, not 30-40. 

Aye, I read that on Tom's - can't find the card anywhere though *shrug*. 

Cheers sir. Will try to get the closest I can then. Might phone Evesham. 

yeah, my 7800 gets better results than that. 

so I ran 3 quick "timedemo demo1" in doom 3 just for comparison and the average fps is around 76.8 so I guess I underestimated the framerate. Thats 1280x1024 2xAA everything else on apart from vsync. Anyone care to post their results for comparison.

Might help shamb judge the performance boost by comparing our scores to his too.