Card Recommendation for a P4 1.8Ghz

[fantasymick]

Hi, I'm new to the forum. I have a fairly old computer and am thinking about upgrading my video card. I'm mainly concerned with the "bottleneck" issue of my computer with the newer cards out there. I'd like some suggestions. Here's my system spec:

Motherboard Name MSI MS-6507
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4A, 1800 MHz
Ram Type 512 DDR
AGP Slot 4X
Video Card Geforce2 MX400

I'm hoping to play games like Doom3 and HL2 with medium-high settings.

Thanks.

 

[Munky]

Depends how much money you're willing to spend. I'd say a 6600gt would be a great upgrade for <$200.

Edit: I can't spell today. And welcome to the forums, BTW.

 

[NightTrain]

Your CPU would easily bottleneck anything faster than a 9700/Ti4600.

 

[BobDaMenkey]

Originally posted by: NightTrain
Your CPU would easily bottleneck anything faster than a 9700/Ti4600.

I agree. You could pick up a 9600XT, and a faster proc to get medium levels of playability, but to do more than medium stuff you're going to need to shell out for something more like a 6600GT and a much faster processor.

 

[carlosd]

Nothing beyond a Radeon 9600XT, your CPU is a serious bottleneck.

 

[Munky]

What's up with all the people posting about bottlenecks? Even if his cpu is a bottleneck (which it is I'm sure), he'd still get better fps with a 6600gt than a 9600xt. If he can get a good deal on a 6600gt for around $150, then I see no reason not to get one. If it's too expensive, get a 9700pro for like $120 or a regular 6600. Video cards usually make a much bigger difference in 3D games than the cpu.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Originally posted by: munky
What's up with all the people posting about bottlenecks? Even if his cpu is a bottleneck (which it is I'm sure), he'd still get better fps with a 6600gt than a 9600xt. If he can get a good deal on a 6600gt for around $150, then I see no reason not to get one. If it's too expensive, get a 9700pro for like $120 or a regular 6600. Video cards usually make a much bigger difference in 3D games than the cpu.

But you need to have a fast CPU which can supply adequate ammounts of data to the GPU for it to run at full capacity.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Kensai

Originally posted by: munky
What's up with all the people posting about bottlenecks? Even if his cpu is a bottleneck (which it is I'm sure), he'd still get better fps with a 6600gt than a 9600xt. If he can get a good deal on a 6600gt for around $150, then I see no reason not to get one. If it's too expensive, get a 9700pro for like $120 or a regular 6600. Video cards usually make a much bigger difference in 3D games than the cpu.

But you need to have a fast CPU which can supply adequate ammounts of data to the GPU for it to run at full capacity.

But he'll have a better GPU when he decides to upgrade his CPU later on.

At $158 after rebate an AGP 6600gt is a great buy.

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: Kensai

Originally posted by: munky
What's up with all the people posting about bottlenecks? Even if his cpu is a bottleneck (which it is I'm sure), he'd still get better fps with a 6600gt than a 9600xt. If he can get a good deal on a 6600gt for around $150, then I see no reason not to get one. If it's too expensive, get a 9700pro for like $120 or a regular 6600. Video cards usually make a much bigger difference in 3D games than the cpu.

But you need to have a fast CPU which can supply adequate ammounts of data to the GPU for it to run at full capacity.

Yes, I agree on that. But a 6600gt at 80% or something capacity is still faster than a 9600xt at 100%. So if $150-160 is not too expensive for him, then a 6600gt would be a good deal, and he can keep it if he upgrades his cpu. Or, like i said, a 9700p/6600 regular if he's on a budget. As long as the card is not overkill (something like a 6800gt for >$300), then I wouldn't worry too much about the bottleneck.

 

[gobucks]

i agree, get the 6600GT for $158. It's faster and has great features (SM3.0, MPEG/WMV acceleration, etc) plus it will age much better than the 9600XT or even 9700 Pro.

 

[fantasymick]

I'm not planning to upgrade my computer in the near future. After reading this article about bottling issue:

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/action/printarticle/1757/

I think I'll go for a 9600. Thanks for all the replies.

 

[NightTrain]

Interesting article.

"When we upgrade the graphic card from a Radeon 9600XT to a Radeon X800 Pro, we see no improvement at all, clearly the processor, and the single channel memory subsystem, is the limiting factor here."

That was my exact experience as well. I ran a 9700 Pro and a P4 2.4 with Tribes Vengeance and had decent fps. I tried a 9800 Pro, 9800XT and an X800 Pro and could see very little, if any, improvement. Any of them would have been wasted money without a CPU upgrade.

 

[TStep]

P4 scaling with X800 Pro and 9800XT at firingsquad. They use a 2.0, but close enough. Alot of info that should give you an idea of what to expect with an upgrade.

 

[fstime]

6200 > 6600 mod

 

[MonkeyWrench4000]

Don't you love bottlenecks? Sometimes I wish I didnt know what I know, so i could be totally happy, smiling with some intel extreme graphics on a athon64 3500+. Wondering what I did wrong, and why the keyboard seemed to continue to turn my character left in doom3, 20seconds after i let go of the key. oh well!

Get the best video card you can afford, just because your cpu is old, doesnt mean u should settle with a dx8 card, or a slow dx9 card.
You still want all the bells and whistles, even if it runs it a little slower, right?

Whats so horrible about it all is a 1.8ghz P4 is a great cpu, until you start playing games....

Damn games!!