Video card upgrade for older machine

[dibrah]

Question for the experts on this board. I'd like to upgrade the video card on my current system but I'm not sure what the marginal benefit will be. Is this system worth upgrading or is it time to build a new one:

Current System
Athlon 2000XP (1.7ghz)
GeForce Ti4600 4xAGP
1 Gig PC2700 RAM
380 watt PSU

I'm thinking about a GT6600 or perhaps one of the newer ATI 800 series. I run most games in 1280 x 1024 and get nice performance (HL2, Doom 3, World of Warcraft) but most of the bells & whistles are turned.

 

[gwag]

6600GT or 6800plain oC'ed

 

[imported_Noob]

I would say upgrade. Your CPU might bottleneck a high end card. I emphasize "Might". If you are looking for the highest end card. The X800 XT Platinum Edition is the one.

 

[Pete]

I'd look to build a new one around an A64 and a PCIe MB, but I guess a used 9700/P or 9800/P (~$110-150) or a new 6600GT (~$200) could tide you over for a while. That CPU will hold you back on some (OK, maybe all) newer FPSs, though.

 

[Cvolt]

I think the 6600GT would be the most sensible upgrade. When you are ready to upgrade your motherboard and CPU you can move the 6600GT to your new rig.

What is your current motherboard?

 

[dibrah]

Cvolt, my mobo is ASUS A7V333 rev. 1.01. I can upgrade the processor to an XP 2600+ for $70 but I don't know if that's going to help.

 

[Cvolt]

Yep, I don't know if you'd see a big increase by going up to the 2600+. I still think the 6600Gt will be a worthwhile purchase as you will be able to run your games at 1280 x 1024 faster with most of the bells & whistles turned on. To bad your motherboard isn't a rev 2.0, then you could move up to a Barton core chip.

 

[dibrah]

I just ran 3dmark03 (05 doesn't run for some reason) and got a score of 1760. Users with similar systems but 6600GT's or ATI 800 series were running scores in the mid 7000's. That's quite an increase.

Oh, and I checked the 2600+ review on this site. The performance increase over the 2000+ seems negligible when it comes to gaming.

 

[RadeonGuy]

Just go with a 6600gt because if you got anything higher your cpu would be bottlenecking the video card

 

[mwmorph]

3dmark05 dosent run because ti4600 dosent run in dx9 mode at all. id try 6600gt or x800 plain both around $200usd