argh, agp vs pcie woes

[QuantumPion]

I am about to upgrade most of my machine. I was planning on getting a new nforce4 motherboard and a geforce 7800, however recent benchmarks have shown that it is only marginally faster then a 6800 ultra in real world performance. I already have a 6800 gt so I don't want to spend $600 for a moderate performance gain. The problem is that my 6800 gt is AGP. Now I am thinking of going with an nforce 3 or VIA motherboard, maybe the ASUS AV8 deluxe. I figure that by the time I am ready to upgrade to the next fastest card, like a 7800 ultra or something 6 months from now, I can just upgrade the mobo to an nforce4 one then and sell the nforce 3 board. What do you think I should do?

Here is my Newegg cart, comments would be appreciated.

p.s. the only thing that will carry over from my old machine will be the 6800 gt and my audigy 2. I'm giving the rest of the parts to my little brother as a birthday present.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

If you already have a very respectably AGP board (which you do), I think you have a good plan to keep it and change over to PCI-e later on.

 

[jpeyton]

Try this motherboard instead. 939-Pin, AGP, NF3 Ultra...great overclocking motherboard too.

I would evaluate your video card options at the end of the year. Nvidia might not release a AGP 7800, but ATI sounds like they are willing to release AGP R520-based cards.

The other option is to sell your 6800GT AGP, and buy a 6800GT PCIE with the funds you get.

 

[QuantumPion]

I kind of wanted a motherboard with a passive chipset heatsink, and I don't really care about overclocking. Given that, how do the VIA and nforce3 chipsets compare in terms of performance?

 

[PerfeK]

Originally posted by: QuantumPionit is only marginally faster then a 6800 ultra in real world performance.

In stressful situations, it is up to 3 times faster. Here are some charts.

http://img11.echo.cx/img11/729/77650gp.png
http://img199.echo.cx/img199/8103/77630py.png
http://img274.echo.cx/img274/3223/77447uj.png

The 7800GTX is around 2.74 times faster than the 6800Ultra at high resolutions.

Originally posted by: QuantumPion
I kind of wanted a motherboard with a passive chipset heatsink, and I don't really care about overclocking. Given that, how do the VIA and nforce3 chipsets compare in terms of performance?

Just buy a $10 northbridge sink for your mobo.

 

[QuantumPion]

Uh, I don't play games at 2048x1536 res... 😛

anyway, what do you think of my newegg list?

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: QuantumPion
Uh, I don't play games at 2048x1536 res... 😛

anyway, what do you think of my newegg list?

You have a crappy VIA-chipset based motherboard in your cart, when for only slightly more money you can get the DFI NForce based one instead.

 

[QuantumPion]

What makes the DFI one (which doesn't have any reviews on newegg) so much better then the ASUS one?

btw I have a DFI 875p motherboard now, which I like. I am just curious about the difference between the nforce3 and via chipsets.

 

[aatf510]

Not saying that ASUS is a bad company, I had been using their mobo since the 486 age, but the A8V-Deluxe was a nightmere for me.
Also, I kind of lean toward the nf3 chipset. Performance-wise, they are very close, but feature-wise, I would take the nf3 anyway.
Benchmark taken @ 2048x1536 is kind of unrealistic IMO.

 

[PerfeK]

Originally posted by: QuantumPion
Uh, I don't play games at 2048x1536 res... 😛

anyway, what do you think of my newegg list?

But the 7800GTX will start to do that to the 6800U more often as new games come out. That kind of performance will carry over to 1280x1024 before the years end.

 

[QuantumPion]

Ya and by years end, I bet the cost of the new video card and the cost of upgrading mainboard will be less then that 7800 monster 🙂

okay, how is my cart now? I think I'm ready to buy, I want to get the stuff in for the long weekend. 😀