Replacing X800xt Plat

[JohnDoe2]

I got a 3.2g P4 HT and 2 gigs of ram. Most of the new games get slow FPS so which card could I get that costs around $300 that will give me significant improvement? I will update the CPU, MOBO AND MEM over the next 6 months.

 

[happy medium]

If you don't have a 450watt 30 amp 12v rail psu wait for the 7950gt AGP that should be out shortly. It probrobly won't require a new psu. Theres also a 7900gs comming to that would do well with your pent 4 ,3.2.

 

[Stumps]

is you're setup AGP or PCI-E...if it's an AGP setup go for a X1950Pro, if it's PCI-E well....probably still go for a X1950Pro, anything faster is probably going to be overkill on a lowly P4 3.2ghz...

but if you are using AGP I would just hold off and get a PCI-E card when you do your upgrade in 6 months...

 

[JohnDoe2]

Is there a noticeable difference between AGP and PCI-E that warrants the wait? I have a enermax 500 watt PS.

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: JohnDoe2
Is there a noticeable difference between AGP and PCI-E that warrants the wait? I have a enermax 500 watt PS.

yes...the price of video cards and their availibility...PCI-E cards are cheaper and easier to find in higher end models.

 

[happy medium]

With that power supply I'd go for the 1950pro AGP. No theres is no performance
difference between pci-e and AGP with the 1950pro.

 

[evolucion8]

You can get a GeCube Radeon X1950XT which is overclocked at X1950XTX speeds and cost only 50 bucks more than the PCI-E version. http://www.gecube.com/products-detail-sas.php?prod_id=65116#Specification

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: evolucion8
You can get a GeCube Radeon X1950XT which is overclocked at X1950XTX speeds and cost only 50 bucks more than the PCI-E version. http://www.gecube.com/products-detail-sas.php?prod_id=65116#Specification

it would be a waste of money using that on a 3.2ghz P4...and it barely performs better than the X1950Pro...

 

[conlan]

Originally posted by: JohnDoe2
I got a 3.2g P4 HT and 2 gigs of ram. Most of the new games get slow FPS so which card could I get that costs around $300 that will give me significant improvement? I will update the CPU, MOBO AND MEM over the next 6 months.

If you're updating soon, IMHO you should wait. You'll have far more options at better prices once you update to PCI-E, especially 6 months from now.

 

[evolucion8]

Originally posted by: Stumps

Originally posted by: evolucion8
You can get a GeCube Radeon X1950XT which is overclocked at X1950XTX speeds and cost only 50 bucks more than the PCI-E version. http://www.gecube.com/products-detail-sas.php?prod_id=65116#Specification

it would be a waste of money using that on a 3.2ghz P4...and it barely performs better than the X1950Pro...

Unless if he overclocks his CPU, otherwise is theorically true what you said, when is not CPU limited, that card will perform up to 30% faster than the PRO version, sometimes can be higher, otherwise, a lowly 20% or less doesn't worth the extra that must be paid. That videocard will need some of the best CPU's available on the AGP Platform like the P4EE or Athlon 64 3700+ or Athlon FX.

 

[Munky]

Just get the x1950pro. You're upgrading the whole rig in less than a year anyway, so don't spend too much money on a AGP card. The pro offers a good balance between price and performance.

 

[tuteja1986]

X1950XT AGP or X1950pro is only safe bet but i do think you should just wait now and buy a DX10 AGP from Nvidia or ATI because they both plan to release a mid/high end GPU for AGP user.

 

[Auric]

The 512MB 1950Pro & 7950GT (1.2GHz version) are in the $220-240 range.

The higher cost of the latter may be due to its recent release but it does benefit by being faster, having lower power demands and smaller size. However, some performance may be the result of lower quality defaults on Nvidia's part and they are not capable of HDR and AA simultaneously.

Either way, you might consider overclocking the CPU to eek out more oomph. P4's are dead cheap though so you could even buy a faster one (or a slower one for ultimately higher performance after overclocking if the rest of the system is capable) and sell the current one to recoup much of the cost. Heck, if games are the only consideration (as opposed to multi-tasking) then an even cheaper Celeron D could be "re-clocked" to beat the P4 without actually overclocking the system (NB or RAM).

 

[Paratus]

I have the exact same rig as you with an X1950pro and it runs everything I've thrown at it, including Oblivion with HDR and AA at 12*10 to my satisfaction.

Search for a thread I did about P4 /X1950Pro bottlenecks to see some benches.

I'd point you to it but I'm replying from my PDA.

posted via Palm Life Drive

 

[nemesismk2]

The x1950 Pro is a very good video card and excellent value for money!

 

[JohnDoe2]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, now it makes me want to upgrade my PC even sooner. What could you suggest if I had to spend about $300 for the vid card, around $250-300 for the CPU, a cheap decent mobo (I will not OC) I will use my HD's (3 SATA raptors) and sound card and I will scrape up some change for memory? Could I buy something that would be alot faster then what I currently have?

 

[happy medium]

Just replace the video card with a 8800gts 320mb for 260.00$ and use this build for motherboard,ram and cpu.........

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=27&threadid=2017397