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New card worth it?

Associate
Joined
26 Oct 2005
Posts
15
I currently run a Radeon 9800 Pro but want to get a good performance boost without having to change to a PCI-E motherboard as current one is AGP (Gigabyte GA-7VA). Would this be possible if I only spent £100-£150? and what cards would you all recommend as I find the cards on the market a minefield!
As long as the new one keeps me going 1 1/2 - 2 years till I can afford to build a new tower using a PCI-E mobo as I looked in to that and it would mean new memory, harddrive, GFX Card etc etc lol.
Thanx in advance
BizArrE
 
Soldato
Joined
28 Nov 2005
Posts
12,970
hmm ok, you will also need a new cpu if you change to pci e

your cpu is a socket A cpu

your best bet is to buy a pci-e motherboard that is socket 939...

this may put a dent in your plans? :S
 
Soldato
Joined
28 Nov 2005
Posts
12,970
ahh.. read your post again..

ok, so you cant go pci e yet

but you still want agp...

id say for £150.. sticking with ati... something like a PowerColor ATI Radeon X800 GTO 256MB (AGP)... that should do ok, definitely a boost from 9800
 
Associate
OP
Joined
26 Oct 2005
Posts
15
I have posted in other forums to and they are saying about the Geforce 6800GS
Which would you say is better of the two cards and if it is the 6800 does it warrant the extra £25?
Thanks Bizarre
 
Associate
OP
Joined
26 Oct 2005
Posts
15
Right I have decided to go down the X800 route and am looking at spending a little more possibly but looking for some last advice?
The one I am looking at at the moment is thePowerColor ATI Radeon X800 GTO which would be a nice step up.
However there is also the following two which are 16 pipelines and the latter has more memory etc :-
1. HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X800 XL ICEQII 256MB
2. PowerColor ATI Radeon X850 XT 256MB
What I am wondering is if I were to pick either XL or the XT would they be held back by my system and not be able to run at full capacity?

Gigabyte GA-7VA KT400A
AMD Athlon 3200+
Crucial 512mb PC3200 X2 sticks
Maxtor 120GB 7200rpm
Gigabyte 9800 Pro
SB X-Fi XtremeMusic

as this will be the last system it is used in as next step when it all is tired will be new tower with PCI-E.
Please help as I dont wanna spend money pointlessly.
The following is a link to a site which has specs for all three cards.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/X800_Series.html
Thanx in advance
SK8
ps Didnt ignore the 6800gs Lemon but apparantly the agp spec aint as good as the PCI-E version and having a prob finding one too
 
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Soldato
Joined
19 Aug 2005
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4,103
Location
Ealing, London
It'll make a noticeable difference coming from the 9800pro admittedly, but you're not going to get massive benefits from that upgrade, as the rest of your system becomes the bottleneck, I'd at least get another 512meg of RAM to help it along. :)
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Aug 2005
Posts
4,297
SK8-BizArrE said:


AMD's next socket.
You would need, new mobo & processor too.

Personally i would go for the PowerColor ATI Radeon X850 XT 256MB.
Your current XP wouldnt hold it back & it would give you a great performance boost. But do get another 512MB ram if you can also.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
26 Oct 2005
Posts
15
7800GS could change decision!

Hold your horses!!!!!!
Just found out a Nvidia 7800GS is going to be available.
Seems like a better idea to me shader 3 for a start!
What do you think?
Cheers
SK8
 
Caporegime
Joined
8 Jul 2003
Posts
30,062
Location
In a house
Would be a great card, but its going to be about £250, so if you can stretch then that would be ideal, it fits between the 6800 GS, and 7800 GT, so performance wise it'll be top notch, and a huge boost from the 9800pro. :)

Due sometime in February, so not long to go.
 
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Associate
Joined
21 Jul 2005
Posts
706
Location
London
I was in the same boat as you, running a NorthWood 3.2 and 2GB of Ram, upgraded from 9800 Pro (lasted for over 2 years) to 6800 GT (died after only 5 months) then replaced by HIS Excalibur X800XL 256MB. It is a HUGE improvement in term of game playing, you should go for the X800XL anything below that don't bother to upgrade as it's not worth it.
6800GT is a little bit faster than X800XL but just a little bit ;)
 
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