Upgrading Video Card... But stuck with AGP

[Kalanari]

Well.. I guess the title kinda says it all. My old eVGA GeForce FX 5900SE's fan only seems to work sporadically now (causing it to quickly overheat playing any game that is more demanding then... minesweeper) plus I plan on keeping my current rig for another year or two before making a completely new system, so I decided it was a prime time to slap another stick of 512 RAM and put in a new video card, to tide me over. Anyway.. to make a long post short, I'm having trouble deciding what video card to get.

So far the XFX PVT42KUDE3 Geforce 6800XT has caught my eye (going for around $125-135 from what I can see). Do you think it would be better for me to shell out a couple extra bucks for the 7600GS or save a few bucks and go with a 6600 or whatever? Also, are there any good ATI alternatives for AGP (I have no "loyalty" to either brand and no "fan-boy-ism" either way, I've just ended up usually buying nVidia cards in the past for one reason or another and have usually been satisfied..)? I'm just looking to try to get the best bang for the buck for my video card (99% mostly for gaming here).

Any suggestions/tips appreciated.

 

[xtreme26]

I have the 6800xt 256mb, it was an upgrade from a fx 5200, pretty huge difference i have to say, since the fx5200 is pretty ****** the 6800xt is pretty much a 6600gt with a 256 bit memory bus and with 256 mb. if u can afford the 7600gs, then get it, wayyyyy better choice. on the ati side im not sure. but you can apparently get a x800xl and unlock it into a x850 (correct me of im wrong)

 

[aka1nas]

Go for the 7600GS. the 6800XT isn't that great.

 

[BassBomb]

7600GS = 6600GT in terms of speed.. 6800XT is slightly slower than a 6600GT ...

7600GS has good overclocking potential, so that would get my pick

since u stated u dont mind ati, i believe they have X800XL's going on their website for 120ish not sure if that was agp

quick look finds that the x800xl is refurb, if u dont want refurb x850pro is going for 140 which would destroy a 6600GT/6800XT/7600GS

http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=2699206

 

[hmorphone]

X800XL is pretty comparable to a 6800GT, it has all 16 pipes open already but is not a great overclocker. The unlockable card you're thinking of is probably the X800GTO. You can unlock some of them from 12 pipes up to 16, and it could have the potential to overclock up to X800/X850 speeds (higher than the X800XL.) I would say either the 7600GS if you have the money, the X800XL for less bucks, or a X800GTO if you want to mod and overclock. If I heard right I thought there might be a 7600 card in AGP that equals the 7600GT PCIE.

 

[Kalanari]

Thanks for all the help.

So the feel I'm getting is: refurbed X850pro > 7600GS > X800XL > X800GTO (OC'ed)? Too bad, since I kinda liked the styling of the XTX 6800XT, but substance > style. ;P

Anyone care the add anything or dissent or whatever?

 

[BassBomb]

no ur incorrect there X800GTO (oced+unlocked) > X800XL (this was the refurbed) > X850PRO > 7600GS > X800GTO stock > 6600GT > 6800XT

i dont think u can find an unlockable X800GTO for agp, they were called X800GTO2 .. not sure

 

[kmmatney]

I'm not sure any of the AGP X800GTO's will unlock. The X800XL is already a 16 pipe card. The X850Pro is only 12 pipes, but is clocked higher. They are both about the same speed. The X850XT is the one with 16 pipes that would "destroy" the other 2. However that one is hard to find in AGP. So the X800XL and X850Pro are a tie, and both better (at stock) and the 7600GS.

The 7600GS AGP version is not as fast as the PCIE card. Like somebody said before, its about the same speed as the 6600GT, with better overclock potential. You can go to Tom's Hardware VGA charts and compare the 6600GT versus the X800XL to see how they fare. The 7600GS would have to overclock like mad to reach the X800XL, with is only $120, refurbed from ATI.

Here's the interavctive VGA charts where you can compare cards:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics....delx=33&model1=295&model2=313&chart=80

The X800XL is an older card, but is still quite fast, and a great buy at $120.

 

[Powermoloch]

Lol !!!!!

just check out shop.ati.com

they are having a clearance on X800XL AGP refurb + warranty for $119 and a Brand spankin' new X850pro AGP for $139 . If you can find a "coupon" somewhere in the net..you can save a few bucks while at it (ppsssst. check fatwallet). According to some benchmarks that I read (especially in Anand's). X850pro = X800XL

 

[hmorphone]

Originally posted by: kmmatney


The X800XL is an older card, but is still quite fast, and a great buy at $120.

There you go.

 

[Kalanari]

Well, after and searching high and low just in hopes of finding out if there really was an unlockable AGP version of the X800GTO2 - the GTO2's with the unlockable pipelines (the R480 core) are PCI-e only. So, that means I'll probably just be ordering the re-furbed X800XL sometime this week. Thanks for all the help all.

 

[xtreme26]

the 6800xt isnt slower than the 6600gt, it should be a tad faster because of the bigger memory bus and it has more memory.

 

[Insomniator]

Yeah ive never seen any benchmarks showing the XT to be slower, only about the same or faster then the 6600gt. The 6600's high clocks help it stay
at the 6800xts level even though it is 128 bit i believe..

 

[iu2687]

..

 

[shamgar03]

Any idea how the unlocked x800gto compares to the x850pro/x800xl? Is it me, or do they make these naming conventions as confusing as possible?