Pimp my ride!

[gel197]

Okay, a week or two ago I asked for help picking a vid card only to find out my mobo isn't pci-e compatible which threw a wrench into my plans. So now i'm not sure if I want to buy an older vid card like a 6800GT 256mb.AGP or if I want to upgrade my mobo and get a pci-e vid card. I just don't want to spend $300 on a vid card just to have to have it be outdated by the end of next year.

It just really bothers me to spend $300 on a 6800GT 256mb AGP when a 6800GT 512mb PCI-E or a 7800 GT 256mb PCI-E is the same price. It's like paying the same amount for a lesser card. I would almost rather pay an extra $100 or $200 to upgrade my mobo.

So this where i'm at right now, I have $600 and I want to upgrade my system. I want to be able to play the newer games at decent settings and I also use graphics programs like PS7 and C4D. I don't really know much about the hardware end of things and will pretty much be going by what is reccomended to me here. Any and all advice is very appreciated and this what my current system is...

Pentium 4 2.8
Gainward GeForce FX 5600 Ultra 128mb
1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel
Windows XP Pro SP1
80gb HD
100 gb HD

 

[Akhen]

quite frankly a good video card for the price is the 6800GS
operates as fast as a 6800GT according to benchmarks, only diffrence is it has
12 pipes as opposed to 16 on the GT.


I got it for my bro on a 3200+ amd and 1 gig of ram and I was impressed.
135fps, full settings on css stress test


take a look in the hot deals forums I believe there is a deal about it somewhere.

note its only PCI-E

 

[John]

XFX 6800GS $220
A64 3700+ San Diego $230
Epox 9NPA+ $105
Fortron AX400PN $40

 

[Crescent13]

7800GT
A64 3000+ venice (Overclock it)
Epox 9npa
Fortron AX400PN

 

[gel197]

Well i'm not looking to make a whole new comp, just upgrade what I have and would like to stay with pentium. I have P4 2.8 right now and wouldn't replace it unless it was for a new proccessor that made a notable difference. I guess the main focus is on a mobo and vid card that is Pentium compatible.

 

[John]

Humm, you don't really want to spend big $$ on AGP but now you want to keep your current board and cpu?

You also said that you had $600 for upgrades so a few of us gave you some viable alternative on how to spend the money.

Your P4 2.8 is probably socket 478 and that's a dead end.

 

[Goi]

If you want a video card upgrade, the best you could do now would probably be an ATI X850XT for $250. Otherwise, I'd recommend upgrading your platform and go with An A64. There's no point getting another S478 board that supports PCI-e, which I'm not even sure exists.

 

[gel197]

Well once again you guys are making me rethink what I wanted to do. I think i'm just going to keep saving my money and build a whole new computer from the ground up. I only have $750 at the moment and might wait until I have $1000 or more because I want my new comp to really out perform my current one.

I think i'm going to leave Pentiums and give AMD a try, since from what I hear you get more bang for the buck. What I want to know is how do I compare AMD processors to Pentiums. Like how do I know what AMD is equal to a P4 2.8, is there some kind of chart comparisson that I could refer to so I know what the difference is.

This might sound like a stupid question to some of you but, I really have no idea and I need to learn a little something about AMD before I buy one.

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: Akhen
quite frankly a good video card for the price is the 6800GS
operates as fast as a 6800GT according to benchmarks, only diffrence is it has
12 pipes as opposed to 16 on the GT.


I got it for my bro on a 3200+ amd and 1 gig of ram and I was impressed.
135fps, full settings on css stress test


take a look in the hot deals forums I believe there is a deal about it somewhere.

note its only PCI-E

What settings?

I only get 130fps on my CSS stress test.. and I have a x1800xt

1680x1050
16x AF 6xAA
Everything maxed!

 

[Wentelteefje]

Like how do I know what AMD is equal to a P4 2.8, is there some kind of chart comparisson that I could refer to so I know what the difference is.

They have model numbers... that's true... but unfortunately you can't rely on those... In gaming, AMD is far superior than Intel, but there are other tests that prefer Intel with its Hyper-Threading... (encoding, compressing, "stressing the PSU" )

EDIT: In for some reading...? Tech Report

 

[Goi]

Originally posted by: gel197
Well once again you guys are making me rethink what I wanted to do. I think i'm just going to keep saving my money and build a whole new computer from the ground up. I only have $750 at the moment and might wait until I have $1000 or more because I want my new comp to really out perform my current one.

I think i'm going to leave Pentiums and give AMD a try, since from what I hear you get more bang for the buck. What I want to know is how do I compare AMD processors to Pentiums. Like how do I know what AMD is equal to a P4 2.8, is there some kind of chart comparisson that I could refer to so I know what the difference is.

This might sound like a stupid question to some of you but, I really have no idea and I need to learn a little something about AMD before I buy one.

AMD's A64 ratings are conservative, which means an A64 3200+ is going to outperform a P4 3.2GHz in most cases, especially in gaming. xbitlabs has 2 articles on CPU scaling with modern games, and THG has a few CPU charts too. You might wanna check those out.