Quick suggestion...new PC or small upgrade?

[Narbie]

Currently running an Athlon 64 3000+, 1GB Corsair XMS and a 6800 GTX. FFXI runs decent, but it seems the FPS drop pretty bad sometimes in Dyna or heavy-crowded shit which is annoying, but playable. I used to be able to dual-box, even tri-box with my old ATI 9700 Pro, but this vid card which is supposed to be better can't even dual-box...it's really odd but in certain zones or with certain chars one window will drop to 2 - 5 FPS while the other (and always the same char) will stay at 15+.

It's really annoying, and yes I play with pretty high Mogtoolz settings, but even if I lower them to shit I still lag...so I'm at the point where I need a drastic upgrade (I think). Unfortunately, I have an Abit AV8 so PCI-express cards are out of the question, so I saw this AGP puppy which seems to be the best AGP card.

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100228L Radeon HD 3850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X HDCP Ready Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Now, I'm not sure if I should cough up 180~ bucks for 2GB of RAM (I still use XP on my PC) and that vid card, or just get a new PC (money's really tight right now, so I'd rather not). What do you guys think? Is there a huge bottleneck in my CPU...so big that it'd be best to just buy a new system (probably something around 600 bucks) or just get a small decent upgrade until maybe some new CPUs and shit come out next year?

Please guys, some suggestions would be nice . Thx :D

[Shuemue]

Personally I'd suggest saving that $180 and putting a bit aside for a few months until you have $500-600+ and then build a new machine. There are some really sweet parts available currently, that'll only come down in price. If your PC were actually broken I might think differently, but I'd suck it up for now.

[Isiolia]

I would try some different drivers n' stuff with that card. I had a vanilla 6800 back in the day, and it should be solid for what you're using it with.

I'd say to wait and upgrade a bit. I mean, RAM, you can probably get for $20-30, so that might be worth doing for the meantime...but video card, eh, I'd save for later. Your card (performing as it ought) is well mated to your CPU.

[Narbie]

Thx for the suggestions .

Any idea where I can get some new drivers? Currently using the newest from Nvidia ;/.

[Calina]

Thx for the suggestions .

Any idea where I can get some new drivers? Currently using the newest from Nvidia ;/.

guru3d.com

get all the latest drivers there