How much better is a 7600GS than a 9800Pro

[HorseShoe]

Hey guys, I was just wondering if the 7600GS is better than the 9800Pro, and if it is how much better is it. I tried looking around the web for reviews but couldn't find any that was helpful so I thought I would ask you guys.

I know that I'm still on AGP and need to get on the express bandwagon, but I don't have the $$$ right now. I was just looking for a cheap upgrade that will allow me to run games like Quake Wars and BF 2142 pretty decently, nothing too spectacular.

Right now I can still manage with the 9800pro to run my games fine, but I just want to play those 2 games in particular and I doubt the 9800pro will handle it.

 

[lobbyone]

Actually a 7600GS AGP would be slower than your 9800Pro, I read somewhere that the 7600AGP just doesn't cut it, but your best bang is the 7600GT AGP from Leadtek/XFX. XFX 7600GT from Newegg! :thumbsup:

 

[happy medium]

The 7600gs is faster than the 6600gt which is faster than the 9800pro. I would also grab the 76oogt for the games you listed.

Edit: how much better? 20% not really worth upgrading

 

[HorseShoe]

Hmmm if its only 20% then I think I would rather try running those games on my 9800 first. If its really bad I would just upgrade. What about the 7800GS? How much of a performance gain would that have?

 

[lobbyone]

The 7800GS would definately give you a significant performance boost, though I couldn't give a percentage, i'm guessing around 60-80%? Someone correct me if i'm wrong

 

[lucasorion]

I just ordered a 7800gs to replace my 9800 Pro, I'm just expecting to be able to play Call of Duty 2 in better than 800x600, and also turn on these special effects I hear about in modern games.

 

[HorseShoe]

Originally posted by: lobbyone
The 7800GS would definately give you a significant performance boost, though I couldn't give a percentage, i'm guessing around 60-80%? Someone correct me if i'm wrong

Wow that sounds like a much better deal. I think I will be looking into getting a 7800GS instead.

Originally posted by: lucasorion
I just ordered a 7800gs to replace my 9800 Pro, I'm just expecting to be able to play Call of Duty 2 in better than 800x600, and also turn on these special effects I hear about in modern games.

Could you let me know how well the 7800gs does better than the 9800pro I'm really curious to find out.

 

[Auric]

Personally, I would spend a li'l bit more; saving up and/or waiting for prices to drop if necessary to get into sumfing like the X800XT or 7600GT if you expect to play @ 1280 with AA/AF (1024 wouldn't look too great @ 18" viewable). As said in 'nutha thread, there may be the possibility of finding 16 pixel pipeline X800 variant for cheaper. Avoid the 7800GS as the 7600GT has rendered it silly. lucasorion, what have you done? :Q

 

[HorseShoe]

Originally posted by: Auric
Personally, I would spend a li'l bit more; saving up and/or waiting for prices to drop if necessary to get into sumfing like the X800XT or 7600GT if you expect to play @ 1280 with AA/AF (1024 wouldn't look too great @ 18" viewable). As said in 'nutha thread, there may be the possibility of finding 16 pixel pipeline X800 variant for cheaper. Avoid the 7800GS as the 7600GT has rendered it silly. lucasorion, what have you done? :Q

What do you mean the 7600GT has rendered it silly, I was under the impression that the 7800GS was leaps and bounds better than the 7600GT.

 

[happy medium]

The 7800 is faster then the 7600gt in high resolution with aa/af enabled. Newegg has the Bfg 7800gs for 239.00$ I think with a rebate too for 30 bucks. So 209.00$ for a 7800gs is real good. The 7600gt is $180.00 for the xfx version at newegg also. The 7800gs is faster than the 6800ultra so I guess it's twice as fast as a 9800pro

Edit: I have a BFG 7800gs it's a overclocking monster.

 

[Auric]

Regard: clubic, hardwarezone, trustedreviews, xtreview

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: Auric
Regard: clubic, hardwarezone, trustedreviews, xtreview

I score 6400 in 05 3d mark with my BFG 7800gs.
These cards crave more clocks look at the diffrence when overclocked here

http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?id=2031&cid=3&pg=9

That msi 7800gs they have is junk 375 core, 1250 memory>The BFG comes 400, 1350 out of the box and overclocks even more! Mine will play games at 505 core 1440 memory. Even at 450,1400 it'll beat any 7600gt handly


EDIT: Lucasorion @ Hoseshoe I just ran the Call of duty 2 demo at 32 to 45 fps at 1280x1024 all settings maxed no aa/af. The retail game will usually run faster.

 

[Auric]

Ah so, but the MSI 7800GS faired better with more of an OC (470/1380 -and in any case closer to your BFG) vs the Leadtek 7600GT with virtually no OC (560/1400 to 580/1440). My 7600GT auto-OC is 614/1635 and nets 6500 3DM05 with P3600. I have not tried manual OC but it's reasonable to assume higher is possible. The higher frequencies plus the greater efficiency easily make up the difference in the memory bus. I just don't see any advantage to the 7800GS; indeed the 7600GT is cheaper, smaller, cooler, quieter, lower power consuming and has more PureVideo functions. Even if there was a minor performance advantage (which I cannot concede with given info) it can't be enough to warrant the 20% higher cost of even the cheapest post-rebate model.

 

[Operandi]

I went from a 9800 (non pro) to a x800GTO and I found the improvement to be pretty substantial. CoD2 would run a bit slow in certain spots under DX 9.0 mode; with the x800 I run in DX9 at a higher res along with AA enabled at FPS.

You can see the rest of my system in my sig.

 

[HorseShoe]

Originally posted by: Auric
Ah so, but the MSI 7800GS faired better with more of an OC (470/1380 -and in any case closer to your BFG) vs the Leadtek 7600GT with virtually no OC (560/1400 to 580/1440). My 7600GT auto-OC is 614/1635 and nets 6500 3DM05 with P3600. I have not tried manual OC but it's reasonable to assume higher is possible. The higher frequencies plus the greater efficiency easily make up the difference in the memory bus. I just don't see any advantage to the 7800GS; indeed the 7600GT is cheaper, smaller, cooler, quieter, lower power consuming and has more PureVideo functions. Even if there was a minor performance advantage (which I cannot concede with given info) it can't be enough to warrant the 20% higher cost of even the cheapest post-rebate model.

Auric did you try playing any of the latest FPS with the 7600GT? I play my games at 1280x960, 2xAA, (can't rmbr what setting for AF, the lowest I think), every other settings medium and the 9800pro seems to do fine with some spots of lag here and there the odd time.

If the 7600GT can pull off Quake Wars and BF2142 pretty smoothly at those settings I would be more than happy because I could just stretch this computers life for say another year and be able to get that DAC for my headphones that I have been craving. If the 7600GT can't do it at these settings than would the 7800GS be able to do it at higher settings because I will almost be paying 2x as much for it so I would expect a bit more out of it. But if none of these cards can do this, then I guess I have no choice but to save up and just get a new computer, but I just don't really want to do that because this one is serving me just fine for every one of my needs.

 

[lucasorion]

I got the BFG for 209 after rebate, I couldn't find any 7600gt agp cards at that point.
I'll be installing it this weekend, I'll try to remember to share my first impressions in a couple games.

 

[smthmlk]

i have both a 9800pro and a 7600GS AGP. In newer games that are shader heavy, the 7600GS keeps up pretty well, while the 9800pro falls apart. However, in slightly older games (bf2 and prior, for example) they're fairly close. 3dmark scores paint the picture pretty well:

3dmark05: 7600GS=3871; 9800PRO=2825
3dmark06: 7600GS=2067; 9800PRO=813

The 9800pro gets raped hard on 06.

I wouldn't upgrade from a 9800pro to a 7600GS AGP for any reason, period. Save cash and buy a PCI-E motherboard and a cheaper PCI-E video card.

 

[Auric]

I do play BF2 @ 1280x960 (BF2142 should be equivalent). The in-game settings are a mix of High and Medium expect for shadows: H/H/H/M/M/Off/M/2x/High with the last one or two overriden by driver settings: 2xMSAA with Gamma Correct and Transparency (SS since MS is virtually useless) and 8xAF at the mo'.

I have not settled on the driver settings yet as MP testing has been difficult with recent network issues but in any case the performance is about equivalent to my previous X800XL which I ran for a year at the same in-game settings and likewise monkeyed with combinations of AA (2xAA with Adaptive or else 4xAA) and 16xAF.

FYI, the 7600GT benches significantly higher in 3DM05 but Nvidia defaults are lower quality than ATI so since I set the Nvidia to highest quality settings it prolly equals out (alas, I did not bench the X800XL @ my game settings to allow a direct comparision).

As said, a 7600GT or X800XT should be sufficient especially if you are even marginally content with a 9800 now as the difference is huge (I had a similar "9700" OC'd previous to X800XL) but if you would consider spending more to be sure of higher performance potential then the 7800GS is certainly not a candidate but rather the forthcoming X1950 Pro.

What's this DAC and have you considered upgrading the Audigy 2 to X-Fi? That can be a relatively marginal cost difference with a significant boost in quality (via content) while maintaining performance. Fidelity-wise perhaps it would be sufficient for your AKG's too rather than the external DAC?

Are your memory timings set "looser/slower" than default (numerically higher) at a ratio less than 1:1 (4:5, not 5:4)? Or in other terms CPU 3360=14x240 & 240x1.6=384 RAM (rather than default 200x2.0=400) so should manage faster (numerically lower) timings, if anything?