By: Jarno Kokko Mar 07, 2008

The hardware market is changing rapidly, and our recent gaming PC article already has some slightly outdated recommendations. With the new offerings from Intel and NVIDIA, it's time for a quick update. The YouGamers Gaming PC Guide - March 2008 update.

So what's new? Intel promised to deliver new Core 2 Duo CPUs to the stores by the end of February, and they delivered - but only in small quantities. The new 45nm "Wolfdale" models are  Core 2 Duo E8200 (2.66GHz),  Core 2 Duo E8400 (3.0GHz) and  Core 2 Duo E8500 (3.16GHz). They replace existing 65nm "Conroe" models, making the old ones effectively obsolete overnight. The E8500 is the new speed grade, pushing down prices of the slower models; the only thing going against these new CPUs is their limited availability - supplies are tight and demand is huge, and in some cases retailers have shamelessly marked up their prices to profit from the demand. Also, while you can buy E8200s and E8400s today, the E8500 availability is still virtually nil.

On the video card side of things, NVIDIA pushed out the  GeForce 9600 GT at a very attractive price point around $170-180. ATI immediately parried by marking down their offerings -  Radeon HD 3850 256MB can be found at $150 while the 512MB model is fighting it out with 9600 GT 512MB at around $180. So, the war continues at the midrange level with both sides again offering suitable products.

On the high end, things look far more grim: ATI is still effectively on the sidelines, the GeForce 9800 GX2 has faced delays, and the 9800 GTX label is apparently reserved for a slight overclock of a GeForce 8800 GTS. It is now almost certain that the summer holidays will be over before we see any truly new hardware on offer at the high end.

Low budget gaming PC - "YouGamers Minimum"

The low budget system got a new video card and a slight CPU bump. The CPU swap is due to the identical prices of the Athlon 64 X2 5400+ and the 5600+. For the video card choice, we think that the new GeForce 9600 GT offers better value at the $180 price point - more 3DMarks at essentially the same price.  Radeon HD 3850 is still also a valid choice, and the 256MB model got noticeably cheaper over the past two months, but we have to make a pick and in our opinion, at this time, GeForce 9600 GT offers better value for money at this price point.

In total, the price of the parts used inched down only by $10, but the estimated 3DMark06 score went up by about 700 points as the NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT performs noticeably better than the previously recommended ATI Radeon HD 3850.

High end gaming PC - "YouGamers Recommended"

On the high end, the CPU in our recommended configuration changed to a new "Wolfdale"-based 45nm  Core 2 Duo E8400 (3.0GHz), as predicted in the original article. Note that the prices of Core 2 Duo E8x00 CPUs are fluctuating wildly due to poor availability, so it may be difficult to find one at the suggested price until Intel can ship more to the market - many stores are currently asking over $300 for the CPU. The faster Core 2 Duo E8500 (3.16GHz) is also a valid choice, if you can find one, as it's currently in extremely short supply. Additionally, the minor improvement in performance over a E8400 does not properly offset the price difference - E8400 is just better value for money.

With the new 45nm Quad Core CPUs delayed, we can't recommend getting a Quad setup at all right now - if you want one, better wait until the 45nm ones are available. The original argument also remains - estimated prices of the new models indicate that the dual core CPUs are still a better deal for gaming. Getting same single core performance (for non-multithreaded games) is just too expensive with quad cores, and multithreaded games can't max out even two cores. There just isn't a good reason to pay for four cores just for gaming today.

On the video card side of things the market feels more stagnant. The high end video card market has seen only the introduction of the  Radeon HD 3870 X2, and while it's the best offering from ATI at the high end since the days of Radeon X1950 series, the recommended video card in system remains unchanged. The reason for this is that while the new Radeon offers very good performance for its price, the performance is limited to some games that are properly supported by the drivers - if your favorite game happens to be supported, it's very fast for the price. If not, you end up gaming with a $400 Radeon HD 3870. Further driver development may improve the deal, but right now I would rather go for a faster single card - and that's still GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB.

In total, the parts of our recommended system got almost $100 cheaper. Half of that comes from the falling price of the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB, while the other half is due to the cheaper pricing of the new 45nm Core 2 Duo E8400 when compared to the older Core 2 Duo E6850. The estimated 3DMark06 score went up by about 500 points as the new CPU is measurably faster than the old 65nm models even at same clock frequency.

The Future

Breaking out our crystal ball again, on the CPU side the delayed 45nm Intel Quad Cores are coming "soon" - probably no later than April-May. Intel is really not in a hurry as their only serious competition is, well, Intel themselves with the older 65nm Quads. The case for quad core CPUs in gaming remains dubious due to the prices Intel plans to ask when introducing their new silicon. The only sensible option with the Quad Cores is to abuse one - go for a cheap model and overclock the living daylights out of it. However, that's beyond the scope of our comparison.

On the graphics front, the rest of the spring will only see the introduction of the NVIDIA GeForce 9800 line, which is strictly a re-branding of the GeForce 8800 with a slight speed bump - both use the same G92 chip. The GX2 model will stick two 8800 GTs together to mimic the Radeon HD 3870 X2, but I'm pretty sure it will be priced out of the marketplace, probably at over $500. The 9800 GTX is slightly more interesting, but as it's just a re-branded 8800 GTS with a factory overclock, the price will be the deciding factor. The rumored price of about $400 would place it in the realm of "maybe" - all depends on the final performance figures. As a side-effect, the launch of the new GeForce 9800s will result in the inevitable fire-sale of old 8800 GTX models - grabbing one on the cheap may not be a bad deal. Why? Well, the always so reliable Internet Rumors indicate that the old GTX might be able to beat the new GTX at least in some specific benchmarks. As always, information scoured from rumors - such as this analysis - should be consumed with the appropriate mountain of salt until reliable pricing and performance data from final hardware becomes available.

The first rumors about the upcoming next-generation chips from NVIDIA ("GT200") and ATI ("RV700") are already out there on the internet, but it's clear that neither will get shipped in an actual product you can buy until autumn, and it may well be Christmas before they are a real factor. No real reason to wait for one, unless you already have one of the first-generation DX10 cards in your system - in which case you really don't have any reason to upgrade just yet anyway.

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Prices and models mentioned in this article are current as of 6th of March 2008. Prices are based on data from CNET and Pricegrabber, and do not include taxes or shipping.

Comments

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	Maddog007 2008-03-07 #1 Cheers! Good read...
	bmaytum_YG 2008-03-17 #2 Good info, thanks YG. For the high-end, I would suggest the 8800GT/512MB at aprox $100 less money (~$200) than the listed 8800GTS, since most 8800GTs will easily clock up to the GTS speed with no sweat.
	bmaytum_YG 2008-03-17 #3 Good info, thanks YG. For the High-End system, I would propose the 8800GT at aprx $100 less (~$200) than the listed 8800GTS. Most 8800GTs will easliy clock up to GTS speeds no sweat.
	bmaytum_YG 2008-03-17 #4 Good info, thanks Jarno/YG. For the High-End system, I would propose the 8800GT at aprox $100 less (~$200) than the listed 8800GTS. Most 8800GTs will easliy clock up to GTS speeds no sweat.
	bmaytum_YG 2008-03-17 #5 Good info, thanks YG. For the High-End system, I would propose the 8800GT at aprox $100 less ( aprox $200) than the listed 8800GTS. Most 8800GTs will easliy clock up to GTS speeds no sweat.
	Unregistered 2008-06-15 #6 I'm basically getting the high end setup except with a 9800GTX, cause I got a sweet deal on it ;)