7600GS AGP for a Pentium 4 1.8Ghz ?

[imported_ToySoldier]

My buddy wants to spend $130 on a "Silent" 7600GS AGP for his P4 Willamette 1.8Ghz. I'm thinking he would be better off saving his money and just getting a 6200 (256MB) for $40 off Ebay.

Can his old P4 even utilize a 7600GS? He has 1GB Rambus (pc800)... if that even make's a difference. Right now he's using an old GEFORCE 4 TI 4200 AGP - 64MB.

 

[akshayt]

1.8GHz willametter performs close to a P3 1-1.2GHz. I myself owned a P4 1.7GHz with 256MB SD RAM and a 128MB Radeon 9800Pro. Yet UT03 didn't run smooth even at 800x600.

 

[Noema]

Mmh. Those Williamettes are slow.

Does he want it for gaming? If so, what games does he intend to play with it?

If that's the case, I would recommend telling your friend that you can get a Core Duo 2 e6300+Mobo for about $250 and a 7600GS PCI-E for less than $100. That would run in circles around what he has now. Otherwise the 7600GS would be a waste with his Williamette.

If he doesn't want it for gaming, this 6600 will more than fullfill his needs.

 

[akshayt]

I forgot one thing. That CPU doesn't meet even the minimum requirements of games of 2005. Today we need 1.5-2.2GHz but that I think is for a northwood. A 2GHz willamette won't compare to anything over a 1.2-1.4GHz northwood at best, so there is no hope of playing games newer than 2002/2003 which too will run crap irrespective of your GPU.

Buy a new CPU, buy a GPU with what is left.

 

[Vinnybcfc]

Originally posted by: Noema
Mmh. Those Williamettes are slow.

Does he want it for gaming? If so, what games does he intend to play with it?

If that's the case, I would recommend telling your friend that you can get a Core Duo 2 e6300+Mobo for about $250 and a 7600GS PCI-E for less than $100. That would run in circles around what he has now. Otherwise the 7600GS would be a waste with his Williamette.

If he doesn't want it for gaming, this 6600 will more than fullfill his needs.

One problem with that: New ram is needed as well; although the old Rambus is still worth quite a bit