replace 5900xt with 6600gt

[Broadkipa]

I was thinking of replacing my 5900xt with a 6600gt (agp ver) would this be worth doing, would i see any improvment in perfomance.

 

[Sonic587]

Few questions first...

1) What are your system specs?

2) What games do you play?

3) What resolution do you play at? Any AA/AF?

EDIT: Also, what is you total budget for a new videocard?

 

[Ntar]

Originally posted by: Sonic587
Few questions first...

1) What are your system specs?

2) What games do you play?

3) What resolution do you play at? Any AA/AF?

EDIT: Also, what is you total budget for a new videocard?

and whats your budget

 

[rise]

definite improvement, particularly in dx9 games.

 

[VIAN]

Taking the arguement by itself:

6600GT VS 5900 XT

I would say it's definitely an improvement.

A 6600GT is better than a 5950 Ultra, so there you have it.

Although it might be worth spending 50 extra bucks to get the 6800 depending on how long you want to keep it.

http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122193

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Here's a cheap one after rebate.

Unless you CPU really sucks, it would probably be a good move as your next upgrade.

Maybe a gig of pc3200 also since it's so cheap right now ($80-ish)

 

[VIAN]

DO NOT BUY FROM XFX. THEY ARE EVIL AND WILL SLAUGHTER ALL THE COWS IN YOUR FARM AND THEN SMASH YOUR PC.

 

[rise]

lol

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: VIAN
DO NOT BUY FROM XFX. THEY ARE EVIL AND WILL SLAUGHTER ALL THE COWS IN YOUR FARM AND THEN SMASH YOUR PC.

meh... I've heard some bad things, but I think 90% of the stuff I see is "I heard that XFX is bad"

 

[VIAN]

Yeah, but it's not some unsure type of "I heard."

It's something like, "God himself told me never to buy XFX or else he will stop sending me fish in the night" type deal.

Testimonials from people who have posted on this forum says that hardware isn't as good a quality as review samples and has terrible customer service. That's why their products are so cheap.

I would rather pay more to have quality components and support than something that sounds less than half-assed.


EVEN the link that I posted to a cheap 6800 has a comment about how this dude bought a defective XFX card that he had to return.
"This is an awesome card. Had a defective XFX 6600GT card which Newegg replaced for me without hassle (thanks Newegg!) with this 6800 unit - I willingly paid the price difference and I'm glad I did!"

 

[Pete]

A 6600GT will be a nice improvement over a 5900XT. And by nice, I mean the GT will utterly embarass the XT in newer games. The GT really looks like the 5800U done right.

But I'd answer Sonic's Qs for the sake of completeness (help us help you).

 

[uOpt]

The 5900XT has nice memory bandwidth, and that enables it to be pretty much as fast as the 6600GT in Quake-3 engine games, for example Castle Wolfenstein.

In newer games it is much slower.

However, I have been able to play through HL2 with the high reflection for GeForce FX patch and it was very good overall. I later bought a 6800 Ultra and I have to say for single-player there is not much of an improvement. Of course I have higher resolution now but alas the 5900XT could do enough resolution at acceptable framerates. With Doom3 I had to reduce resolution too much for my taste.

BTW, my 5900XT is very nice from a power consumption standpoint, I really miss that aspect (permanently running machines).

 

[fstime]

Of couse its worth it.

The 5900XT wasnt even faster than the 9700pro.

Shows how sad the FX line was.

The 6600gt will be faster than pretty much any FX card.

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: Broadkipa
I was thinking of replacing my 5900xt with a 6600gt (agp ver) would this be worth doing, would i see any improvment in perfomance.

6600 gt v 5900 xt v gf4 ti4200 v r9700 pro v r9600 xt

The 6600 gt is a much better video card than the 5900 xt especially with modern games which make use of dx9 and the above review confirms how much better!

 

[Creig]

Originally posted by: Broadkipa
I was thinking of replacing my 5900xt with a 6600gt (agp ver) would this be worth doing, would i see any improvment in perfomance.

Do it.

 

[dornick]

I too have the 5900xt, and the 6600gt is what I'm getting as well (PCIe though)

 

[Broadkipa]

Right to start off the computer I want to upgrade is the lower spec of my two machines and I dont want to spend to much as it really needs to be totaly upgraded, I thought a graphics card upgrade would give me some time to save up for a new motherboard cpu etc.
The specs are:
P4@2.6Ghz on 400Mhz FSB
768 Gigabytes of sdram
audigy sound card
nvidia 5900xt

I play online: bf1942, CS Source and off line doom3, those are my faves at the moment.

 

[Broadkipa]

PS, my main PC has a XFX 6800GT and that thing flys, only trouble is I have to wait in line to use it with my 3 kids.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Not really, really worth it. Maybe if you can afford it, go with something from the 6800 line.

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: Broadkipa

I play online: bf1942, CS Source and off line doom3, those are my faves at the moment.

BF1942 will run much better with a 6800GT, but you're probably at a fairly acceptable resolution and video option level with the 5900XT already, as 1942 is fairly old, and not terribly demanding. If you're at all interested in the upcoming BF2, I would assume a 6600GT a minimum to get decent performance. In BFV my 5900XT barely ran acceptably at 1024x768, I imagine BF2 will be more of the same (using lots of DX9, the primary weakness of the 5xxx series)

CS Source should see an improvement in quality (DX9 vs. DX8) plus some frames, but is fairly CPU intensive and may also be limited by your memory bandwidth. Doom3 should see decent improvement in FPS, as you can tell from the link that nemesismk2 posted, but it's hard to tell if there would be any CPU/mem bottlenecks.

Personally, for a system like that, I'd probably save up for the eventual full system upgrade that you'll need to go to DDR and PCIe. You'll definitely get some benefit from a video card upgrade, but I don't know how much I'd spend on an infrastructure that old.

 

[VIAN]

Go athlon64 and get like a 3000+ 939 or something. 1GB of RAM. And no SLI Mobo, just regular Nforce4 Ultra. couple it with a 6800

And you are good to go.

I'm not sure about the BF1942, but I think it may be more CPU dependent. CS source may require an upgrade on both ends., and Doom3 will definitely require and upgrade, because it is very CPU intensive. You won't need to upgrade your GFX card for that I think.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Yes you will see improvement, but $200 for what would be minor improvement isn't worth it IMHO. New game and high res would see even more improvement, but your $200 will go a lot further with the next generation as you should really try and get by with the 5900.

 

[VIAN]

Next gen might not come out till fall, maybe another 6 months, which is foolish to wait IMO.

 

[Brian23]

I still use a geforce 3 in my main rig.

 

[jonesy333]

i would save up and upgrade your main pc components. You need a descent DDR system. I suggest (value wise): A dual DDR motherboard such as Intel 865PE, At least 512MB RAM (In dual channel mode: 2x 256MB or 2x 512MB DDR400) and an 800FSB Pentium4 CPU. Socket 478 CPUs are quite cheap at the moment as well as i865PE motherboards.

Your current system is a little slow for a 6600GT. also spending a little more and getting a 6800 would be a good move.

regards: jonesy

My Rig:

P4 3.0GHz C, 800FSB
Abit IC7-MAX3 Mobo (Intel 875P)
Cosair XMS 3200LL 2x 512MB (cas 2-3-2-6)
Leadtek GeforceFX 5900 128MB
2x WD Raptor 74GB 10K SATA HDD's
1x 80GB Seagate 8MB SATA HDD
SB Audigy2 ZS Platinum
Antec True Power 550w