6800 series.

[Pugnate]

So I am trying to get a gift for my brother who has an AGP mobo. I keep switching between the X850 and the 6800Ultra.

Trouble is I can't find a 6800Ultra.

I have found a XFX 6800XT 512 MB.

Is that card worth the buy? I heard the XT series in the GF6 line wasn't good? Any thoughts?

 

[ShadowOfMyself]

Yes, its crap... get a x850 then

 

[theMan]

x850xtpe

 

[LW07]

Get the X850XT. It's faster than a 6800Ultra anyway unless you are playing a flight simulator or OpenGL game.

http://firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_radeon_x850xt_agp/default.asp

 

[Pugnate]

But the X850 doesn't have HDR or SM3.0 support. Will it make a difference in the next year or so?

 

[LW07]

The 6800Ultra will be too weak by the time SM 3 is required, and so will the X850XT. How much are you spending here? Because for how much a 6800Ultra AGP costs, you could very well be able to get a PCI-Express motherboard along with the stuff to go with it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130269
Or you could get this 7800GS that's more powerful than both a 6800Ultra and X850XT.
Don't get the overclocked models as they are more likely to arrive defective.

 

[mwmorph]

basically all games that have SM3 also have SM2 support(the only game without it is Splinter Cell Chaos Theory). There are some game that benefit from this SM3 support on the 6800ultra, but unfortunately, it is too slow to run HDR and SM3 on any of the new games like oblivion. Farcry and Splinter cell chaos theory spring to mind as the 2 major games that support it and it is really nice to have. Otherwise go for the x850. The 6800 is too slow to really take advantage of SM3 effects on new games.

 

[cmrmrc]

yep get the X850XT PE right now if you don't mind SM3.0...

X850XT PE costs like 200$CAD right now

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: LW07
The 6800Ultra will be too weak by the time SM 3 is required, and so will the X850XT. How much are you spending here? Because for how much a 6800Ultra AGP costs, you could very well be able to get a PCI-Express motherboard along with the stuff to go with it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130269
Or you could get this 7800GS that's more powerful than both a 6800Ultra and X850XT.
Don't get the overclocked models as they are more likely to arrive defective.

I'd say just get him an X1600 Pro unless you are willing to spend the cash for something like the 7800GS. Looking at Newegg, even those X850 XT cards are going for well over $200. What kind of system does he have now? Is his PSU decent enough to handle a high-end card that will require an external molex connector? Is he planning on keeping his current rig for any length of time?

 

[LW07]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102002
This X800GTO would be a good choice without spend a lot of money.
What's his current card?

 

[evolucion8]

Originally posted by: mwmorph

basically all games that have SM3 also have SM2 support(the only game without it is Splinter Cell Chaos Theory). There are some game that benefit from this SM3 support on the 6800ultra, but unfortunately, it is too slow to run HDR and SM3 on any of the new games like oblivion. Farcry and Splinter cell chaos theory spring to mind as the 2 major games that support it and it is really nice to have. Otherwise go for the x850. The 6800 is too slow to really take advantage of SM3 effects on new games.

Actually the X850 can execute more SM 2.0 instructions than the NV 40 can do with it's 3.0. And also there's a patch that enables the SM 2.0/2.0b path for Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, I think is an unsupported one, and everything looks identicall, except that the lights effect looks very slighly darker, something that is very unnoticeable.

 

[Pugnate]

Hey thanks for all the replies. I am going to pass on the bulk of my current system to him in a year so that's why I just want to give a temp. fix.

Yea I had the same thoughts about the 6800, that even though it was more future proof, it didn't have the juice to really make a difference in SM3.0 and HDR. Oblivion is a good example of that.

He has a Athlon XP 2500 with 512 MB RAM.

I will probably upp his RAM to at least 1 Gig. and will go with a X850pro at least.

I was thinking of getting him a XP 3000, but I think the performance increase won't be worth the $150.

 

[akshayt]

I would say geta 7600GT(pci e) or 6800GT/GS(agp)

7600GT is almost as fast and has sm3 and hdr as well, don't tell me that you will play games like loast coast, aoe3(very high), far cry etc without sm3/HDR

a 7600GT/6800Ultra class card can use sm3 and hdr, offcourse that there are some very power ful games that will lag, but not all games.

 

[Keysplayr]

The 6800XT is an 8 pipe card as opposed to a 6800Ultra/GT. Will be much slower than a 6800U or X850XT.

 

[hardwareking]

i'd suggest u get a geforce 7800 gs.Or to be specific,a gainward bliss 7800 gs 512mb GLH.Its actually a 7900 gt bridged to agp.So imagine the performance.
Other than that i'd say u should get a new pci-e mobo and a reasonably priced card like the 7600 gt or an x1800 gto.That'll blow away the x8xx and the 6800's.

 

[hans030390]

Well, if he gets a new mobo, he'll likely need a new CPU and such.

I'd look into the 7800gs. But...the price for a x850 is pretty good. I guess if you really think Shader model 3 is worth it, then you should go for the 7800gs. It might come in handy in future games (which the 7800gs should be powerful enough to benefit from having it) and it wouldn't hurt to have newer features...but I dunno. The x850 looks to be a lot cheaper...

I dont know...I'm actually more worried about his whole system in general. It seems a bit old, and I'm not sure it'd really get a great benefit from an newer video card...

 

[orangat]

Get the x850xt if you are stuck with agp. Its nothing short of amazing considering it still kicks ass in shader heavy games.

 

[Pugnate]

Well these days PC speed doesn't seem to make that huge of a difference.

Like I said, I just want this to be a 6-12 month fix.

Right now I have two choices. A Radeon X850 pro (which isn't VERY far off from an XT) and a 6800 Ultra.

ideas?

Oh and I am looking to spend $250 here max.

I can find a mobo for about $50. But that would leave me $200 to find a decent processor and video card.

Processor would run me another $130 which doesn't leave much for a PCI e card.

On the other hand I get him a $200 video card and he makes do for 6 months. After which I upgrade to conroe and the dx 10 card that hits the streets while he gets my current rig....

Still I am confused... my heart says spend a wee bit more and get him the new setup.

So it is down to the X850 pro or the 6800 ULTRA.

edit:

Forgot to thank everyone for their contribution. TY.

 

[Sniper82]

If $250 is all you got I say try to o/c the 2500+ if he has a decent mobo and nForce 2 chipset. It should hit near or at 3200+ speeds with little to not voltage adjustments. What motherboard does he have? Then I would see what games he likes best then choose the video card. The 6800 Ultra will run games like Quake 4,Doom III,ect much better than the X850 Pro. But if he like HL2,Counter Strike Source,ect then the X850 is the way to go. I even heard Obilvion runs better on ATI. But like you said no HDR which looks nice. If it was me I would go 6800 Ultra though because HDR does look nice IMO but thats me.

Also 1gb memory is a must or you will be wasting your money on the video card.

 

[JAG87]

you are no dumbass, so you should be able to do this quite easily.

- Get a very good heatsink for socket A
- Get some Arctic Silver 5
- Get another 512 MB of whatever ram he has
- Get an X850 Pro VIVO


After you become 250 dollars lighter,

- Install the new heatsink
- Overclock his 2500+ to 3200+ (2.2 ghz)
- Install the RAM
- Install the X850 PRO VIVO
- Flash the video card to X850 XT PE


If you dont know how to do any of these steps, please USE GOOGLE. There are plenty of step by step guides out there.

 

[Sniper82]

Originally posted by: JAG87
you are no dumbass, so you should be able to do this quite easily.

- Get a very good heatsink for socket A
- Get some Arctic Silver 5
- Get another 512 MB of whatever ram he has
- Get an X850 Pro VIVO


After you become 250 dollars lighter,

- Install the new heatsink
- Overclock his 2500+ to 3200+ (2.2 ghz)
- Install the RAM
- Install the X850 PRO VIVO
- Flash the video card to X850 XT PE


If you dont know how to do any of these steps, please USE GOOGLE. There are plenty of step by step guides out there.

if thats a 2500+ Barton and a good core/stepping he could probably save $15-$25 for a cooler and use stock. Just depends on how much he would have to up the voltage.