Video card upgrade question

[dmw16]

So I am in an upgrading kind of mood. That is to say in the next few months I would like to move to something faster than my 9700pro. Looking around it seems like the x600s wont be all that great and I dont think I can afford an x800. So would something like a 9800XT give me a big boost or do i just have to save my pennies till i can get an x800?
thanks,
-doug

 

[charloscarlies]

The 9700 is still a great card, and you won't see much of a difference between it and the 9800 Pro/XT. Save your money and get the X800 or 6800.

 

[fishsgood]

im not sure but the last time i checked newegg the x800pro and the 9800xt were the same price. I would go with charloscarlies advice. the 9700pro is a good card. i woud save it, or upgrade the ram or something

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: fishsgood
im not sure but the last time i checked newegg the x800pro and the 9800xt were the same price. I would go with charloscarlies advice. the 9700pro is a good card. i woud save it, or upgrade the ram or something

ijust got the Radeon Pro 256/256 - the "XT" version w/2.5ns Hynix RAM - all it takes is a BIOS flash (and maybe a cooler) to become a 9800XT - from NewEgg today for $223 shipped.

i haven't flashed the BIOS yet and only played with it a couple of hours to know that DeuSex II and Thief III look AWEsome at MAX detail w/aa&AF and everything 'on'; i get 16K points in 3DMark2001 and ~6K in '03 . . .

. . . your results can't be all that much lower to NEED an upgrade; are ANY games running slow for you?

If not . . . buck the trend - ignore the clever marketing . . . and WAIT.

It will become clear soon enough and all the new product pricing will stabalize . . . save your money and THEN decide.

 

[howdyduty]

9700pro is decent. Going to a X800 would show a major difference though.

 

[justin1466]

a jump from a 9700 pro to an x800 xt/pro would be good, but unnecessary at this time and juncture. the 9700 pro is an extremely well-made video card that is still going very strong today (what's it been 2 and a half years?).

If you must upgrade, make it the 6800 GT or Ultra, they seem to be faster, they have shader 3.0 capabilites, and look like the next leader in video cards (well untill ATI busts the R480 out)

Personally i'm waitin for PCI Express and a bunch of other stuff to come out, but ATI has always been my first choice

 

[SickBeast]

It's very silly to upgrade from a 9700 ATM IMO. And I'm upgrade-happy, believe me. The only game that currently chokes the 9700 is Far Cry. Dropping $500 for one game is beyond ludicrous IMO. Keep it until the R500 is released and you won't be sorry. New hardware will probably be unneccesary for you until DX10 comes along, provided that it does come out in 1H05.

 

[Brian48]

I still have my 9700Pro from 2 years back. Unless you're willing to go all out and get a x800xt or 6800Ultra, it isn't worth the upgrade. I still regret my upgrade to a 9800Pro last year. Although a great card, it was not a very big leap from what I already had.

Bottomline, the 9700Pro is still a solid card. Quite a testiment to the R300 design engineers.

 

[RussianSensation]

just like everyone said 9700Pro is a great card. If you look at the benchmarks, where 9700Pro does not provide playable benchmarks, neither do 9800Pro or 9800xts. So I would recommend like the others to upgrade to at least X800SE (have to see what the performance is) or 6800nu ($300 and it performs alright). Of course ATI announced that they will still produce cards compatible with AGP slots it seems for another year or even more so there is no rush to buy PCI-Express cards anytime soon. If i was you I would only upgrade when amazing games that require the graphics power come out => STALKER, Doom 3 and HL2, etc. But since most of these games will not appear until September (except Doom3), there is no need to upgrade now. Hopefully the prices will lower somewhat close to Christmas time and you should pick yourself something like the 6800GT then. Why upgrade when only 1 game (Far Cry) and maybe Halo will take advantage of the new graphics cards now?

 

[caz67]

I would go with the 6800GT. Its only marginally slower than the Ultra, at a much cheaper price.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: howdyduty
9700pro is decent. Going to a X800 would show a major difference though.

only if you have the CPU horsepower.. anything below 3000+ IMO and the 9700 Pro will still be good!