Up Grading From 9800 pro.... what now?

[SilverPenguin]

Thanks for takeing a look guys.
Anyhow I have to upgrade my motherboad so while im at it i was thinking that i should get a PCI-e system while im upgrading anyway. Now, im upgradeing because my motherboard can only use pc 2100 and its only a 4x agp bus.... so i need to upgrade. the question is:

Should i just upgrade to 8x agp board and keep the 9800 pro or go PCI and get a 6600 gt PCI-e?

AND

If i got PCI- will the 6600 gt really be an improvment off of my 9800 pro? (128 mb) or do i need to get a the 6800 to see equal or better performance?

 

[Rage187]

go pci-e and get the 6600gt.

no its not that big of an upgrade.

 

[imported_llama]

they are similar in performance, if you can afford it a Radeon X800XL is the best card value wise, not too expensive (compared to the XT's and PE's) but is mega fast!

 

[Fern]

Hi SilverPenguin and Welcome to the Forums!

I upgraded from a 9800p (OC'd to a little above XT speeds) to a 6800GT (256MB ram). Very noticiable improvement. I would recommend that instead of the 6600GT. Especially if you play FPS like Doom 3, Far CRy HL2 etc.

If I was geting a new mobo I'd go PCI-e too.

Fern

BTW: The X800XL wasn't out for AGP at the time, but I think that would be a good upgrade too.

 

[imported_humey]

Well upgrading from a DX9b card to another ATI DX9b card any X800 / X850, aint much a upgrade so go Nvidia, new games now out using dx9c and p.s 3.0, or wait on next gen nvidia due prob may/june and get one them or get current tech but less cost when new tech is released

 

[cbehnken]

Originally posted by: humey
Well upgrading from a DX9b card to another ATI DX9b card any X800 / X850, aint much a upgrade so go Nvidia, new games now out using dx9c and p.s 3.0, or wait on next gen nvidia due prob may/june and get one them or get current tech but less cost when new tech is released

1. Your mind is blown if you think an X800 isn't an upgrade over a 9800.
2. Not everyone likes nvidia
3. Not everyone cares or will notice pixel shader model 3, especially when a ton of games still use ps 1.1, much less even 2.0
4. Most new games are going to run either ps 1.1, 2.0, or 3.0 and if they require 3.0 only they'll probably run like hell of current cards anyway.

 

[imported_humey]

You mind is blown if u can show me where i said that u numpty.

Obv it would be upgrade but why get another pos dx9b card in april 2005 when even nvidias dx9c p.s 3.0 cards are over 1 year old tech.

Fact of it is thats the truth.

Since u obv dont have a clue about nvidia current cards, i can tell u farcry 1.3 and sc 3 p.s1 or 2.0 only choices run max on my pc no issues.

Why the hell anyone in right mind cant see this i dont know, dx9 and p.s 2.0 are old tech now and games r using new tech starting around now.

 

[cbehnken]

Originally posted by: humey
You mind is blown if u can show me where i said that u numpty.

Obv it would be upgrade but why get another pos dx9b card in april 2005 when even nvidias dx9c p.s 3.0 cards are over 1 year old tech.

Fact of it is thats the truth.

Since u obv dont have a clue about nvidia current cards, i can tell u farcry 1.3 and sc 3 p.s1 or 2.0 only choices run max on my pc no issues.

Why the hell anyone in right mind cant see this i dont know, dx9 and p.s 2.0 are old tech now and games r using new tech starting around now.

Read the quote I have from your post:

"Well upgrading from a DX9b card to another ATI DX9b card any X800 / X850, aint much a upgrade so go Nvidia,"

Are you blind or can you not type in complete sentences?

I owned a 6800 and my x800XL plays everything better than my 6800NU did and it's the same price in PCI-E.

I have owned several 6800s and several ATI cards in the past. Please explain my lack of knowlege of current nvidia cards?

The best knowlege I have of these is the lovely stop error: thread stuck in device driver nv4disp.dll

I'm not sure how everyone here thinks nvidia drivers are more stable, this has not been the case in any of my machines or anyone I know personally.

 

[imported_humey]

STFU, where did i say what you stated, that ati 9800 pro to ati x800 or say ati x850 aint gonna be better, its still near same tech.

Im sick idiots that cant read and take in what others type said but make up total crap.

Since im from Scotland UK i can prob talk and type in better english than you anyhow if i need to but as its a WWW forum i just use slang.

If you want to talk crap to me do it in pm as this isnt helping him or anyone, even better come over and say it to my face, i will pay flight.

I aint got a non ultra as thats not top model and nvidia drivers have been proven on web recently to be far better esp in opengl then atis, so you can go and look through threads and find link, then contact the site that did test and tell them their talking crap.

Fact is all i stated was not to get another DX9b card this late in the day, and you didnt even need to comment on me but just give him a reply as all is only in the posters opinion anyhow.

 

[vshah]

he called you a numpty


depending on how much you want to spend OP, get either the 6600gt or an x800xl.

 

[Regs]

Originally posted by: vshah
he called you a numpty


depending on how much you want to spend OP, get either the 6600gt or an x800xl.

Agreed. Except, if you were going to bother to upgrade from a 9800 pro, I wouldn't get anything less than a x800xl. It's hard to justify a 400 dollar 6800GT for SM3 support. And I'm actually still puzzled why the 6800GT is still a 400 dollar card. I would expect at least 350 by now. Now there is talk about the next "generation" coming out in May or June and prices since last year have not budged an inch. Not looking too god.

 

[hans030390]

upgrading.....get a card with Shader model 3.0 support....that is ONLY with the Geforce 6xxx series...so i recommend anything between 6600gt and 6800gt.

SM3.0 WILL be needed to play any next gen games correctly, so any x800 card won't cut it for future proofness, UNLESS you plan on upgrading soon.

 

[Zenoth]

We're not that far from the next generation. Save money and buy the new nVidia / ATi core when it comes out. Probably late summer, or maybe just after that. Not sure. But it won't come out soon. Still, it's not really far.

That's what I'll do anyway. Right now only nVidia GPUs support PS3.0, and I've always had good quality and performance with ATi. I find no reasons to go with nVidia just because of a few features. So, I'm waiting for the next ATi core, and until then, I try to get the best performance out of my CPU / Memory / OS instead, and let my 9800 Pro do its job.

 

[Munky]

/slaps hand on face and pulls it down

Sm3 is not worth spending $100 extra bucks. Sm2 can do pretty much anything sm3 can if the developer is willing to code it. If youre getting a pci-e bord, then you can get a x800xl for $300 bucks. Why anyone would spend $400 on a similar performance 6800gt is beyond me.

 

[AwesomeJay]

Originally posted by: humey
STFU, where did i say what you stated, that ati 9800 pro to ati x800 or say ati x850 aint gonna be better, its still near same tech.

Im sick idiots that cant read and take in what others type said but make up total crap.

Since im from Scotland UK i can prob talk and type in better english than you anyhow if i need to but as its a WWW forum i just use slang.

If you want to talk crap to me do it in pm as this isnt helping him or anyone, even better come over and say it to my face, i will pay flight.

I aint got a non ultra as thats not top model and nvidia drivers have been proven on web recently to be far better esp in opengl then atis, so you can go and look through threads and find link, then contact the site that did test and tell them their talking crap.

Fact is all i stated was not to get another DX9b card this late in the day, and you didnt even need to comment on me but just give him a reply as all is only in the posters opinion anyhow.

internet tough guys are the best....you need to relax keyboard cowboy

 

[imported_humey]

He started it with misinfo about my statement, if you have nothing to say on thread you can STFU to

 

[The Boston Dangler]

SilverPenguin, I'm in a similar upgrade position. There's little to no difference currently between AGP 8x and PCI-E, or the ATI 9800 and NV 6600GT. However, I'm tempted to go with the 6600GT because, well, the 9800 is already 2 years old, and not getting any faster. I *think* the 6600GT will separate itself from the 9800 as newer games keep coming out, the 9800 will drop behind the curve quicker. For a real improvement, nv 6800's and ati x800's start around $300 (count on $25 more for AGP) I'm also getting a little fed up with crappy ATI software, just my opinion.

 

[Fern]

I see a lot comments about the 6800GT costing $400. Its been a couple months or so since I bought mine. And, although I was very interested in the AGP X800XL, it wasn't out yet. But I digress.

The point being, back when I was shopping, there were "new-in-the-box" 6800GT's on sale for about $300 here in our forums (FS/FT section). I ended up with a 2 month old card i got from one of our long time members here for $300.

I'd be curious what benchies showed (AGP 6800GT v AGP X800XL), and take my $300 and go get the "winner". Although I'm glad to have SM 3.0, personally I don't feel it's that a big a deal at this time. And I expect to have to upgrade in 12-18 months for the newer games anyway. I think it was the Unreal 3 engine I read about, with two 6800Ultra's in SLI mode, it still struggled at a very low res to get 20FPS, or similar. Yes, I know they have claimed a 6600GT will run it fine, but I think that w/b like playing Doom 3 with my old Ti4200. Geez, I wasn't all that happy with the way my OC'd 9800 pro played it.

Getting off-topic now, but I am becoming more n more impressed with the importance of a strong gfx card over that of the CPU. Typically I run my OC'd (24/7) rig at about 2.4ghz with a FSB speed over 400mhz. Well, recently I played Far Cry on all settings maxed (res at only 11x8 cuz of a crappy monitor) with my rig underclocked to a XP 2500 settings (CPU @ 1.8ghz and FSB down to 333mhz). It was casual play, not benching, but I didn't notice a FPS probs with the rest of my rig set so low. The 6800GT still chewed it up. Oh, played D3 too at whatever the setting for 256MB cards is, played better than when every thing was OC'd with a 9800p.

Maybe I'll set it back to XP 2000 speeds and see how it works.

Fern

 

[doublejbass]

Ignore the SM3 idiocy, it's like every single thread regarding video card choice degrades into a shouting match over SM3.

Now, sell your 9800 Pro on ebay, and either get a 6600GT or X800XL, depending on what your budget permits.

 

[cecco]

I'm building a new system now based on NF4 and I'm trying to decide between the 6800GT and the X800XL. As many have noted the 6800GT is still priced higher then the xl counterpart. Trying to consider the SM 3.0 and HDR in games that currently support it and although HDR makes lighting look better in games like Chaos Theory, the upgraded shader seems to offer no visual improvement over SM 1.1, just a slight performance boost (based on screenshots).

At this point IMO the extra benjamin is not worth it. That X800XL with its fanless cooling solution from Gigabyte is looking even more attractive.

Can anyone point out exactly what is that the SM 3.0 is supposed to improve over SM 2.0. What about ATI's 3Dc technology is that ever going to be used?

 

[SilverPenguin]

Thanks a lot guys i really appreciate the help. It sounds like i should just forget the 6600. i wouldn?t see any performance increase at all. now the question is a x800 xl or a NVIDIA 6800 gt... i know the 6800 does Slllllightly better in test, but i dont think a few extra frames is worth $ 100. So it seams that the x800 xl would be the obvious choice here. then I look at NVIDIA's futures... there is SLI to think about and i don?t know anything about these shedders you guys are talking about. I mean i know what they do but from my understanding of them i dont know why version 2.0 would be any slower than 3.0 ???? From my understanding it would just be lower quality but i really have no idea.

but in the end i want to buy a card that will last out the life of my system, like my 9800 pro did. I mean had my motherboard not been bad that card would have still lasted a year or two.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: SilverPenguin
Thanks a lot guys i really appreciate the help. It sounds like i should just forget the 6600. i wouldn?t see any performance increase at all. now the question is a x800 xl or a NVIDIA 6800 gt... i know the 6800 does Slllllightly better in test, but i dont think a few extra frames is worth $ 100. So it seams that the x800 xl would be the obvious choice here. then I look at NVIDIA's futures... there is SLI to think about and i don?t know anything about these shedders you guys are talking about. I mean i know what they do but from my understanding of them i dont know why version 2.0 would be any slower than 3.0 ???? From my understanding it would just be lower quality but i really have no idea.

but in the end i want to buy a card that will last out the life of my system, like my 9800 pro did. I mean had my motherboard not been bad that card would have still lasted a year or two.

SLI isnt a factor unless you will do in less than 2 years ,because by then WGF2.0 and PS4 will be out and you will not be able to run any of those new features without a brand new card.(which is why you upgrade in the first place right?)

3.0 is slightly faster and easy to code for and nv has "convinced" some companies(ubisoft being 1 example) to not support ps2.0 to screw over ATI and older gen owners. so ps3.0 is a legimitate reason to get 6800gt.

now, the x800xl is a GREAt card and the best bang for the buck stock, being faster than the 6800gt stock by about 1fps in DX games, but much slower in OGL games. but overclocking is a problem. It is aLAME overclocker. while the 6800gt will easily meet and exceed 6800ultra speeds, there is no hope of the x800xl clocking too much(465 core seems max with the ones with a molex.)

if you oc or demand the absolute best gfx, the 6800gt is a good buy.

if you dont really need to oc too much and can live with only ps1.1, 1.4, and 2.0 support, go with ATI.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: cbehnken

Originally posted by: humey
You mind is blown if u can show me where i said that u numpty.

Obv it would be upgrade but why get another pos dx9b card in april 2005 when even nvidias dx9c p.s 3.0 cards are over 1 year old tech.

Fact of it is thats the truth.

Since u obv dont have a clue about nvidia current cards, i can tell u farcry 1.3 and sc 3 p.s1 or 2.0 only choices run max on my pc no issues.

Why the hell anyone in right mind cant see this i dont know, dx9 and p.s 2.0 are old tech now and games r using new tech starting around now.

Read the quote I have from your post:

"Well upgrading from a DX9b card to another ATI DX9b card any X800 / X850, aint much a upgrade so go Nvidia,"

Are you blind or can you not type in complete sentences?

I owned a 6800 and my x800XL plays everything better than my 6800NU did and it's the same price in PCI-E.

I have owned several 6800s and several ATI cards in the past. Please explain my lack of knowlege of current nvidia cards?

The best knowlege I have of these is the lovely stop error: thread stuck in device driver nv4disp.dll

I'm not sure how everyone here thinks nvidia drivers are more stable, this has not been the case in any of my machines or anyone I know personally.

Would you hammerheads (You & Humey) stop splitting hairs please and take it to PM's.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: AwesomeJay

Originally posted by: humey
STFU, where did i say what you stated, that ati 9800 pro to ati x800 or say ati x850 aint gonna be better, its still near same tech.

Im sick idiots that cant read and take in what others type said but make up total crap.

Since im from Scotland UK i can prob talk and type in better english than you anyhow if i need to but as its a WWW forum i just use slang.

If you want to talk crap to me do it in pm as this isnt helping him or anyone, even better come over and say it to my face, i will pay flight.

I aint got a non ultra as thats not top model and nvidia drivers have been proven on web recently to be far better esp in opengl then atis, so you can go and look through threads and find link, then contact the site that did test and tell them their talking crap.

Fact is all i stated was not to get another DX9b card this late in the day, and you didnt even need to comment on me but just give him a reply as all is only in the posters opinion anyhow.

internet tough guys are the best....you need to relax keyboard cowboy

So what's he have to do to not be called an internet tough guy? Travel to your house and pummel you into pudding? Internet tough guy is not even an insult. I don't even know what that means... How can you be anything else BUT and Internet anything guy/gal through these forums genius? If the guy is a d!ckHe@d, ignore him.

 

[imported_humey]

keysplayr2003, your bit late with this, aint you, and i got no clue why that other dude said internet tough guys, as i never started lies and crap, he is still pm'ing me, but ive told him not to again so i let it go, its was pages ago.

None this is any help to the poster, but i hate lamers changing words around to others post and saying sh1t that wasnt said.

I still say wait 1 month 2 months till next gen is here and get a very new ££££/$$$$$ card or get current tech cards for less then, i still think its to late in day in april 2005 to buy a dx9b p.s 2.0 card no matter what ati fans think, as new games are using it now and more will, and saying it does little more is wrong cause more games and more drivers will show its full potentual, before as normal you need a new card.

Im by no means a expert but i make my own choices and i know enough to earn my living building pcs.

I just started about input IMO thats all, i dont need lamers jumping on me, he could have just inputed his part without directing it to me.