AGP: GeForce 6800GT to Radeon X800GTO worth cash?

[Newad]

Hi all,

Promise to do some reading after I post this and answer my own question if I find a solution.

I am not ready for a PCIe upgrade yet -$! ...and I have done some reading (hours I think!) and it seems like the Radeon X800GTO is the smartest solution - but it it much of an upgrade to what I have? My video card is a BFG GeForce 6800GT currently. The 7800GS isnt worth the asking price imo. Am I going to get $160.00 worth of performance increase?

I do game alot ...the guys on the Battlefield 2 community are starting to annoy me! Haha ...my system cant keep up with an increasing number of players ..my broadband is business class and very quick so it isnt that. I think the best part in my sytem is the RAM. ....so.... I have no idea how I manage to best players as often as I do but I KNOW when I'm up against SLI now ...lol. On BF2 I manage to place 2nd on my team from time to time. I can barely play GRAW though.

Anyway... is the Radeon X800GTO a worthwhile upgrade to my BFG GeForce 6800GT? It's not alot of money really but I havent tried OC'ing this GeForce more.

Thanks

 

[v8envy]

Take a look at http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=356&card2=368

You can probably find more or less comprable benchmarks, but it looks like your expected performance improvement is < 10% for the $160 upgrade. Worth it? I don't think so.

Your best bet is to try and unlock the last quad on your 6800GSA, making it a 16 pipe card. And then overclocking it.

Sorry to say, but the X850XTPE and 7800GS are as good as it gets in the AGP world. You'll have to lay out some bank if you want to cling to AGP.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: v8envy

Your best bet is to try and unlock the last quad on your 6800GSA, making it a 16 pipe card. And then overclocking it.

6800GT already has full 16 pipelines making it faster than X800GTO. The only thing you can do is overclock it, but it's doubtful that would make any difference. Your best bet is to start saving up for DDRII, dual core, PCIe system in the meantime while this rig ages and not waste any more $ on AGP.

 

[Cruise51]

The x800gto is actually not much different from your 6800gt performance wise. 7800gs isn't either. Try overclocking your video card and cpu. Your system doesn't have any major draw-backs, if you still want more peformance you might just have to build a whole new machine.

 

[JBT]

The X800GTO would be a gamble. It might not OC or unlock so it might even be a downgrade.... While if it did OC + unlock it would only be marginally faster than what you've got. So pretty much your left with just OCing your card to Ultra levels. Its not going to make a huge difference but you WILL notice a few more FPS esspecially when they really dip low.
I think a CPU upgrade would actually help you a bit. Most of the time it doesn't but I noticed quick a large leap from Athlon XP to a socket 754 A64. when I made the jump.

But in the end I would say save up and do a major over haul. Alot of people would be interested in your stuff on the FSFT forums so you can coupe some of your costs there.

 

[Newad]

EDIT: I moved this to General Hardware as a new topic. Thank you.
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=27&threadid=1858957


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I like the silent chipset cooling.
The onboard sound is weaker than the MSI K8N Audigy 2 (probably)
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No MSI - too many complaints about customer support (as in nonexistant)
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Biostar - would have to research more.
Gigabyte - seem to be always lacking somewhere.
Epox - same as Gigabyte

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Recomendations on Mainboards for this processor mentioned below Or with a recommended processor - interactively appreciated!

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link: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819103596

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148 in case I get a chip that won't overclock well ..I'm not going picking fabs anymore because that's too much hassle to me anymore and less fun that it used to be. I expect I can get at least another 200Mhz from this at least and reaching the 2.4Ghz I'd like (personal obervation from hours of reading that this is a minimum to get the most from your higher end video cards when gaming).
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I do multi task and do more things than PC game such as transcode video for digitized movies but I don't need to run a virus scan while playing Battlefield 2 (shoot me) additionaly I have another two computers here and a wireless network to offload that work to while I Play.
4 computers a Quad Core? Hehe

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4.) A GeForce 7900GTX (512MB) but only 1 for now.

+$480.00
-$220.00
*$270.00

I hope to find an OEM for about $435.00 soon or even less as prices are dropping and dropping steadily (why I don't know)

*At my place are two perfectly healthy BFG 6800GT's. I have two Abit NF7-S Rev.2 systems so company can game w/me.
I'll sell one but I collect these cards ..please don't ask why. I still have the last VooDoo made ..that 5500 or something and it was never used. Selling one card soon on Anandtech in these forums. It's a great card really.

-$110.00 (approximate!! asking price maybe more or less but hypothetical) Btw you get the lifetime warranty possibly.

I'm selling one of my Bartons also. I never went into overclocking either ebyond what I could do in the BIOS but they are unlockable somehow so I'll keep one. Theyre the 3200+ and a 2700+ I believe. Which I should keep I don't know yet.

-$100.00 (same as above, approximate)

$270.00




$820.00 PCIe/64 upgrade price.

Migrate my RAM and all else in my signature. Does all this seem logical to you techies?
Let me know please.
Critical comments welcome - I don't meant to start brand loyalty debates though.


Screw the ATI x800 series upgrade.

 

[hooflung]

Their is a AGP NV71 based 7800GS that has the full 20 pipe but it is rare and cost as much as a 7900GTX I think. Worth it? Your mileage may vary but I don't think these current PCIe cards could saturate even the AGP bus so if you have good ram and a good CPU that could take advantage of the NV71 then yes it could breath life into your PC for another year atleast imo.

The Gainward BLISS 7800GS+ is the card I am refering too and its a MONSTER @ 512MB of GDDR3 and full 20 pipes of the PCIe GT brother.

http://www.gainward.net/products/product.php?products_id=48

 

[webdev511]

If you're married to your AGP system and don't plan on upgrading it for AT LEAST a year, then the BLISS is the only way to go.

I too have a 6800GT, but with AM2 coming out and few if any new AGP cards on the horizon, I'm just going to stick with what I've got for now. Yes it won't be a bleeding edge system, but I'd rather have other people do the field beta testing on the AM2's and give ATI and NVIDIA some time to introduce thier next gen GPU's. Skip a generation (and it's refresh). That way you'll have the money and an old enough rig to really justify your next upgrade.

 

[shortylickens]

My opinion (and it is just that) is you need to bite the bullet and go for PCIe. I didnt like making the change either, but I'm on a whole new platform and now I have room to upgrade. The AGP 7800GS or X800 isnt so much faster that you'll think you got your money worth. You can get a cheaper PCIe card thats also faster.

AGP is dead, so far as the market is concerned. I do agree that its difficult to saturate the bandwidth but the manufacturers are moving up in the world and the end user needs to as well.

As for all you guys who got big boners for the pipelines let me explain something:
You cant see pipelines. You can see framerates. That is the purpose of 3D accelerators. To render an image so quickly that it look like movement.
If you check out the reviews and benchmarks here on Anandtech you'll see the X800 of all varieties consistantly beats the 6800 of an equivalent price (or class if you prefer), regardless of pixel pipelines. Thats only one part of the 3D acceleration process.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

X800GTO and 6800GT? I don't have benches to prove it but I think you'd be hardpressed to notice any difference (except maybe 10 extra frames in Doom3/HL-2 depending on the card).
And a 6800GT oughta play Battlefield 2 pretty damn fine....unless of course, you are gaming at ur LCD's native 1920x1200 res....
I would say no to any AGP upgrades and save money for a new rig maybe later this (or next) year....
It's what I'm doing.

 

[nataku00]

I decided to get an X800GTO to replace my current 9800pro. I only play WoW currently and my rig's specs can handle it fine, but I was willing to drop another $140 on my last AGP card to extend it's life at least another 6 months. From what I've read about the X800GTO, it's a big step up from say a 9800pro, but it is pretty much a sidegrade to a 6800GT for most uses. If I were you, I'd stick with the 6800GT you already have until you're ready to build a new system.

I'm in a similar boat and biding as much time before building a new rig for myself. The deals for opteron 165 processors this past week almost made me bite the bullet though...

 

[Newad]

EDIT: I moved this to General Hardware as a new topic. Thank you!

I'm making the change for what looks like as little as $590.00 so far.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=27&threadid=1858957

 

[aatf510]

I would say 2GB of ram is going to help you much more in BF2 then going for a x800GTO.

 

[Newad]

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail
$219.00

Good stuff? Looks like it is.

...I think youre right. That and another 256Mb Vid RAM for textures.

 

[aatf510]

Originally posted by: Newad
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail
$219.00

Good stuff? Looks like it is.

...I think youre right. That and another 256Mb Vid RAM for textures.

2 x 1GB DDR CAS 2

This is a much better deal.

 

[Powermoloch]

you'll be better off getting a new mobo, cpu and vid card (pci-e). You can sell of your older parts to differentiate the price.

 

[poohbear]

or u can buy the asrock dualsata2 and keep your agp card for a few more months then upgrade later on. for $80, it's cheap as hell. they finally removed the 274htt cap w/ their latest bios so u can get some decent overclocks now. u might have to do a simple vcore mod which will give u a higher vcore. asrock will also provide an am2 socket so u dont hafta buy a new mobo if u want to upgrade.

 

[hooflung]

Originally posted by: poohbear
or u can buy the asrock dualsata2 and keep your agp card for a few more months then upgrade later on. for $80, it's cheap as hell. they finally removed the 274htt cap w/ their latest bios so u can get some decent overclocks now. u might have to do a simple vcore mod which will give u a higher vcore. asrock will also provide an am2 socket so u dont hafta buy a new mobo if u want to upgrade.

The ASRock 939 Dual SATA II is probably my favorite board on teh market. Its simply fantastic.

 

[Newad]

I'm just doing the ... total upgrade. Anyway (lol) I now need to descide what 7900GTX to get and it must be a GTX. Any really good Round-Ups with benchmarks etc done that you guys know about? Something reliable. I like Leadtek because of thier tech support and good build quality. I do not buy Asus products as you never know when you'll need tech support and that have zilch. BFG is awesome but who needs a lifetime warranty on a piece of hardware that will be obsolete for online game competition in 2 years... beside you do pay for it. Leadtek?

I just don't know where to research but I'm looking.

 

[JBT]

ATI cards do better in BF2 BTW... Why not get an X1900XT/X instead of the GTX?

 

[Newad]

JBT, mainly heat and noise... plus my 7500 and my 8500!! Radeon experiences... I do think the IQ is better with ATI. The 7900GTX does have newer technology doesnt it? Also 24 pipes.... I have thought about it but since theyre about the same price why not get newer technology.

 

[aatf510]

Originally posted by: Newad
JBT, mainly heat and noise... plus my 7500 and my 8500!! Radeon experiences... I do think the IQ is better with ATI. The 7900GTX does have newer technology doesnt it? Also 24 pipes.... I have thought about it but since theyre about the same price why not get newer technology.

Actually I think the x1900xtx is newer technology because it has all the new extra features that is not used in today games yet, and the xtx has 48 shader processor as oppose to the 16 ROPs in the GTX. For non-SLI setup, I think it's cheaper and faster to get a xtx + a x2.

 

[Newad]

Nice point. I'll reconsider. ...and "X2"?
Hey I'm trying to catch up with all the tech. !

 

[Newad]

toattett the 7900 is benching a little bit higher in speeds right but not enough to make it debate worthy right?

 

[Newad]

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