Help me decide what to do next with my computer!

Allright, I am kind of at a crossroads with my computor, and I'm not sure what to do next with it. Here are the specs:
AMD Athlon XP 2400+ 2.0 ghz
640 MB of ram
Radeon 9000 GFX card'
AGP

Well, the first thing I was thinking about doing was upgrading the graphics card. I was looking at the eVGA GeForce 6800. Will this card handle the Unreal 2007 engine when it comes out? Is there a better card I should get for under $300 (closer to $200 would be nice)

As I was thinking about this I realized that maybe I should forget about that for now and get a new processor. Also, I thought about upgrading to PCI-express.
With all this, I thought that maybe I should just wait a while and get a new computor. The final option is to get a cheap upgrade card such as a Radeon 9600 pro. What do you all think I should do?

 

Hi and welcome to MajorGeeks.

I don't think a 9600 Pro is a good option.

Personally, I would either get a 6800 as well as upgrade the memory to 1 GB, or wait till Windows Vista is released before updating to PCI X. (Half-way or end of next year)

It's hard suggesting one way over another as it's largely a personal and subjective decision.

 

Seconded,it isnt really a question of which is the most cost effective route,its more of what you can put up with,if your games play OK ATM wait a while,if you cant live through the next couple of months before you have the money to overhaul the whole system which I think you will have to do buy an upgrade that will give you enough FPS to make your games enjoyable.

Its tough to recommend an upgrade that will give you a nice perfromance increase without blowing your whole $2-300 budget,some of which you will want to keep for your future upgrade

have you considered selling the whole comp and starting a fresh build?

 

Hey I was looking at my computer with Aida32 and it says that my motherboard has 3 PCI slots. Does this mean that I can use PCI-express cards or would it say "pci-express"? I thought that PCI express is the newer version but I figured I should ask anyway.

 

yes it would say pci-e and no they arnt compatible,always ask ask though its a great way to get stuff

 

Thanks man

Edit: One last thing. The Geforce 6800 supports HDR right?

 

Yes it does. Don't get the Ultra or GT (6800) as they are overpriced in my opinion.

 

Allright sweet, looks like I will be putting the order in tonight for the 6800 and 512 ram stick!

 

And it WILL be able to run the Unreal 3 engine?

 

I'd say so, I have one myself and It won't do it at top resolution and top detail maybe but enough to make it enjoyable. You'd need a 7800 to run the Unreal engine really good.

 

A 6800 (even a 6600 GT) is able to run any current game, except some on high detail settings.

You should have a fairly decent system after the upgrade.