6800GT or 6800Ultra (AGP)

[ezdriver]

I currently have the GT in my rig, and it's starting to show it's age a little bit in a few games. I was told that a 6800Ultra would make a big difference in my games, and since I have an AGP-based motherboard, that's about as far as I could take it without a complete system overhaul. I can get a 6800U at a decent price, but was wondering if it would even be worth the price and effort.

ez

 

[Super56K]

Have you tried overclocking your 6800gt? A 6800 ultra is the same card, but clocked at 500/1100 vs. the 450/1000 of the gt.

whoops, my bad. That's 350 and 400 on the cores.

Here's a link to some benching of the cards: here

 

[Snakexor]

or the gt is @ 350/1000 and the ultra is 400/1100.......gg

 

[orangat]

A 6800ultra won't be a huge difference. In fact the difference is small.

 

[Powermoloch]

grab the 6800gt instead, might save you some bucks

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I think it would be a better idea to get a new motherboard and get a $450-ish 7800gt than to spend more money on a higher end AGP card if you already have a 6800gt.

Look at benchmarks of the 6800gt vs 6800ultra in the video area. Nothing profound.

If you can get a great deal and the upgrade ends up not costing much, then maybe.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Yeah...there's nothing in AGP that's going to get you a noticeable performance boost over your 6800GT (I have one and I'm in the same situation right now).

 

[theMan]

get an x850xtpe.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Not sure there's much he could upgrade too. As "The Man" suggested, perhaps a Radeon x850xt-pe would do it but whether or not it would be worth the money for a small upgrade like that is questionable. Well, maybe he could sell the 6800 GT, get $150-200, and then buy an x850xt-pe but it sill might not be worth it.

Unfortunately you've been schnike'ed by the video card industry pushing PCI-E over on us. Your system might be perfectly functional and very fast but the AGP card upgrade you'd want and need is just going to be unavailable.

What CPU socket do you have right now? Maybe it would make economic sense to just get a new motherboard with a PCI-E slot and move to PCI-E.

 

[Nextman916]

I have a 6800 ultra agp you wont see a difference. Just OC your card to ultra speeds like most people have done.

 

[RampantAndroid]

6800GT + Zalman VF700 CU heatsink = Ultra overclock speeds.

 

[ezdriver]

Thanks for the input everyone! In reply to WhipperSnapper: I have a Socket 939 motherboard coupled with the 3500+. On the whole, it's a VERY fast and stable system and I hate to change a good thing. On the other side of that coin, I also see where it's nearing the point that an upgrade is the only way to keep up with the software that's coming out. I'll just try and stick it out a little bit longer.

ez

 

[sundev]

I agree with YOyoYOhowsDAjello (wow I should have copied/pasted instead of typing that out).
If you look around on NewEgg, you can get a 7800GT for around $350. I would imagine that's not much more than a 6800U. You would have to upgrade your motherboard, but you'd have to do that eventually anyways...

 

[CalvinHobbes]

You could also do the EVGA bundle with the 7800GT and an NF4 board. I think it's $350 for both, although I don't how good the mobo is.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: sundevb
I agree with YOyoYOhowsDAjello (wow I should have copied/pasted instead of typing that out).
If you look around on NewEgg, you can get a 7800GT for around $350. I would imagine that's not much more than a 6800U. You would have to upgrade your motherboard, but you'd have to do that eventually anyways...

You can shorten my name if you want

jello
yoyoyo
dajello
soundman

etc.

 

[sundev]

You can shorten my name if you want

jello
yoyoyo
dajello
soundman

etc.

I will keep that in mind.

 

[TheoPetro]

in responce to the "get the mobo vidcard combo" i read anad's review but also heard that the bord was a bad overclocker and there were alot of problems with it. what would a 6800GT @Ultra AGP fetch now? i looked at some on newegg and there still pretty expencive (im looking to sell mine. in the same boat as OP)

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally posted by: ezdriver
Thanks for the input everyone! In reply to WhipperSnapper: I have a Socket 939 motherboard coupled with the 3500+. On the whole, it's a VERY fast and stable system and I hate to change a good thing. On the other side of that coin, I also see where it's nearing the point that an upgrade is the only way to keep up with the software that's coming out. I'll just try and stick it out a little bit longer.

Wow. You're situation doesn't look bad at all. All you need is a new motherboard and you're good to to with the PCI-E cards. That's much more preferable than having to get both a new mobo and CPU in order to upgrade the video card. You can kick back and wait for a deal on your target motherboard and videocard and then auction off your current mobo and the 6800 GT.