Upgrade from 9800 Pro?

[leonmac73]

Taking everything in consideration I guess I should do the best I can with my new Abit mobo, I just got it. No, I'm not hurting, but that goes without saying (we could ALL survive with Emachines if we really had too) so I guess it's not a matter of hurting. There is nothing wrong with cutting edge technology. When I do something, I want to do it right!

So, there are no price wise upgrades from a 9800 Pro at the moment. Even if the 6800GT/Ultra are definitely noticeable, those are high dollar upgrades. I have decided to go with nothing slower than a plain vanilla 6800. Maybe a refurb from NewEgg would suffice. Opinions?

 

[leonmac73]

I have been offered $165 for my 9800 Pro. Plain 6800 refurb from NE is $261 shipped. Hmm....

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
Is it more than 20% faster overall? There are times it loses to the 9800 pro, let alone being ahead by much more than that.

In Doom 3 and Far Cry it can be up to 100%+ faster. Basically in shader intensive games on 9800 the games are a slide show and on 6800 they are above 50 frames at 1600x1200. Once you enable AA/AF 6800 is still able to maintain playable framerates as long as you dont exceed 1024x768 with AA/AF.

Doom 3 1280x1024 2AA/4AF
Far Cry 1600x1200
Far Cry 1280x1024 2AA/8AF
Call of Duty 1024x768 4AA/8AF
Flight Sim 2004 1024x768 4AA/8AF

But in your case i'd still go with at least 6800GT. You can always sell it back later. The problem with x800XL is that it's not going to be available in AGP for a while.

If you dont want to spend a lot, get BFG 6800 OC $249.99 If you can unlock the extra 4 pipelines, you'll really notice the difference between 9800Pro and this card, but only if you play newer shader intensive games.

 

[murban135]

I upgraded from a 9800 Pro to a 6800 GT and it was a hugh increase. Looking at the rest of your system I think that is the way to go.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: leonmac73
I want to go ahead and upgrade, still a little sceptic about the plain 6800's slower GPU. I am just wondering is there anything out there signifantly better that the 9800 Pro worth upgrading too. Thanks.

IF you feel the need to upgrade, the 6800GT is the best bang-for-buck . . . . i believe they have recently dropped to ~$320 at Microcenter (see a current Hot Deals thread) . . . . ANything less is a minor upgrade and i'd wait till the new cards are out this Spring.

 

[fishmonger12]

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/

you get a gain varying from 0-30 fps in this vga chart. not worth it imo.

GT would be a much better way to go. you could sell your 9800 pro on ebay, and then ebay a 6800 gt. not sure if that would lower the price though, might want to just find a good deal on it.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
Is it more than 20% faster overall? There are times it loses to the 9800 pro, let alone being ahead by much more than that.

You didn't say "overall", you said "at most". You are wrong. Please post a link to some benchmarks at a playable setting where the 9800Pro is faster than a 6800?

 

[memories2002]

Hold on for a while, then get the 6800gt/x800xt when it drops in price..

 

[leonmac73]

I agree, the GT is still $390 lowest I can find, except for Ebay, which is $370 (I don't like to wait 2-3 weeks until I recieve something). Thanks for the opinions everyone.

I'll keep my eye on the GT/Ultra for a while and see what happens. This message board has been a very big help (and educational).

Perhaps I could discuss my hard drives on another topic.

 

[dguy6789]

There was like 2 or 3 tests where the 9800 pro was running a game like 2fps faster. We are talking about the 6800 non ultra, because the last benches I saw of it, the 6800nu was faster, but not by a big enough margin to warrant an upgrade.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: leonmac73
I agree, the GT is still $390 lowest I can find, except for Ebay, which is $370 (I don't like to wait 2-3 weeks until I recieve something). Thanks for the opinions everyone.

I'll keep my eye on the GT/Ultra for a while and see what happens. This message board has been a very big help (and educational).

Perhaps I could discuss my hard drives on another topic.

Guess you mised my reply . . . 6800GT for $320 . . . not sure if it is still on today.
:roll:
6800 GT 320$ 6800 230$ at microcenter

 

[leonmac73]

Thanks, I check it out.