Most bang for buck upgrades?

[froogle]

Ok, my system plays the game ok, but hey it could always be better

I have an AMD 3500+ system with 1 gig ram, an a 256 meg ATI X700 PCI Express. Sound is on the motherboard (yeah I know).

Anyway, got my Best Buy reward zone vouchers through today so I'm thinking upgrades. Can anyone offer firm fact based advice related to X3 as to which would be the best upgrade route to take; options are dedicated sound card, another gig of memory, or an X800 graphics card.

[Buzzark]

I think a sound card is the only thing likely to make a difference at the moment but that should always lower the CPU usage in other gameplaying too, so is a cost effective upgrade.

I don't think you'd gain anything by throwing money (or vouchers ) at any of your other components.

Just as a reference I'm running an A64 3500, 1Gb of ram and a GF6800GT 256Mb. I can run at the lowest graphics settings, or I've tried up to 1280x1024 with everything else on (apart from AQC) and I only get a 3fps average difference between the two graphical extremes.

So try yourself and see how high you can crank the graphics on you X700 to see if it drops a lot and decide whether you'll want a graphics card, or wait until the patch is out and see where it's upto after that.

[boggle]

A64 3700
1 GB ram
GF6800GT 266mb agp 81.85 drivers
audigy 2
a8v deluxe agp 4.56 hyperion drivers

this comp runs X3 at 29-30fps with hud on and menus open.seta will drop it to 5fps but thats expected to me and i can live with it.i get around 35 fps with the hud on and 60+ with it off.either way the game is smoothly playable in combat with no stutters or jerks.im not having performance issues at all and the game is just superb but...
this ctd issue is driving me nuts as its become unplayable now due to a crash every time i try to do anything but thats being adressed in the patch so ill just wait
i would go for a soundcard for your rig which will help the game and also anything else you do on your comp that needs sound obviously.of course then you will have to go get a speaker kit for it to get the full benefit but think of all the audio pleasure you will have then

[froogle]

Looks like a soundcard is the way to go then. To be honest, I'm a bit dissapointed. I was kinda hoping you'd all say Graphics card and then I could OO and AHH over the lush new graphics etc, rather than just saying "Yeah, I know it sounds the same, but the sound is coming from a different source - good isn't it", to convince the wife that my vouchers weren't frivolously used

[Da_Imp]

I'd wait for the patch to come out before upgrading. Nothing wrong with the hardware you're currently packing. And I doubt the soundcard would make much a difference unless X3 supports the new SB soundcard and you buy that.

[StoneLegionYT]

ok cpu 1:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ / 2MB Cache / 2000MHz FSB / Socket 939 / Dual-Core / Processor with Fan (1 lbs)

or cpu2:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ / 1MB Cache / 2000MHz FSB / Socket 939 / Dual-Core / Processor with Fan

there is a 130doller diffrence canadian so like 80-90 us diffrence.

main question is is Cache that much of big thing?

[Da_Imp]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU_cache

And decide for yourself

[StoneLegionYT]

I'm dumb thats confusing lol