Upgrade from 6600GT to 6800GS?

[dfuze]

Is it worth the upgrade to move from a 6600GT to a 6800GS? The GS has more pipelines (12 vs 8) , more ram (256mb vs 128mb), and more bus width (256 vs 128). It sounds impressive on paper, but would I actually see much improvement on my monitor? Currently, I am hooked on BF2 as my game of choice for deciding this. I am currently able to run on medium settings, without stuttering, but would like to crank up the eye candy.

 

[BassBomb]

heres what i have from my experience

i have a BFG 6600GT ... my cousin with a BFG 6800GT (which should be similar to your a GS)
our systems are identical save the video card and monitor

I can run BF2 FULL everything save textures at Medium, 4x AA High AF 100% DD,
Resolution of 1024x768
then i got an LCD monitor, so i went up to 1280x1024.. 0xAA the rest the same.. that is very smooth with my 6600GT (if ur running on medium i think you might be bottlnecked somewhere)

anyways

so for my cousin he runs it smoothly with my settings but FULL textures
1280x960, 4x AA ... and that is very smooth

id recccmend not to upgrade.... i went from FX5200 to a 6600GT while he went from a 4200Ti to 6800GT

wait until the next nvidia line (go for the 7600GT )

 

[Sunrise089]

I wouldn't upgrade from a 6600GT to a 6800 anything. Wait until a 7800GT fits your price range.

 

[Vinnybcfc]

I would wait although it depends if you want agp or pci-e, on agp if it unlocks you will not see much better apart from the x850xt

 

[kmmatney]

If you on AGP, then don't upgrade.

If you have PCIE, then you'll see a big jump if you overclock the heck out of the 6800GS, and it may be worth it. If your not an overclocker, then its not worth the upgrade. If you have an 19" LCD, the 6800GS, overclocked, will let you run at native resolutions comfortably.

I upgraded from a 6600GT to my current video card and there was a noticable difference when gaming at 1280 x 1024. I probably wouldn't have upgraded, but I also went from AGP to PCIE at the same time, so I ws forced to. I solg my old 6600GT for a decent price, to offset things.

 

[SelfishGene]

I upgraded my 6600 GT to an 6800 GS agp. Because of the price i got for it on ebay, i am happy with the upgrade.

The big difference is in AA and visual quality. If you run without AA, and don't want it, i wouldn't upgrade. But now i can run some games like IL-2 Sturmovik with high water and high AA settings and get very playable framerates.

In some games, it's only a 25-50% difference; in others it's closer to 100% in favor of the 6800. It just depends upon how high you want your visual settings to go. Personally i liked the upgrade as it means i can skip a whole generation and get a new cpu/video card after the new AM2 socket has been released.

 

[firewolfsm]

the 7800GT with an SLI mobo is only $360 on newegg, that might be worth saving up for.

 

[buzzsaw13]

Monarch Computer has a 7800GT for $240AR if you've got a PCI-e slot

 

[ChonChon]

well worth an upgrade to anything more then a 6600GT...just not enough like it used to be.

 

[mazeroth]

Originally posted by: buzzsaw13
Monarch Computer has a 7800GT for $240AR if you've got a PCI-e slot

I checked the whole site and can't find this. Can you please provide a link?

Thanks!

 

[Wolfshanze]

To the original poster, if you have AGP, then it's worth it only if you intend to UNLOCK the extra pipes in the 6800GS, jumping from 12 to 16 pipes. I had a 6600GT and went to a 6800GT and the doubling of pipes was a HUGE impact in game performance... my system jumped waaaaaaay up in performance after switching.

I'm not sure if half the jump from a 6600GT to a vanilla-unmoded 6800GS is worth it, but who knows.

Definately do it if you have AGP and intend to unlock the pipes.

If you're PCIe, listen to what others have to say (I have no idea about PCIe performance differance).

 

[SpeedZealot369]

I love pie

 

[kalrith]

Originally posted by: firewolfsm
the 7800GT with an SLI mobo is only $360 on newegg, that might be worth saving up for.

ZZF has this combo for $330 shipped AR. They also have just the card for $256 shipped AR. I just ordered the combo and the motherboard is great. I got a bad video card, but that can happen with any company. It's on its way back to ZZF today. The motherboard has mixed reviews, but most of the bad ones are from people purchasing incompatible RAM. Here's the RAM that I purchased, which is running better specs than it's supposed to. Look here for a list of compatible memory and here for some in-depth info on the motherboard.

Just for reference, my opteron 165 was dual-prime stable for 5 hours at 290 x 9 (2.61 GHz). I just set it up last week and haven't had much to test it, but I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to get it 24/7 stable at that speed.

 

[dfuze]

Thanks for all the input. After reading all the responses I think I will wait for either the 7900 to come out and get that or wait for it to come out to drop the price of the 7800gt. I guess I forgot to mention in the original post my pc specs:
Asus A8N-sli deluxe
AMD 64 3000+ venice
BFG 6600gt oc (pci-e)
2 gb ram
nec dvd burner

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: mazeroth

Originally posted by: buzzsaw13
Monarch Computer has a 7800GT for $240AR if you've got a PCI-e slot

I checked the whole site and can't find this. Can you please provide a link?

Deal is dead. It was Wednesday 2/15 only. There was a $20 rebate involved and shipping was $4.99.

The card is still available for $260 now after $20 rebate, plus $4.99 shipping.

I was )( that close to buying one, but I already have too many decent video cards floating around here - AGP 6800LE, AGP 6800GT, PCIe 6600GT and three PCIe X800GTO. Couldn't justify another card even at such a hot deal.

 

[ChonChon]

Originally posted by: dph1077
Thanks for all the input. After reading all the responses I think I will wait for either the 7900 to come out and get that or wait for it to come out to drop the price of the 7800gt. I guess I forgot to mention in the original post my pc specs:
Asus A8N-sli deluxe
AMD 64 3000+ venice
BFG 6600gt oc (pci-e)
2 gb ram
nec dvd burner

when the 7900 comes out, dont buy it, its a huge pocket burner to but BRAND NEW cards!!!

like you menitoned go fot the 7800GT(X) -- still pretty much more then what you'll need for games that come out for at least another year or more.

im probably gona do the same, or get that bundle from elsewhere in Canada -- great deal!!!!

 

[ChonChon]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications...m-details.asp?EdpNo=1644233&CatId=2023

if you hurry up and u think u can do it, until the very end of February, the deal is still on at TigerDirect.com for $339.99 after $20 MIR!

grab it while you can!!!