Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

Firstly in regards to CPU upgrades there is little difference in terms of performance between many CPU's. The real world benefit of upgrading your CPU is small in the majority of games. However the Sempron you have may cause bottlenecks during calculations. The semprons are pretty good overclockers and don't give off much heat, so I would recommend pushing it a little bit more, or go for a new CPU, your choice.

XBit Labs - Games Against CPU Article

In regards to the choice of GPU’s, definitely go for the 7900GT. The 7900 series card is based on the G71 core which has a lower thermal output due to the 90nm process. The 7800 series cards are based on the G70 core and have 130nm process, and as such they have a higher thermal output and lower overclocking potential.

If you're feeling brave then I would recommend volt modding the 7900GT with a conductive pen to 1.4 or 1.5v which will allow you to push the core/mem to approx 675/17000 (probably much higher than that). However a word of warning, this will be impossible with the stock nvidia HSF, and it is recommended to use water-cooling or other extreme cooling solution. It is possible to do this using a Zalaman vF cooler too. If however you do manage to kill the card, the conductive line can be removed with Isopropyl (sp?) alcohol; the stock cooler replaced, and sent back for RMA.

AnandTech 7900GT Volt mod guide

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

I would reccomend a new motherboard and CPU before you go for the GPU... When you do I would say the 7800 is the 1 to go for but I also would like to reccomend the X1800XT from ATI they are getting discontinued so are going cheap (£170)... and the overclock well too!

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

well by that time the dx10 cards will be out

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

Wait a month or so for DX10 cards, the 8XXX line I believe.

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

what about the ati equivelent?

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

Don't know.

ATI X2000XTXXTXZTZTX 1337 Edition :uhoh:

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

:lol: that describes their naming system quite well

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

Wont the Geforce 8 line come out near the end of the year? Or sometime in January? Since Vista aint out yet although you could use the beta tester kits.
Also i would personally go with the 7900gt, although ture ur CPU is a huge botleneck, but really the 79gt is $10-$20 or so more expensive, while at the same time faster than a 7800gtx (faster by 1fps or 2fps, not tha big) since 7800GTX is clocked at 430 core while 79GT is jst a 90nm version of 78gtx and is clocked 20mhz higher.

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

8XXX series was (or is) supposed to be released this month. I don't know though, the only thing I know of is the 7950X2 whatever it's called is coming out soon. It's basically two 7900GT's on ONE card.

Re: 7900 vs 7800
 

Yeah that one is supposed to come out this month i think.
But DX10 cards i think wont come out till at least november. Since Vista was again delayed so no point in releasing the cards.