upgrade from 9800 pro

[grim1221]

my setup is as follows:

xp 2500+(barton)
512 mb pc2700 (2 sticks of 256mb)
kt800 mobo (my nforce2 caps finally blew): (
9800 pro agp

i need to upgrade my video card w/out upgrading my entire sys. i'm saving up for a core2duo and dx10 (maybe) rig but i'd like to be able to game somewhat in the interim. my 9800 pro is really showing its age. i was looking at a x850pro agp for $130 but i was wondering if i would be cpu/ram limited. i think i'll have to get 512mb of ram extra but i'd like to keep the investment to a minimum(especially with ram so exspensive). although it might make a decent gaming rig for my wife after my new build. any advice would be appreciated

 

[XJustMeX21]

x800 or 6800 series should be a worthwhile upgrade and while it may be a little faster on a newer system it is still a huge video upgrade on that system.
i made the same upgrade on a 2500+ ofcoure mine was overclocked and it was deffintly worth it.

 

[Captante]

That X850 Pro would be a decent upgrade & if you can find an X800/850 XT that would be even better... other good choices would be either an Nvidia 6800GS or (if you can find one) a 7600GT AGP might be the best option of all because of its low power draw.

Any of these cards will be a bit limited by your system but should give you a nice performance boost in newer games ... I went from a 9800 Pro to a 6800GT with my AXP 3200+ oc'ed to 2.4ghz and in many cases my framerates almost doubled.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

i agree with x850 pro, but you'll probably be CPU bottle necked until you get a new CPU

 

[Stumps]

I would probably go with a 7600GT...or at the very least a 6800GS.

 

[grim1221]

i thought about the 7600gt or the 6800 gs but the agp versions are more expensive than the x850pro and performance is similar (with my specs at least)

 

[Slammy1]

I went with the x850 Pro upgrading my 9700 on a P4 3.0C. At this point in life cycle it doesn't make sense to do an expensive upgrade, esp with DX10 cards around the corner.

 

[Captante]

Actually either one should be faster then an X850 Pro although the 6800GS won't be very much faster... an X800/850 XT would be the fastest of the bunch by a little bit over the 7600GT but is louder, hotter, draws a lot more power & doesn't support as many features so image quality won't be quite as good.

 

[grim1221]

does anyone know if the x800gto's can still be softmodded to open the 4 extra pipes on it.
they are the same price as the x850pro. if they still can what are the chances on unocking them?

 

[Captante]

Some can & some can't ... if you get lucky & get one you can unlock your still not garanteed it will run stable at X850XT speeds though & theres also a chance of killing your card in the process of trying to unlock it... of course if it works you'll have gotten a great deal!

Its your call, but unless price is the absolute most important thing to you, I'd suggest springing for the 7600GT AGP or for a genuine X850XT.... thats what I would do myself.

 

[Slammy1]

I went through it with my x850. I got some corruption, so I flashed back. Wasn't a big deal except I'm stuck with only 12 pipelines. I wouldn't do it again, but given what research I'd performed I would do the same thing given the same option.

 

[PianoMan]

I upgraded from a 9800Pro to an X850Pro in my P4 3.0E/1Gb system. While there were some performance gains, I ended up returning it to the store (CompUSA's return policy ROCKS), and eventually building a PCI-e gaming system.

In your case, since you're waiting out the new gear - it may be a good interim solution. For some real world examples, I went from moderate/high settings @1024x768 to slightly higher settings at a greater resolution of 1280x1024 in BF2.

Again, a performance boost, but while I was on the fence for jumping to PCI-e, not enough for me to stay with it.

A X850XT would definitely be a better option, but since you're waiting out, you may want to save some $$$.

PM

 

[Zenoth]

Wait for G80/R600.

See the prices for those. Then decide if you''ll go with those, or previous generations (meaning current ones, G70/X1K).

That's what I'd do.