Thinking of upgrading my video card

[Supermercado]

I've had my computer for just about 3 years and for the most part, it still does just fine. Right now, I've got a 2.4GHz P4, 512MB RAM (also thinking of jumping to 1GB before long), and a Radeon 9700 non-pro. So basically, it's starting to show its age playing BF2, which is what I play most of the time. I've got a 17" LCD and I don't think my 9700 is capable of pushing 1280x1024 with any sort of speed, so I'm debating upgrading the video card. I play BF2 at 800x600 but since it's not the native resolution, the picture could be greatly improved with a better card.

That said, I don't want to spend a fortune. I'm thinking less than $200 probably. I know it's backwards and will probably be tough to do, but I'd like to spend as little as possible. Any suggestions as to what sort of cards I should be looking at would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for any input.

 

[Noema]

The cards in this list offer the best bang for the buck, I believe. Another good option would be a 6600GT, which is even cheaper.

Nvidia's 7800gs is the best AGP card but it will set you back $300.

I also strongly suggest getting another 512MB of RAM, specially for playing BF2.

 

[Supermercado]

That X800GTO listed first in the list seems to compare pricewise with the 6600GT you also linked. It may have been obvious from what I've currently got but I'm limited to AGP and have no intentions of upgrading anything other than RAM and video card, which I'm still not sure I'm going to do. BF2 is playable with what I've got now so any upgrading would be just so it's prettier. Although I suppose that's the case pretty much all the time when upgrading, isn't it?

Just looking at that X800GTO and and the 6600GT, it looks like the ATi card is the better card? And with the $20 rebate on it, it's not quite $10 more. Seems like it's more card for not much more money.

 

[Powermoloch]

HDR and SM3.0are overrated, x800GTO or x850xt will be sufficient for you

 

[Supermercado]

I would agree with that statement - I don't even know what they are, haha.

 

[xtreme26]

I'm in the same situation as you, i have a p4 2.4 northwood with 512 ram and a fx5200 lol. im looking to get a 6600gt. i would get a better video card, but then i would be far too cpu limited, and i cant oc my cpu cuz of my p4p800-vm board. im also a heavy bf2 player, so i guess i'd suggest the 6600gt, it's also very cheap at the moment

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: Powermoloch
HDR and SM3.0are overrated, x800GTO or x850xt will be sufficient for you

Meh, I love how Oblivion looks with HDR and it was a major selling point for me. That's why I went with the 7800gs as my last AGP card. Matter of preference, I guess. I little more eye candy vs. a bit better performance.

But I agree that the x800GTO and X850XT are not only great cards; they are the best value for the money in the AGP market. And the X850XT will in many cases outperform the pricier 7800gs.

 

[Powermoloch]

Originally posted by: Noema

Originally posted by: Powermoloch
HDR and SM3.0are overrated, x800GTO or x850xt will be sufficient for you

Meh, I love how Oblivion looks with HDR and it was a major selling point for me. That's why I went with the 7800gs as my last AGP card. Matter of preference, I guess. I little more eye candy vs. a bit better performance.

But I agree that the x800GTO and X850XT are not only great cards; they are the best value for the money in the AGP market. And the X850XT will in many cases outperform the pricier 7800gs.

I would like to see how HDR works on oblivion...soon as I get a 7900GT :laugh:

I'm still happy with my x850xt

 

[Captante]

A 6600GT isn't worth the trouble of the upgrade considering how little speed you'll gain, combined with the possible problems switching from ATI to Nvidia drivers... if you go that route I'd get a 6800GS at minimum.
I'd say either an X800XL (instead of the GTO) or an X850XT would be the safest bet & either will be a major improvement on that 9700 ... IME sticking with ATI drivers/software means you are less likely to have to reinstall Windows after the upgrade.

 

[Supermercado]

I might just be missing it on Newegg, but are either the X800XL or the X850XT available in AGP models? All of the ones I saw were PCI Express.

Edit: Partially scratch that. I did find this X850XT, but it's probably going to be more money than I'd like to spend right now.

It seems like all the cards in the price range that do what I want are turning out to be PCI Express. I guess that really is the future at this point. And I'm sure there's no way I can afford the upgrade that would allow me to get into that market - and still be able to afford a video card upgrade, haha.

 

[TanisHalfElven]

Originally posted by: SuperCommando
I've had my computer for just about 3 years and for the most part, it still does just fine. Right now, I've got a 2.4GHz P4, 512MB RAM (also thinking of jumping to 1GB before long), and a Radeon 9700 non-pro. So basically, it's starting to show its age playing BF2, which is what I play most of the time. I've got a 17" LCD and I don't think my 9700 is capable of pushing 1280x1024 with any sort of speed, so I'm debating upgrading the video card. I play BF2 at 800x600 but since it's not the native resolution, the picture could be greatly improved with a better card.

That said, I don't want to spend a fortune. I'm thinking less than $200 probably. I know it's backwards and will probably be tough to do, but I'd like to spend as little as possible. Any suggestions as to what sort of cards I should be looking at would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for any input.

your not limited by your gfx card. its the ram that won't let you play aboe 800x600. i had the same issues. then i upgraded my ram and it made a worldof a difference. get a atleast 500 more ram. better yet get a 6600gt level card for 100 bucks and 1 gb more ram.

 

[Nextman916]

If you can dish out 40 more bucks for the x850xt on newegg that would be a huge improvement or an extra $65 and the EVGA 7800gs co is yours with a free copy of AOE:3- http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant...=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=190563 . The 7800gs co is the fastest agp card to date and has the capability of running SM3.0 games and HDR. Newegg, ZZfly, and Monarch are all offering the $15 rebate on the 7800gs at the moment but only monarch offers the free copy of AOE:3 which i think is the best value. But even after this you would have to vouge for at least 512mb more of ram....so an alternative would to be get the x800gto which comes very close to 6800gt performance in some games, for $138 at newegg and use the rest to buy either a gig or 512mb more of ram that could be had easily with your left over savings. The x800gto loses largely in Opengl games but gains respectively in others with AA/AF enabled. Benches for agp cards here- http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/digest3d/index0511.html . Either one of these ways will provide you with a noticeable improvement in games and allow you to at least game at 1024x768 if 1280x1024 is too stressful, with AA/AF applied.

 

[Supermercado]

Just for kicks, what are my options as far as getting a PCI Express motherboard and video card? I know at that point, I'll be spending more than $200 but if the performance increase is gigantic over just $200 for RAM and a video card, that might end up being the route I go. I'll have been at my current job a year in about two weeks so I ought to be looking at a raise that might make it more feasible to do more of an upgrade. I guess the ideal situation would be something that lets me use my current processor (I can't remember what socket it is, but it's a P4 2.4 with the 800MHz front side bus) and RAM (that's PC3200). Is something like that even possible?

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: SuperCommando
Just for kicks, what are my options as far as getting a PCI Express motherboard and video card? I know at that point, I'll be spending more than $200 but if the performance increase is gigantic over just $200 for RAM and a video card, that might end up being the route I go. I'll have been at my current job a year in about two weeks so I ought to be looking at a raise that might make it more feasible to do more of an upgrade. I guess the ideal situation would be something that lets me use my current processor (I can't remember what socket it is, but it's a P4 2.4 with the 800MHz front side bus) and RAM (that's PC3200). Is something like that even possible?

Well, Intel's top of the line processors currently use socket LGA775. So if you have that kind of chip right now, you should be able to use it with a new PCI-e motherboard. I'm not an Intel expert so I couldn't tell which chip you have from the bus, but I suspect you have the older socket (s478). You can always use CPU-Z to find out.

I would however not recommend that. Current AMD processors trounce Intel so bad it's not funny. Intel's new chip, code name Conroe, is however very, very promising, delivering great performance for a new price. A release date is still months off, and it's unclear whether you'll be able to use current Intel motherboards with Conroe chips (I suspect no).

My suggestion would be to wait until Conroe and AM2 (AMD's new s940 chip) are released and then buy accordingly. Until then, the X8xx series of video cards should cover you nicely for a good price.

 

[Supermercado]

I guess what I really need to do is figure out how much money I really want to spend if I end up being able to go higher than $200. If that's the case, then I will be better off putting something mostly new together with a new motherboard, processor, and video card. As far as I know, RAM hasn't really changed so I guess I'll probably be okay with the PC3200 I've got now. If I could avoid having to get new RAM, too, then that would certainly help. I guess I've got some research to do and try to make up my mind.