Introduction In this guide, I will be taking a look at the hardware needed to game well in 06. There are exciting things happening both from the hardware point of view, as well as some new, resource-hungry games on the horizon, so this is an especially excellent time to take a look at when you should upgrade, and what that should entail. Of course the particular upgrade path you take depends on a number of features. These include the current hardware you are running, the sorts of games you like to play, and how much money you have to spend. I will try to point out which scenario is best for each of these groups as I go along. One of the most important factors in deciding when to upgrade is your video card type. For those users who are still using AGP cards (like myself!), it is very close to time for an upgrade. The newer cards are not being released in AGP compatible forms any more, so before too long you will hit an upgrade wall. For those users who have PCI-E graphics solutions, your upgrade path is probably going to be less painful to the wallet.Processor Summary The current CPU performance leader is AMD, with their socket 939 systems. I would bet that this is the most common system found among gamers as of this writing. In a couple of weeks, AMD will be launching the successor to 939, a socket referred to as AM2. Due to the imminent release date, samples of AM2 systems have been tested, and current results indicate that performance increases (over comparable 939 systems) are minimal at best. Another issue is that the migration to AM2 will require DDR2 memory in AMD systems, as opposed to the DDR memory common in todays AMD setups. In other words, it becomes very difficult to recommend a full upgrade to AM2 in the near future. The current roadmaps indicate that initial chip releases will show no speed increases over those already on the market for 939, and combined with the lack of significant real-world increases in performance make this an expensive undertaking for little immediate gain. The only reason to upgrade to AM2 would be if you place a lot of trust in AMD, and do not mind upgrading your processor in a year or two (and possibly your motherboard as well). A better solution, for those who are in dire need of an upgrade, is to go with a PCI-E capable 939 system either now, or after AM2 is released. It may be possible to find good deals on used 939 parts after the release of AM2, or it may not, depending on how it is embraced by the community. There is some debate over what retail prices on 939 parts will do after AM2 releases, as AMD could lower them to get rid of stock, or raise them in an attempt to move people to AM2. My advice: if you have a system that can make it for a few more months, nurse it along for a bit. We will see why in the next section. The reason to hold off on the upgrades for as long as possible is the highly hyped "Core" microarchitecture (aka "Conroe", for the desktop versions of the compatible processors) from Intel. For the last couple of years, AMD chips have laid the smack-down on anything Intel has put out, and combined with their generally lower prices, have given them significant market share among gamers. Preliminary results indicate that this could change dramatically with Conroe. These chips are scheduled to be released in Q4 of this year, which is nice because it means you have time to start saving some scratch to give yourself a nice Christmas present. Intel has gone back to the drawing board a bit with Conroe, and early, limited results have shown remarkable results. In tests supervised by Intel, a 2.66 GHz Conroe chip beat an overclocked FX-60 from AMD handily. Unfortunately, Intel has yet to broadly release this system to reviewers, so all results must be taken with a big grain of salt. Regardless, the preliminary results are a good reason to at least wait for more concrete information once these chips start getting to reviewers. If the early data holds up, then this system looks like it will be the reigning performance champion for some time. It is obvious that AMD will not be able to retake the crown until they start cramming more cores onto a single chip, and the benefits to games from multiple-core processors is not as great as it is for other applications. Whew, that is a pretty big hit to the wallet right there! If you need an upgrade within the next year, it will be more than likely necessary to shell out for a new processor and motherboard, and also some DDR2 memory. If you still got IDE drives in your main rig, you might as well thing about switching those over to SATA as well. The next obvious question is "what about my video card". Lets take a look at the upcoming offerings from ATI and nVidia next.   Summary: If you absolutely gotta have AMD, gotta have it soon, go with AM2 or a well-outfitted 939 system. Otherwise, hold off for Conroe.  Video Cards First of all, if you have not figured it out already, AGP is most definitely on the way out. No future upgrade to a gaming machine should involve an AGP card, unless you are only trying to get your computer to limp along for a few more months, and even then it might be better to just put that money in the bank and apply it to your next purchase.   Today video cards are actually quite good. The top of the line cards from both nVidia and ATI are able to run just about every game available at playable FPS with a resolution greater than that of the standard (19") LCD. As always, of course, game developers are working on new products that will bring these cards to their knees crying, however.   Oblivion is on the market today, and has a ton of eye-candy that makes most video cards weep. In order to get good frame rates on a 19" LCD with all the goodies turned on, you probably need at least one (and maybe two) high-end cards. This game scales well, however, and looks great even on lower-end hardware. Hopefully the prices of the upper echelon cards will start to drop soon, making them more feasible candidates for an upgrade.   Another highly-anticipated game arrival is Battlefield 2142, the next installment in the popular series. Not much is known about the hardware requirements for this release, but if it is anything like the previous BF games, it will be a memory hog. I have not spoken too much about memory, and here is why. Presumably after the transition to AM2, the majority of users will be using DDR2 memory. Right now, the prices for DDR2 are not too bad, but the speeds are not that great either. The consensus opinion is that prices should start going down and speed should start increasing soon, probably around the release of AM2. Whatever happens with RAM, it is becoming apparent that a serious gamer should have 2 GB of it in their machine, especially if you like memory eating games. 1 GB might do for the time being, however, and the nice thing about RAM is that it is one of the easiest things in your system to upgrade. The concern might be if you buy slow sticks now, you will be limited by them later. I recommend holding off on making a decision on a memory upgrade until some other pieces fall into place. A current 2x1GB kit of DDR2-800 from Newegg goes for about $250, so budget $200-$225, and watch for the prices to drop. Another game that has a good chance to put the hurt to your system is Crysis, a new game from the makers of FarCry. Check out the forums for some screenshots and discussion of this game. Here we need to take a little deviation to talk about Windows Vista. This will bring DirectX 10 to the consumer, meaning new advances in graphics capabilities (including the ability to run multiple 3D applications at the same time), but also more constraints on the guys who make the cards. Whether this will be a good thing or not remains to be seen. Regardless, no cards supporting DirectX 10 are currently on the market. It is reasonable to expect that these cards will be available shortly before the release of Vista. The performance of these products will have to be evaluated at that time. As it stands today, there are some great cards out there. The X1900 from ATI and 7900 from nVidia can take almost whatever you can throw at them. It is inevitable that these cards will drop in price as new models are introduced, and I would imagine that these cards (as well as the models directly below them) will remain very capable for some time. This is because lately GPU development has been outpacing resource demands by games. In other words, these cards have a bit of "overhead" right now for the average gamer, which will be filled in as more intensive games are released.   Conclusions: In summary, there are big things happening in computer hardware these days. The gamer looking to maximize their purchasing dollar owes it to themselves to hold off on upgrading at least until more concrete results from Conroe are released. In the meantime, keep an eye out for good GPU deals, and look for the prices of DDR2 memory to start coming down. Once the full potentials of Conroe and AM2 are revealed (hopefully in a few months), then it will most likely be a prime time for upgrading your system to be able to handle the next generation of games. At least until next year... Have an opinion on this article? Take it to the forums.