P4 2.66 Ghz...what vid card is worth upgrading to?

[jonks]

Subject pretty much says it all. I've got a p4 @ 2.6 and am looking to upgrade from my radeon 9700. Strongly considering the vanilla 6800 even tho it only has 128mb. Is getting the 6800gt a waste because my cpu couldn't fill it up any more than it could the 6800? Basically, at what point am I throwing away money since I won't see any better results?

 

[zakee00]

6800NU is a good choice. go with the 6800GT if you have the money, then you can bump up the res/aa/af more. you WILL see better results, but only when you bump up the eye candy will the 6800NU fall behind (or in future games the 6800gt will help alot).
don't worry about CPU bottlenecking, you CPU is still pretty fast. you should overclock it, that would help alot though.
Nick

 

[daveybrat]

The 6800 vanilla is your best choice. The extra money wouldn't be worth it for the GT. Save that money and buy a better motherboard/cpu combo later.

🙂

 

[RussianSensation]

Get 6800nu for $250 from Outpost.com

OR

6800GT for $350.

If you play games at 1600x1200 with AA/AF enabled, get 6800GT since at those settings you will minimize being CPU limited.

 

[bamacre]

I disagree, I was using an x800 pro card with a 2.4ghz p4, and it was fine. I was playing Far Cry at 16x12 smoothly. I don't see a problem with getting a 6800GT.

 

[jonks]

Well I did just get my 2001fp yesterday so 1600x1200 gaming would sure be nice 🙂

Bamacre: you played FC at 16x12 w/everything turned all the way up and it was smoove? I remember first playing FC on my rid and had it at 1024x768 with settings at Normal on everything. Looking forward to seeing it in all its glory, not to mention HL2 (didn't really care much for D3 but will probably get the expansion pack anyway if its cheap enuf just to see how much better it will look with my new specs).

RussianSensation: where can i get a 6800gt for $350? I didn't see it at outpost. Can you post a link?