Upgrade Advice Needed! (from an Asus 6800 Geforce DDR)

[mOrphine]

I think my video card is finally dying, it's a Geforce with 32mb DDR memory. I'm using an Asus P3V4X motherboard, running a P3 600mhz (overclocked)... I'm can't even remember what AGP modes my mobo supports

I'm a multimedia student doing some 3D as well, besides using the usual Adobe/Macromedia sofwares.

Thinking of choosing an ATI card, however I don't see the point of upgrading to a top-of-the-line video card since my mobo doesn't even support AGP4x or 8x

Would really appreciate some advice, thanks.

 

[mOrphine]

bump

 

[Intelman07]

ATI 9500 Pro is the card to get now I believe.

 

[vss1980]

Actually your motherboard should support AGP 4x, if its a P3V4X (Apollo Pro 133A chipset).

You'd probably find a Radeon 8500/9000/9100 or a low end Geforce 4 card a good upgrade. You'd find the 9500 Pro a good upgrade aswell, and to be honest its probably the best buy if you plan to upgrade the rest of the system as the next step.
It really depends on how much you wanna spend.

 

[mOrphine]

thanks for the suggestions! i'll find out how much those cards cost

 

[selfbuilt]

The Radeon 9500 Pro is a great card (I run it myself), and your best choice if you plan on upgrading your system soon. Otherwise, stick with the 8500/9100 series which gives excellent performance for the price (the 9000 is overpriced and slower). The GeF4 Ti4200 is also a good card, if you can find one on sale though. But on your current system, you won't even see the maximum benefit of those cards.

 

[FearoftheNight]

gf4 ti4200 for around 100...

 

[mOrphine]

i'm not planning to upgrade this system anytime soon (except when it dies and i get a completely new one) so i think i'll look at the 8500/9100 series of cards. however, im confused with the naming: 8500 and 9100 are essentially the same cards?! is there any difference if i buy a card sold as the 8500 vs a different card sold as the 9100?

and what is the sapphire 9100, is that a brand or model name?

 

[vss1980]

Yes, the 8500 and 9100 are essentially the same thing.... but be careful because as with the 8500 there are LE versions of the 9100 with slower RAM, etc.

Sapphire is just the name of a company that makes graphics cards, like Creative Labs for example. They have no real effect on what the chip does.

 

[selfbuilt]

I agree, watch for clock speeds, but otherwise 8500 and 9100 are the same (I've heard there may be a difference in whether or not they support ATI's new fullstream for cleaning up online video, but I'm not sure) .

A retail ATI 8500LE (64MB or 128MB) is clocked 250/250 (core/memory), and a retail sapphire 9100 64MB is 250/230 (128MB is 250/200). You'll noticed that 128MB are often clocked lower to compensate for the extra cost. Also, OEM versions are almost invariably clocked lower (I've seen memory down in the 183 or even the 167 range!). Just verify the speeds before you buy anything.

 

[mOrphine]

thanks again for the advice