Your TI4600 is quite a capable card, a CPU upgrade will push it further; Say a 2400+ nothing less.

I had a A7S333 mainboard, the SIS Asus variant of what you have.

Your MainBoard is one of those rare "transition" boards between technologies.
It has a 266mhz front side bus, It will run RAM at 333mhz, and you have 400mhz RAM installed, Most likely running underclocked unless you have overclocked your PC.
If you are an overclocking GURU, you MIGHT get more out of your present mainboard, but if not, you are limited with it as far as upgrade options go.

Your RAM will slip into a new mainboard quite well, as will a nice new powerful CPU, running at 333mhz FSB instead of your current 266mhz. But that's AMD. At this stage you also have the choice of upgrading your mainboard and CPU to a P4 type, the choice is yours.

Back to what you have now... Wow! a check on the Asus website for bios and CPU support shows your mainboard will take up to an XP 3000+ @333mhz FSB, What a surprise!
Looks like your board has some life in it yet!

The Difference in actual CPU speed isn't very much between the 2600+ thoroughbreds (333mhz FSB) and the later Barton cored 333mhhz FSB AMD cpu's, so there is a bargain in the offing there if you look around.

Here is my suggestion:

Get a 333mhz FSB AMD XP CPU, (2800+ ?) either a Thoroughbred or a Barton core, make sure is comes boxed with a fan.

Grab an extra 512mb RAM stick, identical in spec and brand to what you have now, your board has 3 ram slots.

Get your new bios and flash it, or get some tech to do it.

Wind your front side bus speed up to 333mhz (this will actually be about 167mhz, but 334mhz because of DDR mode.)

Stick in the new CPU, and set the ram to run at 333mhz as well! That's right! Degrade it so it's like PC2700. Your machine will actually run faster, it's a well documented fact. Ram @ 400mhz on these machines causes a slight performance loss. There is another benefit, your CL2.5 ram sticks should now be able to clock at the faster CL2 timing and remain stable. (timings 6-2-2-2)

Now it will be a fast machine! 333mhz fsb, cpu and ram, all balanced and cranking!

Your new spec:

A CPU that's roughly equivalent to a P4 3gig......

1024mb DDR @ 333mhz...

333mhz FSB speed




Try that TI4600 again now, I think you'll be surprised, but wait! Make sure when you up the front side bus speed to 333mhz, that your AGP bus speed and PCI bus speeds aren't tied to it, but keep them the original values. All these options will be available in the BIOS once upgraded.

I imagine a before and after run in 3d mark 2001se will show something like:

Before-  10000pts

After -    14000 pts

If you still need a performance boost, get your shiny new FX card.

Good Luck  

Pentium 4 Northwood3.0 Ghz 800fsb CPU £152.69

TwinMOS 512MB (2x256MB) DDR PC3200 Dual Channel Kit £58.75 (XP Likes 1GB or more.... and it'll help FS9)

Asus P4S800 (Socket 478 ) Motherboard  £47.59 I've got one, you could pay more for an Intel Chipset but  personally I'd use the cash for something else.... An  Asus P4C800 Deluxe Intel "Canterwood" (Socket 478 ) Motherboard will cost you £117.44 but, believe me, the cheaper motherboard is nearly as fast for £70 less....

Leadtek Winfast A380TDH GeForce FX 5950 Ultra 256MB  £270.19 (If you really wanted to change that ti4600)

All that will cost you (with the cheaper motherboard) £529.22

If you keep the ti4600,which still is classed by most reviewers as a High end card, then simply get a higher spec p4 800fsb such as the 3.2 Ghz (Which is under £200) along with as much RAM and the best Dual Channel motherboard you can afford.

Currently, you are not getting the best from your ti4600, changing it would be relatively pointless, you'd be far better going for a better platform to run the GF4ti.

An 800fsb p4 3.0ghz or higher, combined with dual channel RAM is what I'd go for in your shoes, you will see a big improvement in FS9 even though your cards the same.

Once you've built up the p4, sell your old AMD kit and then ,possibly, consider a newer card, frankly though I think your ti4600 is the last thing I'd be replacing in that system. - Overclocking the p4 will bring yet more speed....

Nothing against AMD, their kit is nice & cheap. For performance though you do pay a premium, for my money, Intel is the only way to go.


http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ Go check out the processor prices......

I would go for the Higher Actual Speed, ie. non Barton.

My 2600+ thoroughbred clocks benches faster than an XP3000+ Barton with a tiny tweak.   And they are lots cheaper!

The architecture is basically the same, the Barton has more cache ram, which doesn't seem to affect gaming, but is better at some productivity apps.

OEM Cpu's are fraught with danger, many second hand cpu's are finding there way onto the market as OEM and could have prior damage not apparent immediately.

I haven't seen any price difference of note between OEM and Boxed, but this is something to consider if you trust your dealer and HIS suppliers. All AMD's I see in Australia are boxed now, this happened suddenly, and probably for good reason.

Also, AMD no longer provide warranty unless the CPU is fitted to their stock heatsinks, which are quite adequate provided the heatsink is not removed / replaced once installed. (personal experience)

With all due respect to Fireman's (eeek, I meant Paul's!  ) reply, (and his suggestion may well provide a better solution for you), I have been down the P4 route.

My Older AMD rig on a much slower FSB, slower CPU, and slower RAM, performed better.

My experience ended in my daughter receiving the new P4 rig. (cost me $1200 for the Parts at the time)

Now I have my daughters old rig, (XP1600+, A7S333 M/Board, 768mb PC2700, 80gig 7200rpm Seagate barracuda) sitting here immobile beside me.

I try to constrain my replies according to the budget afforded by the post. Also I have a habit of answering posts literally, whether in context or not.

I'm not single minded about one type of hardware genre over another, and I have been occasionally rapped for it.

I'll quote myself here from my above reply:

"At this stage you also have the choice of upgrading your mainboard and CPU to a P4 type, the choice is yours."

I have detailed my decision process in retaining my AMD rig instead of my new P4 system here in the hardware forum and in the overclocking forum, backed up by some respected universal benchmarking results....... and honestly, there wasn't a lot between them, but there was an subtle difference while gaming, and the AMD rig was that little bit smoother and showed better frame rates in the specs.

Moving to a P4 rig will place you beyond your quoted budget.

Personally, I would like to hear your reports on switching to a new P4 system. But if budget is a constraint, your options are unfortunately still limited.

I will make a point: Choices 1 and 2 below are similar in cost.

Choice 1-
You get a new platform, (Intel or AMD!), more ram and retain the same graphic card.

This choice brings up a new issue, the added cost of suitable RAM. the new mainboards (both platforms) use dual channel ram architecture, which has some requirements.

The modules need to be identical for stability and they really perform best at CAS 2.0 Latency.

Dual Channel mode only works when a matched pair is installed, no more, no less. So you need to think ahead.

Your current RAM is PC3200 ie. 400mhz, which will suit either platform, but it is CAS 2.5, only good quality CAS2.5 will run at CAS 2.0, and you need a matching pair.

This means you will probably want 2 x 512mb CAS 2.0 matched RAM, which doesn't come cheap.

Choice 2-
You get new AMD cpu, ram and FX5950, (Also you have a spare video card to sell if you want.)

Choice 3- get the lot! Over budget by a longshot.

The second option is going to produce the effect you desire better than the first.

Cheers

Dont believe what you read in Toms hardware review he 110% biased to intel its so funny its not true!!!!!!!!!.

OMG! 

That's it! I'm blaming the medication! 

Sorry Paul, and Fireman LOL