need to upgrade video card to...Which one?

[badtyper1]

currently have ati radeon 9800 pro, made the mistake of buying Call of Duty 2. Performance now is rather crappy, so there is a need to upgrade. Looking in the price range of $200-300. Don't care if its ATI or Nvidia, and I believe I can go PCI or AGP, don't think I have a PCIe slot.
I'd like to spend more, but the wife already feels video games are a waist of a grown man's time, so need to keep it under the $300. Otherwise, computer used for Kodak pictures, Sony mini-dv viewing.


heres system
Motherboard Model Diablo
Motherboard Vendor ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Chipset Model nForce 3 Host Bridge
BIOS Model AMIBIOS 080009
BIOS Vendor American Megatrends Inc.
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+

 

[JonnyBlaze]

get the ati 850xt.

 

[mwmorph]

300 wil lget you a 6800gs($220-$250?) best bang for the buck. should be here before christmas, if you want instant gratification and potentially faster results(after you oc) a 6800gt will be $300 about now.

also, if you are decently technoligicalyl knowledgeable, take off the current cooler on the 9800pro and check to see if it;'s a R350 or R360 core. if it's R360, you can bios flash it to a 9800xt and then overclock it some more for even more performance increase, it'll be about 10-15% faster average porbably after the bios flash and oc.

mod:
http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=3&var1=92&var2=0

6800gt
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130203

6800gs not available yet

x800xt(slightly faster than 6800gt ati equalivent, good card, the all in wonder with tv tuner and video in/out is actually cheaper than non all in wonder versions.)
http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/simprod.asp?pid=10664&ad=pwatch

x800xl(about same speed as 6800gt, not much potential to overclock though.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102501

there was a x850xt agp for sale that woudl be faster than all these ccards last week for $250. i;ve lost the link now and i'm not sure if it's still for sale.

edit: here it is: it's $299.99 with a $50 rebate
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0217999
not sure if you have a microcenter in your area though.

 

[badtyper1]

been looking at that one. Is there an easy way to see if I can use a PCIexpress on my computer? Its a rebuilt Compaq Presario

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: badtyper1
been looking at that one. Is there an easy way to see if I can use a PCIexpress on my computer? Its a rebuilt Compaq Presario

you'll have to swap out the micro atx motherboard for a pci-express one which will require a reinstall of windows and all affiliated drivers.

 

[edplayer]

Originally posted by: mwmorph
300 wil lget you a 6800gs($220-$250?) best bang for the buck. should be here before christmas, if you want instant gratification and potentially faster results(after you oc) a 6800gt will be $300 about now.

the 6800gs in agp isn't for sale so the price is still speculation

and I think a $250 X850XT would be another good card to consider

(and Microcenter has internet shopping also)

 

[badtyper1]

"there was a x850xt agp for sale that woudl be faster than all these ccards last week for $250. i;ve lost the link now and i'm not sure if it's still for sale."

x850xt, found a good deal.
Best Buy has them for $229.99, should have in stock by Friday. Guy told me to wait till January, prices should drop by $20-30.
Guy I talked to seemed knowledgable, favored this model over the nvidias 7800's.

 

[mrzed]

Well, the guy is right about it being a good deal at that price. Really an excellent deal if you consider it's pretty much the fastest AGP card you can get. Favouring it over the 7800's is questionable however.

Personally, if you are looking to upgrade, and it really is a X850XT AGP for $230, I wouldn't bother waiting. There's no guarantee it will be much cheaper in January.

 

[Wentelteefje]

I would take that X850XT too, great price for such a powerful card! Will run your CoD 2 perfectly. If you happen to find a 6800GT or Ultra for a low price, consider one of those as well, as they are powerhouses too...

Your CPU won't be bottlenecking your system now... Do you have a decent PSU? Try overclocking a little, it can gain you some more...

 

[badtyper1]

Originally posted by: mrzed
Well, the guy is right about it being a good deal at that price. Really an excellent deal if you consider it's pretty much the fastest AGP card you can get. Favouring it over the 7800's is questionable however.

Personally, if you are looking to upgrade, and it really is a X850XT AGP for $230, I wouldn't bother waiting. There's no guarantee it will be much cheaper in January.

Think I'll go ahead and purchase when it comes in. I will make sure its a "true" x850xt. The BB guy is a "video game tester", has the 7800 sli setup, so he talked the talk. He indicated ATI works better with AMD products(?)

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: badtyper1

Originally posted by: mrzed
Well, the guy is right about it being a good deal at that price. Really an excellent deal if you consider it's pretty much the fastest AGP card you can get. Favouring it over the 7800's is questionable however.

Personally, if you are looking to upgrade, and it really is a X850XT AGP for $230, I wouldn't bother waiting. There's no guarantee it will be much cheaper in January.

Think I'll go ahead and purchase when it comes in. I will make sure its a "true" x850xt. The BB guy is a "video game tester", has the 7800 sli setup, so he talked the talk. He indicated ATI works better with AMD products(?)

Actually, everything works better with AMD products, so he was partially right

 

[mrzed]

The deal is a good one - but I would not trust too much in the sales guy (as is too often the case at retail shops). The comment about ATI working better with AMD is just plain nonsense, and what video setup the guy claims to use is irrelevant to the purpose of finding you the best deal in an AGP card under $300.

If the card is what it claims to be, go for it, but don't put any faith in the monkey who is selling it to you, or let him sell you on anything else that you haven't checked out before laying down your cash.

Despite all the recent nonsense in the AT Video forum, this is probably still the best place to come for unbiased advice on card purchases. You did well in posting here before purchase, just remember that you cannot trust a salesperson to the same degree. I have heard so much crap from supposed experts in stores that I no longer go into them for anything other than final purchase. I always know what I am buying before walking into the store.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: mrzed
The deal is a good one - but I would not trust too much in the sales guy (as is too often the case at retail shops). The comment about ATI working better with AMD is just plain nonsense, and what video setup the guy claims to use is irrelevant to the purpose of finding you the best deal in an AGP card under $300.

If the card is what it claims to be, go for it, but don't put any faith in the monkey who is selling it to you, or let him sell you on anything else that you haven't checked out before laying down your cash.

Despite all the recent nonsense in the AT Video forum, this is probably still the best place to come for unbiased advice on card purchases. You did well in posting here before purchase, just remember that you cannot trust a salesperson to the same degree. I have heard so much crap from supposed experts in stores that I no longer go into them for anything other than final purchase. I always know what I am buying before walking into the store.

True. Dell Salesmen have been saying things like x300se are faster than the almighty 9800xt for a while now. No matter what he says, he cannot be trusted. They exist to sucker you out of money not to help you.

the x850xt is as fast as a 6800ultra. they for the most part will go blow for blow, even in historically nvidia optimized games like Doom3 and Quake4 due to recent opengl driver revisions for ati which boosted opengl perfromance quite a bit. The only problem is Ubisoft some games like Splinter cell Chaos Theory which severely degrades video quality on non 6000/7000 and x1000 series cards. Brothers in arms also has nvidia about 2x as fast as comparable ati. Half Life 2 is heavily ati oriented and ATI is usually somewhat faster in Half Life 2 and it's cousin games using the source engine.

for $250, it's a steal.

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: mwmorph

Originally posted by: mrzed
The deal is a good one - but I would not trust too much in the sales guy (as is too often the case at retail shops). The comment about ATI working better with AMD is just plain nonsense, and what video setup the guy claims to use is irrelevant to the purpose of finding you the best deal in an AGP card under $300.

If the card is what it claims to be, go for it, but don't put any faith in the monkey who is selling it to you, or let him sell you on anything else that you haven't checked out before laying down your cash.

Despite all the recent nonsense in the AT Video forum, this is probably still the best place to come for unbiased advice on card purchases. You did well in posting here before purchase, just remember that you cannot trust a salesperson to the same degree. I have heard so much crap from supposed experts in stores that I no longer go into them for anything other than final purchase. I always know what I am buying before walking into the store.

True. Dell Salesmen have been saying things like x300se are faster than the almighty 9800xt for a while now. No matter what he says, he cannot be trusted. They exist to sucker you out of money not to help you.

the x850xt is as fast as a 6800ultra. they for the most part will go blow for blow, even in historically nvidia optimized games like Doom3 and Quake4 due to recent opengl driver revisions for ati which boosted opengl perfromance quite a bit. The only problem is Ubisoft some games like Splinter cell Chaos Theory which severely degrades video quality on non 6000/7000 and x1000 series cards. Brothers in arms also has nvidia about 2x as fast as comparable ati. Half Life 2 is heavily ati oriented and ATI is usually somewhat faster in Half Life 2 and it's cousin games using the source engine.

for $250, it's a steal.

There's a patch that allowes all the sm3 IQ features to run on x800 cards using sm2.

 

[junkyardDawg]

If you get the x850xt (that's a great price on it) you might want to check your power supply. If it's less than 300w you might want to grab this while you're at BestBuy, $20 AR, and it might save you some headaches.

 

[badtyper1]

Originally posted by: junkyardDawg
If you get the x850xt (that's a great price on it) you might want to check your power supply. If it's less than 300w you might want to grab this while you're at BestBuy, $20 AR, and it might save you some headaches.

not to sound stupid, but I am a noobie on computer stuff. How do I check what my current power supply is?
thanks

 

[junkyardDawg]

there should be a sticker on the side of the power supply

look for "max output power", or "max DC output", something like that

 

[Eureka]

X850XTPE...

Otherwise, 6800GT is going for 270... which isn't really worth it. Wait for the 6800GS otherwise.

Norm

 

[Lasthitlarry]

6800GS or 7800GT, leaning towards thee 7800GT.

Though, I think I am going to wait and upgrade from my 9600XT to a 7800GS whenever it comes out.

 

[Eureka]

7800GT is a PCI-e card... both 9600XT and 9800Pro are AGP cards.

Norm

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: cevilgenius
7800GT is a PCI-e card... both 9600XT and 9800Pro are AGP cards.

Norm

7series should never make it to agp according to nvidia.

 

[GullyFoyle]

Followed the link to Best Buy, and they are selling an Ati "x850 pro" for $229, but the x850xt is listed seperately for $399. You may not be getting what you think...

 

[aatf510]

Originally posted by: Lasthitlarry
6800GS or 7800GT, leaning towards thee 7800GT.

Though, I think I am going to wait and upgrade from my 9600XT to a 7800GS whenever it comes out.

7800GS isn't coming out if you read Anandtech's news.
Also both the 6800GS and 7800GT is PCI-E only.

 

[BespinReactorShaft]

6800GT

 

[Wentelteefje]

Too bad... an XT would have been the best value possible at that price... Newegg sells a GeForce 6800GT for $ 284, but at this point, the X850 Pro would be much better value... The slight advantage a GT has in certain games (not in all games even!) just doesn't justify the extra $ 55 IMHO...

With the money you'll have saved, you can buy yourself a decent PSU (Fortron is cheap and very good), and/or some extra RAM (if you've got 512MB or so), which will give you a boost as well in some games (at least CoD 2)


Or... you buy an X850XT PE now, but don't pay a dollar until July '06, and by that time, we'll have found you another name and living place, you can come to Belgium if you want...