ok so right now my rig consists of an

asus a8v-e deluxe socket 939

athlon 64 x2 4200+ 2.2ghz

ati x800xl

1gb of ddr

antec 350 psu

i dont have enough money to upgrade everything at the same time so i was wondering should i buy a hd4850 or upgrade my mobo, ram and psu and keep my video card. im just wondering which upgrade will give me better fps in games mainly css, dods, and other older games.

Well that's a pretty old rig. To answer your question, a video card would have a greater impact on fps in games. The problem is the psu, 'cause i'm not sure it would hold a 4850. I'm guessing it's the Basiq with 10A + 13A on the 12V rails. You could pull it off, but personally i'd buy a 3850 since you play older games (+ it's slightly less power-hungry) and get another GB of DDR. Also, a little OC on the CPU wouldn't hurt.

For an instant big gaming boost, the video card first definetly.
However, your PSU is going to an issue. As mentioned, a 3850 is big jump up form your old, tired, and way outdated X800.
What is your budget for a GPU, and a PSU? (You will have to buy the PSU not matter what you do, especially if you want something higher up the ladder than a 3850)

I have the same socket, PSU, video card and mobo memory for upgrade. For older games you don't need the latest products.

Good points by all...a budget might be of more help depending on what you can afford.

Agreed: GPU, RAM, PSU

DDR? ...are we talking AGP card?

All S939 uses DDR, I don't think it has anything to do with if the mobo has agp or PCI-e. That makes upgrading the RAM considerably more expensive. That PSU definitely will not handle a new video card worth upgrading to. It seems like it's even a close call for the x800 (what a great card that was).

I

I would personally work first in a better Videocard and PSU.

The 4850 seems to be invincible on a price/performance standpoint, so you should be good to go on this choice. Also, since it's one of the newest vc available now, you would be good for some years ahead.

If you can, go for a PSU with something equal or higher than 600W (in good brand/quality). This would also enable you to future upgrades on the remaining parts of your system.

You can try to double your RAM (2Gb would give you some significant improvement) but since you're running "old" DDR memory, I think it's not going to be as easy and as cheap as it would be with DDR2 RAM. I would only do this if I could have a sweet deal on DDR memory modules, since in a future upgrade you won't be able to keep these memory modules, unless you upgrade with products from "old" technology.

From my past experience with S939, I believe you will not use 100% of what a 4850 can do for you, but after the second upgrade you will unleash the whole power of this VCard.

It's PCI-E.

Buy a HD 4850 and a PSU. For example the StealthXStream 600W is $60 at newegg, and the 750TX is $100. Get the 750TX if you plan to upgrade the mobo/CPU and add a second video card later.

With that setup, Im tempted to say to buy a new PC. You can beat what you have quite easily, for arund $699 or less, depending. CSS and DoD are harldy taxing games, so he doesn't need or want to waste his money on a 4850.

If you get a quality PSU like the corsair 750TX and a HD4850 they'll move along into your next build. You're not just upgrading this rig, but stretching out the costs of your next system.

thanks for all the reply guys, ill be looking into it .

Yeah, I know, but typically, DDR boards were mostly in the days of AGP, PCI-e used it late in the lifespan, but has been primarily DDR2 for many years. That was the basis of my question.

I think I disagree. I'm running a 7300LE on an Athlon 5200x2 with 2 gb of ram and it's not that bad. The plan is upgrade my video card when I can, but until then, this is fine. It actually believe it not handles old games reasonably well. I even beat call of duty 4 with it, and it was decent. So I honestly think go with something else, cause the x800 may be old, but it'll still handle some stuff, and video card prices keep going down. Man on newegg, a 9600gt can be had for about 100 bucks. I don't think you'd go wrong if your playing old games.

I agree with above, grab a 4850 or 88/9800GT and a new PSU, OC your processor a little and then carry those parts over to a new machine when you make the jump.