What upgrade path should I take?

[imported_Com80787]

Hi all,

Right now I'm somewhat pressed for cash until the next 2-3 paychecks come in thanks to increased spending this month... but this Radeon 9700 128MB card is killing me.

I moved to a socket 754 2800 CPU a little under a year ago and decided to get a board with AGP no realizng AGP was about to go under and also not realizng socket 754 was going to get the same fate.

I just got an LCD with a native res of 1280X1024 and that resolution is killing my performance in games. (no more getting by with 640X480 or 800X600)

Ultimately I want to move to an M2 socket or 939. Possibly dual core CPU 6-12 months from now as well. But right now I want some kind of temporary cheap solution to the serious performance problem I am facing because with this new LCD I'm finding my only gaming choices are 1. Play a slide-show or 2. Get some seriously ugly visuals at a non-native 640X480 res.

My question is this - would getting a $60-70 socket 754 board with PCI-E and an ATI X1600 be a good solution for me until I have the cash to move to something better? Would an X1600 be a noticeable upgrade over my Radeon 9700? (read: allow me to game at 1280X1024 with at least somewhat decent visual settings and a playable frame rate) Or would it be a waste?

Thanks very much for any advice.

 

[blckgrffn]

If you are getting PCIe, consider the x800GTO or a 6800GS. That will be a definite upgrade over the 9700 Pro and should be relatively the same price as the x1600xt (a little more, especially the 6800GS) while dominating it in performance. Even a 6600GT is faster than an x1600xt.

Nat