Is there any point in upgrading my video card?

[oynaz]

Well, christmas is coming, and my old video card is chugging along. I considered upgrading it, and a new video card would make a good christmas wish. However, I am not sure there is any point in upgrading the video card in my old rig:

P4 2,4 Ghz
Microstar AGP mobo
1,5 Gb RAM
300 Gb HDD
Radeon 9800 Pro

You opinion?

 

[Blain]

If it's an AGP card, why not upgrade?
Unless you're planning a full CPU/MB/RAM upgrade... go for a good AGP card. :thumbsup:

BTW, The 9800 Pro isn't a bad card.

 

[Atheus]

Personally I would do a full upgrade or none at all. You could get an AM2 board, single core Athlon, 1GB DDR2, and a PCI-e card without spending a fortune. Then you could upgrade to C2D later (if you want) by replacing only MB and processor.

I would think the old P-4 would become your bottleneck in games if you got anything much faster than the 9800.

 

[oynaz]

Yeah, my Radeon card is still OK, and that was one of my concerns. Will a newer card be worth it? And which card would be best?

 

[Spikesoldier]

with a platform that old, my advice would be to start over.

your cpu platform is 2 architectures old, and your video card is 1 architecture old.

get something that so when you have to upgrade again it wont be a pain. like others have said, you can find a midrange solution utilizing all of today's tech for much less than you think. plus you can use many components from your old system as well.

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: oynaz
Yeah, my Radeon card is still OK, and that was one of my concerns. Will a newer card be worth it? And which card would be best?

A new card will kick the ass of the 9800, but only if it's PCI-e. They don't make the fast new kit for AGP any more, I think the best you can get is 6800GT or something, which wouldn't exactly leave a 9800 in the dust like an X1900 would...

 

[oynaz]

Thanks for your opinions, guys. Keep 'em coming

So far, it seems like I was right in having doubts.

 

[Howard]

Upgrade only if you are not satisfied.

 

[jelifah]

Originally posted by: Atheus

A new card will kick the ass of the 9800, but only if it's PCI-e. They don't make the fast new kit for AGP any more, I think the best you can get is 6800GT or something, which wouldn't exactly leave a 9800 in the dust like an X1900 would...

Good thing you're wrong... Take a gander at the results of a google search on the x1950 AGP which will be released in less than 4 weeks.

As for whether to buy an AGP card or do a full build, that all depends on your budget. With the x1950 AGP card you should be good for at least another year and probably two. But what?s most interesting to me is when you said you think your card is ?okay right now?. As Howard said, upgrade only if you are not satisfied not because the next great thing is released.

I myself recently went from a 3200+ to a Dual Core Opteron. I thought about doing a full upgrade, but that would require new RAM and a new video card and an additional $600. Instead I spent $200ish and I can face the complete rebuild task in a year or two, perhaps allowing me to skip right over DDR2 and move to DDR3. But each situation is different, for me I like to maximize the value of quality components I buy, not flip them every 6 months to a year because a benchmark shows a 25% increase in performance.

 

[oynaz]

Hmm, how much performance gain would a card in the 150$ range yield?

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: oynaz
Hmm, how much performance gain would a card in the 150$ range yield?

Are you or are you not satisfied with the current performance of your rig?

 

[themisfit610]

You have got to be kidding me. A 7600gt/gs would blow a 9800 pro out of the water. Even on AGP - there is so little performance difference between the 2 architectures.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814145135

$120 + Shipping. Should tide you over until you really need something better. Maybe throw in a Zalman cooler if you want to o/c it or make it silent.

Or maybe a 6800xt - 256 bit memory on this bad boy:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150157

$130 + shipping.

Not sure which one would be faster - but I think you can unlock some of the pipes on the 6800xt. The wider memory interface should help a lot. Then again, the 7600gs has more pipes, and a lot better shader performance.

I wouldn't invest any more than that in an AGP platform.

~MiSfit

 

[CurseTheSky]

You could get a nice performance gain by upgrading to a more recent AGP card, but AGP is on its last legs. The P4 2.4GHz would end up being a bottleneck as well.

My suggestion: tough it out for a while longer. Pick up a P5B-E motherboard, Core 2 Duo E6300, some decent DDR2 memory, and a 7900GS and enjoy.