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Video Card Dilemma

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Pentium 2.8Ghz won't bottleneck that 7800GS to much. GPU matters 100x more than CPU. It'd only be a problem if you was running like a Celeron 1.5ghz or something that slow. Does that Pentium Have Hyperthreading on it?
 
Sorry for the long post but I don't know?

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CPU#1 APIC ID = 0
Name Intel Pentium 4
Code Name Northwood
Specification Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
Family / Model / Stepping F 2 5
Extended Family / Model 0 0
Brand ID 9
Package mPGA-478
Core Stepping M0
Technology 0.13 µ
Supported Instructions Sets MMX, SSE, SSE2
CPU Clock Speed 2813.5 MHz
Clock multiplier x 14.0
Front Side Bus Frequency 201.0 MHz
Bus Speed 803.9 MHz
L1 Data Cache 8 KBytes, 4-way set associative, 64 Bytes line size
L1 Trace Cache 12 Kµops, 8-way set associative
L2 Cache 512 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64 Bytes line size
L2 Speed 2813.5 MHz (Full)
L2 Location On Chip
L2 Data Prefetch Logic yes
L2 Bus Width 256 bits
CPU#2 APIC ID = 1
CPU Name Intel Pentium 4 (logical unit)
 
no your cpu will not be the bottleneck atm. i just switched to my rig in sig from a 2.8C P4 because i wanted to go back to amd due to the fact that they put off less heat, and in phx, az that means quite a bit 😀
 
I replaced my ATI 9800Pro 256 card with the eVGA 7800GS CO Superclock and I have definetly noticed the difference. The only game that the x850XT/PE clearly beats out the 7800GS CO Superclock is FEAR. ATI cards run FEAR better than nVidia supposedly from the reviews I seen. The 7800GS has some extra features the ATI AGP cards dont.

If you are at the upper end of the spectrum for AGP cards it would probaby be wiser to save up for a new PCIe system but if your not high up on the performance spectrum and want to milk one last year out of the old AGP then the 7800GS CO Superclock is good choice. Thats what I did. This thing will get handed down to my daughter, who doesnt game much, once I get a newer rig later this year. So for for $300 and some change I got a card that'll last for a couple more years service at least.
 
The video card that I have now I bought in November. I worry that if I upgrade the video card now in 6 months I may have to upgrade it again. I have been looking either upgrading the video card or upgrading the entire system. It doesn?t appear that I can keep the processor from this computer and just buy a motherboard. I have not been able to find a motherboard with PCI-E that supports a socket 478 processor. This system was built 2 years ago. This doesn't appear to be a winning situation for me.
 
Just get the 7800GS. Your processor will handle it fine. And then save up until your card can no longer run at your minimum acceptable settings. You will have to upgrade it sooner or later, but don't take your experience with the 9600 and try to make that what you'll get from the 7800GS. They are 2 different classes of cards. The 9600 was midrange when it came out in 2003 and was a budget end card in november. The 7800GS is a Performance-Midrange card(in other words, in between mid range and high end) and will probably last you for a year or even 2 depending on how low you're willing to run the resolution and eye candy. My lowest acceptability is 1024*768 with medium settings and 8xAF.
 
Originally posted by: LW07
Just get the 7800GS. Your processor will handle it fine. And then save up until your card can no longer run at your minimum acceptable settings. You will have to upgrade it sooner or later, but don't take your experience with the 9600 and try to make that what you'll get from the 7800GS. They are 2 different classes of cards. The 9600 was midrange when it came out in 2003 and was a budget end card in november. The 7800GS is a Performance-Midrange card(in other words, in between mid range and high end) and will probably last you for a year or even 2 depending on how low you're willing to run the resolution and eye candy. My lowest acceptability is 1024*768 with medium settings and 8xAF.
Click to expand...


Ok

I am going to stop stressing and take your advice. Saving up to upgrade makes it a lot easier than feeling force to do it right now. I really appreciate your helping me out. Thanks
 
Originally posted by: jazzie142
I just wanted to thank all of you for your help.


Thanks a million
Click to expand...

so, you are waiting? that is cool, pretty soon the ultra high end cards will become just high end and then you can pick one up for a decent price. also, the skt939 stuff should be going down a little when am2 comes out.
 
I am going to wait about 6 months. I built this computer two years ago with a lot of help from my friends. There are a lot of new things out that I have no idea what they are like SLI. I am going to do some research and then built my dream computer as soon as I figure out what that is. The computer I have now I am going to give to my son. This way I won?t have to buy him a computer.
 
Originally posted by: jazzie142
I am going to wait about 6 months. I built this computer two years ago with a lot of help from my friends. There are a lot of new things out that I have no idea what they are like SLI. I am going to do some research and then built my dream computer as soon as I figure out what that is. The computer I have now I am going to give to my son. This way I won?t have to buy him a computer.
Click to expand...

excellent. good luck
 
I'm back. I went to buy this card GeForce 7800GS store rep. said this (VisionTek® Radeon? X1300 AGP Video Card 512MB of DDR2 memory) was a better card. I thought I would ask the pro's. Is this a better card?

Thanks
 
Originally posted by: jazzie142
I'm back. I went to buy this card GeForce 7800GS store rep. said this (VisionTek® Radeon? X1300 AGP Video Card 512MB of DDR2 memory) was a better card. I thought I would ask the pro's. Is this a better card?

Thanks
Click to expand...

He was talking utter shite as far as i can see. I didn't even know that there was a 512mb version though. The best ATI AGP card is the X850XT, and the 7800GS is better performing than that.
 
No, he's feeding you bad info. I'd stop dealing with him at this point. Btw, you'll find the cheapest prices from online stores. If you dont have a credit card a good many of the online stores will accept PayPal. Thats an option you may want to look into. Another option is if you have a friend or family member that can order the video card for you with their credit card and you give them the cash. Just another suggested option If you dont have your own cc.
 
as others have stated in agp it goes like this - 6800ultra ~=x800xtpe or x850xt, x850xtpe a little faster and then the 7800gs. that is it, the highest of the agp line. anything else is lower.
 
I'm facing the same situation and have a system that is very similar from about 2 years ago(P4 2.8C, Nvidia FX 5900XT). I was seriously considering upgrading to a 7800 GS as well, but I just don't think it would last me very long and it seems like I would be delaying the inevitable upgrade to PCI-E someday.

If I were to uprade to a new system that supports PCI-E, would I need a new PSU? Also, what is this AM2 that I keep hearing about? I was looking at socket 939 options using the A64 3700 or 3800 X2. Is the dual core 3800 significantly better for gaming? It almost costs $100 dollars more...
 
Originally posted by: Flightsim
I'm facing the same situation and have a system that is very similar from about 2 years ago(P4 2.8C, Nvidia FX 5900XT). I was seriously considering upgrading to a 7800 GS as well, but I just don't think it would last me very long and it seems like I would be delaying the inevitable upgrade to PCI-E someday.

If I were to uprade to a new system that supports PCI-E, would I need a new PSU? Also, what is this AM2 that I keep hearing about? I was looking at socket 939 options using the A64 3700 or 3800 X2. Is the dual core 3800 significantly better for gaming? It almost costs $100 dollars more...
Click to expand...

it all depends on what you use your pc for. with a 2.8C you are not cpu limited but you are gpu limited with a 5900xt. in my case, i went to a opty144 from a 2.8C because i wanted a lower temperature machine and also wanted to learn about o/cing the amd a64s. it was more of a learning experience for me, and as you can see by my rig in sig, i stayed agp since i have a decent gpu that still games well and i got a smoking deal on it. imho, for you i would go some sort of skt939/pci-e and a 78/900gt before i spend $300 on a agp card that you know is a dead form factor.

also, remember that a a64 as low as 3000 is pretty equal to a P4 2.8C and in all honestly although my current rig benchmarks better with 3dmark03 and 05 along with superpi, i don't notice the game fps change because my gpu was able to keep me over 40fps anyway. so i would either look for a deal on a xagp 800xtpe/x850xt/x850xtpe for ~$175 or just wait until you go pci-e with a cheap changeover like a a64 3000 and skt939 pci-e board.

as far as am2, it is amd's next cpu coming out, which may or may not be as impressive as the intel conroe. both are a couple of months out so we will wait to see. imho the skt939 is still a good, affordable option, again that is unless the intel conroe's actually perform as well as the few benches we have seem indicate and the prices we have seen stay the same or go down.

if you are thinking of a 3800 the gpu makers are making drivers that do take advantage of the dcs, and games will start to be developed for dcs, but even if the second cpu on the 3800 is not touched, you still basically have a a64 3200(2.0GHz single cpu).

regarding the psu, what psu do you currently run?
 
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