Upgrading from 9700Pro AGP card

[Coogcheese]

My trusty agp 9700pro is crapping out (sniffle...was a great card for the price I got it at years ago). So whats a boy to do?

Keeping with the new graphics card only solution for this thread...

X1600PRO 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 $110
X850 Pro 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 $139
X1600PRO 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 $136
Geforce 7600GS 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP $139-149(depending on rebate for lower cost)
All 12 ppipe cards

Others? Don't really want to spend more at all. Not planning a new system till 07.

Just looking for a bit of a speed/eye candy boost...been a long time between shopping trips. Appreciate any advice.

Fyi...running athlon xp3200 w/1gig ram...maybe budget is the way to go...will I see much difference with this cpu (which I'd rather not change now)?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Raincity]

850 Pro for faster framerates without SM 3.0 support or it's 7600GS if you want SM 3.0. Forget the X1600, about the same speed as the 9700 Pro with SM 3.0

 

[EvanAdams]

what is your system?

Does SM3.0 and HDR on the 7xxx cards require a faster system at = resolutions? Or is the SM3.0 upgrade at no performance cost?

 

[unfalliblekrutch]

at that price i'd go for the x850, but the 7600gs is a decent choice too.

 

[SilverTrine]

Theres that 16 pipe x800xl refurb for $119 on the ATi website. Theres a thread on it in the Hot Deal forum.

 

[Coogcheese]

Thanks for the feed back fellas. I guess I just have to decide on whether I want the SM 3.0 support or not.

Kinda surprised at the last of 7600 GS agp reviews/comparisons on the web. This card appears to have been kinda thrown out without a launch. Heck even evga doesn't have a direct link to it on their site but I found a link to the .pdf spec:

http://www.evga.com/products/pdf/256-A8-N542.pdf

It looks like either this 7600 gs or the refurb x800xl. Again just gotta mull over whether SM3.0 is something I need.


____
My sys: athlon xp3200, 1gig DDR...lots of hard drives...

 

[mwmorph]

what resolution will you play at, the 7800gs isnt all that fast so you will struggle with hdr/parallax mapping/etc on higher resolutions and might only use sm2 anyway.

 

[Coogcheese]

Hadn't thought of that...

1280x1024 is pretty much the highest I've played on currently with the 9700pro and my xp3200...any higher and it bogs down too much. If i'm looking to be competitive on line though I've had to drop it t.o 1024x768

 

[mwmorph]

1280x1024 should be fine for older games SM3(aka first gen SM3 like pacific fighters, Farcry and Splinter Cell Chaos Theory,etc) Also some less demanding games like Age of Empires 3 might be fine atthis level.

1024x768 might do fear at SM3 and maybe Call of Duty 2 high details, games like that decently well.

I wont bet anything else espically like future games though. Yuo sure you cant just go for a used X800xt or 6800gt? You could probably find it under $150 and those 2 cards are faster than the cards you are looking at. The 6800gt overclocks very well in most cases, above 6800Ultra speeds and the X800xt will be very fast stock(competitive with 6800ultra) and can overclock pretty well above that too.

 

[Coogcheese]

Would the 6800gt be faster than the 7600GS?

Followup question: When looking at benchmarks should I be taking into consideration if a review as done on a PCIe board or AGP board?

 

[Penguisher]

Newegg also has the 6800XT's for a decent price. I just looked. You've helped to turn my head back towards the big green eye. Thx again, Coogcheese.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: Coogcheese
Would the 6800gt be faster than the 7600GS?

Followup question: When looking at benchmarks should I be taking into consideration if a review as done on a PCIe board or AGP board?

not really unless there are clock differences in the cards themselves.(the 6600gt agp had 900mhz memory versus the pci-e 6600gt's 1000mhz memory)

The pci-e and agp busses, all other things being 100% equal will have no affect no performance.


btw, 6800xts are incredibly slow. It would only be amybe 15% faster than the 9700pro(its about as fast asa 6600gt). The 6800 line goes(worst to best)

6800le
6800xt
6800
6800gt
6800ultra

The X800xt or 6800gt in contrast wil lbe almost 2x as fast as the 9700pro once the x800xt or the 6800gt are overclocked and everything.

 

[allbread]

Was searching for info on the 7800 GS vs x850 XT-PE (AGP) as I am also looking to upgrade from my old Sapphire Radeon 9700 128MB...

I've got a friend willing to sell me his x850 XT-PE for $140 - I'm really tempted as the 7800s run around $250+ on eBay however I keep coming across sites touting the importance of GS3.0...

Should I hold out for a 7800?

Opinions & Advice appreciated!

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: allbread
Was searching for info on the 7800 GS vs x850 XT-PE (AGP) as I am also looking to upgrade from my old Sapphire Radeon 9700 128MB...

I've got a friend willing to sell me his x850 XT-PE for $140 - I'm really tempted as the 7800s run around $250+ on eBay however I keep coming across sites touting the importance of GS3.0...

Should I hold out for a 7800?

Opinions & Advice appreciated!

************
2 x AMD Opteron 248 (2.2GHz)
MSI K8T Master2-FAR / Award v1.1 BIOS
2 GB of TwinX1024RE-3200LLPT (4 x 512MB)
2 x 250GB Maxtor Diamondmax9 (RAID_0 Linux Boot)
160GB Western Digital (IDE2 port WinXP Boot)
Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9700 128MB (AGP 8x)
Enermax EG651P-VEFM (550W 24-pin ATX PSU)
Lian-Li PC-69 Aluminum Mid-Tower Case
WinXP SP2 and all critical updates

For $140, you should jump on that X850XT right now. I haven't kept up too closely with the AGP market in recent months, but that sounds like a really good price - and the 7800GS, while just a little faster than the X850XT in some benchmarks, is IMO not anywhere close to being worth the inflated price they're charging for it (a quick Froogle search shows it coming in at least $100 more expensive than your friend's card). That would be a good last AGP upgrade and a pretty nice boost from your 9700 Pro...

Edit: SM3 isn't going to be much of a concern on cards of that speed. Any game that made heavy use of SM3 effects (Tomb Raider Legend with Next Gen mode comes to mind) would be too slow anyway...it certainly was on my 6800GT when I still had it.

 

[allbread]

Also - just a bit of extra info to consider - I'm not a big FPS gamer, I have a strong preference for 3rd person games, I daresay I'm more interested in MMORPGs than most of the DOOM spinoffs out there now...

Does this lean towards the x850 or is it not a consideration?

Thanks!

 

[allbread]

Thanks SynthDude - I just caught your post after my last reply...

One last thing - is there any difference between the Powercolor and ATI versions of the x850 XT-PE (the card I am looking at buying is a Powercolor x850 XT-PE)?

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: allbread
Thanks SynthDude - I just caught your post after my last reply...

One last thing - is there any difference between the Powercolor and ATI versions of the x850 XT-PE (the card I am looking at buying is a Powercolor x850 XT-PE)?

no powercolor is the european vendor of BBA cards across the pnod i believe. They use reference designs with ati provided chips.

Rpgs like Oblivion or Buldurs gate? Either way the extra $100 dosent justify the price of the 7800gs. the X850xt is usually faster in most benchmarks and if you can live without parallax mapping and HDR, the X850xt is a great deal at $140.

 

[zendari]

Yup, take the x850xt.

 

[apoppin]

oops . . . not agp

 

[Mavrick007]

Hehe If you don't keep the x850XT PE for $140, then sell it to me. It would be a good upgrade for me

 

[EvanAdams]

You could buy the 850 and sell it in FS/FT for more. That would help differ some cost of the GS. PM me if you decide to sell it.

 

[Dr Asik]

SM3.0 is largely overrated and there's no AGP card that can handle the SM3.0 HDR without a huge drop in performance, except maybe the Gainward 7800GS+ 512MB (horribly overpriced and impossible to find). HDR looks dream-fuzzy and not realistic anyway. Funny icing on the cake, that's it. In addition, SM4.0 is planned for DX10 so SM3.0 is just marketing crap you really don't need.

Your best option is definitly the refurbished X800XL on ati.com clearance; at 120$, it's faster than any other AGP card except a flashed X850Pro or in some cases the overpriced 7800GS.