Upgrading from a 9700Pro to a x800XL/6800GT

[deanx0r]

I've been planning to get a brand new rig this summer but the pricing on some parts such as Athlon X2 CPUs and 7800GTX cards refrain me from doing so.

I am currently running a P4 3.06GHz, 1GB of RAM and a 9700Pro and the later games like HL2 or Doom3 are playable, but not silky smooth as I would hope.

I am debating between the BFG 6800GT OC for $325 shipped and the ATI X800XL for $280 shipped, both in their AGP version and new.

Is the CPU fast enough to push those cards? What can of improvement can I expect coming from a 9700Pro?

 

[imported_rod]

If I were you, I would wait a few weeks, and watch as the prices of nVidia cards drop. Then grab the 6800GT. The one you have listed is supposed to be pretty good.

And your CPU should have no trouble supporting either of those cards.

RoD

 

[stevty2889]

Either one of those cards would be a nice improvement, and you have a good enough CPU and enough memory that it won't be bottlenecked. Like Rod said, with the realease of the 7800GTX, prices should come down some on the 6800GT.

 

[IEC]

Originally posted by: rod
If I were you, I would wait a few weeks, and watch as the prices of nVidia cards drop. Then grab the 6800GT. The one you have listed is supposed to be pretty good.

And your CPU should have no trouble supporting either of those cards.

RoD

 

[eno]

The system will be a bottleneck IMO, but its still worth upgrading from the 9700pro. Hell each time I threw my old 9700pro into a faster CPU based system I noticed more and more out of it. I am very confident that both my 6800GT on a 3.2P4 HT and my X850XT on my OC AMD64 2.5ghz are limited by the system and would open up further with faster CPU,Memory,chipset. Still stretch that system out a bit longer and drop in a 16pipe AGP card like the 6800GT. I love mine, great for Doom3. Love my X850XT too, great for CounterStrike Source. I would take the other guys advice on waiting, maybe with the release of the new card that the 6800GT will take a slight price drop. Whatever you do, if you are playing todays game right now on a regular basis, don't wait a month or two just so the price will drop, parts will always get cheaper, just make sure when you buy, you use.... right away. 🙂 Have fun.

 

[magomago]

Nah, if I were you I'd wait until next year and then finally make the jump to the new stuff. Though considering the pace that ATI and NVidia work at, I'm guessing June of next year 😉 Then again I, three months ago, "jumped" up to a Geforce4 😉

If you really can't live with it though, I'd probably do 6600GT

 

[Slugbait]

I just read in another thread that the BFG was getting pulled from a lot of shelves, and that BFG admitted there was some sort of flaw they are fixing. YMMV.

I'm assuming you're still on AGP. If you're considering a system upgrade in the next 12-18 months, which almost certainly means PCI-E (i.e. yet another new video card), I'd suggest you save a few bucks today and go with a vanilla 6800. then unlock the pipes. It won't be exactly like a GT, but it will be close in speed and power, and you'll save around $100 bucks or more. That's what I did, since there's a few things about to happen in the next year that makes me wanna wait before I build my next uber machine.

 

[Ike0069]

Personally I'd stay away from BFG right now.
Here is what Monarch says about that card.
Thread

 

[eno]

Yeah no need to get BFG 6800GT but I got one of the first releases and its running great in my warm HTPC case. But there are plenty of other brands out there. All I was trying to say last night is, YES a new high end card would really help in todays badarse games. But yes even those AGP high cards will be limited by your system CPU, and your next system will most likely be PCI-E only so your high end AGP card won't have as much versitility down the road. If you plan on keeping your system a good while longer like a year or so, then upgrade, it will make the difference. I just had to make that decission on my P4 system, I was trying to sell it since needed a video card and didn't want to buy AGP so I tried to sell the system but ended up just using it as my HTPC system and bought a nice X850XT for my main gamer and moved my 6800GT into my HTPC case. Yes with all the new hardware coming out it will get dated fast, but its plenty of power and when new engines come out I will just have to lower some settings to keep my FPS where I like it. Just get a new card and crank the settings. Have fun gaming.

 

[Fern]

Is the CPU fast enough to push those cards? What can of improvement can I expect coming from a 9700Pro?

No, you won't be bottlenecked to any noticeable degree. IMHO, the cpu bottleneck concern is often overstated here.

Noticed a BIG improvement over my 9800pro clocked to above XT speeds with my 6800GT. You should enjoy big improvements too.

Fern