Dead video card

[daftpunkit]

So my 4 year old Sapphire 9800 Pro 128MB card blew up this weekend. It was on my old Falcon Northwest desktop that I let my girlfriend play WoW on. The 9800 pro was a great card, it will be missed.

Now I am wondering if I should try to replace it again on the old PC
(Stats are: AMD Athlon 2200+ XP, 5year old 380W Enermax PSU, Asus A78NX mobo, 4/8x AGP, 1GB memory... etc) or drop at 6800 or 7800 series AGP card in it. All these cards are discontinued so I am looking at ebay, which prices are fluctuating around 35-150 (9800PRO - 7800GS respectively). Which card would be best suit that system? I am thinking the 6800 but that a power munching generation. The 7800 I am sure would be bottlenecked by the CPU but I suppose I can up the CPU on it to a 3200+ (the highest made for Socket A mobos if memory serves me right).

 

[Modular]

If you want comparable performance on a budget with some extra bells and whistles, why not go with a 6600gt? It's faster than the 9800 pro and has better features as well as the fact that it won't really be bottlenecked by your CPU. Add in the fact that it really doesn't use that much power and you've got a cheap upgrade to a great card.

 

[Arekh]

Originally posted by: Modular
If you want comparable performance on a budget with some extra bells and whistles, why not go with a 6600gt? It's faster than the 9800 pro and has better features as well as the fact that it won't really be bottlenecked by your CPU. Add in the fact that it really doesn't use that much power and you've got a cheap upgrade to a great card.

I second the recommendation. I went from a 9700 PRO, then a 9250 256MB (which held me for a little while) and then got recently a BFG 6600GT OC. It was basically a nice patch/slight boost to a system I'm looking to hold out for a bit longer while I get enough to build another. I got a slight boost from what I remember the 9700 PRO got me, kinda cheap (like $90). I'm not playing stuff on high details but it sure is holding its ground while I get something that can.