Worthwhile to upgrade from a 9800 Pro?

[duragezic]

As seen in my sig, I have a Barton XP 1.8ghz@2.2ghz, 1GB ram, and a 9800 Pro (o/c to around XT speeds). I play HL2/CS:S/DoD:S, Guild Wars, Joint Operations, and well a few older games that run fully maxed out anyway. I also play BF2 a little and just started FEAR, but I can't play either of those at my native 1680x1050 because they are too demanding. A full system upgrade is out of the question, and from what I researched a while ago, my ~3.2ghz cpu is still adequate, and the video card has much more room for improvement. I'm looking for smooth play at 1680x1050 + AF would be enough for me.

Would something like a 6600GT be a worthwhile upgrade, or is it not much faster? Old reviews of 6600/6800/X800 cards usually compare with each other, not to older gen cards, so I'm not sure where my 9800Pro fits in. If not, what other good choices are there? I was thinking a 6800LE 256mb AGP would be ideal, since I hear they often unlock, but not too sure plus can't seem to find one. Otherwise a 6800 or 6800GT? I like ATi cards, but with the exception of Source engine games, Nvidia seems to have the hand (tho I play DoD:S 15:1 to every other game right now). I don't know much about the X800 cards, so please comment on them.

Now I'm limited to AGP. AFAIK, there is no performance difference between the two. Is this correct? So even if I bought a new AGP video card then a year later bought a new mobo/cpu/ram but kept that card, I wouldn't be losing anything by not having PCI-e support?

Sucks that the AGP cards are always way more expensive than PCI-E equivalents. It would be nice to find a used one, but for all the things in the FS/FT thread, I can never find the one thing I need at that one time.

What do you guys think?

Oh yeah, my budget is $200 or less. And this includes me hoping to hawk my 9800Pro on FS/FT for about $75, so that I only need to spend $125 on this. I can't imagine spending more than that much money for a better looking game. My current system doesn't prevent me from playing anything, but it'd be nice to run FEAR so that it looks better than QUake 2.

 

[Dkcode]

I had a 2600+ Tbred clocked at 2.2ghz with 1 gig of pc2700 ram and also a 9800Pro and i upgraded to a 6800GT, i highly recomend this card it let me play all my games including BF2 at 1280 x 1024 w/ high detail & a little AA + AF at around 40fps. The CPU was holding me back however..

If you can afford this card then it comes highly recomended, a worthwhile upgrade from a 9800Pro. But dont expect to play FEAR at 1680x1050 with good frame rates. The GTX's and X1800XT's suffer from significant slowdown at those resolutions.

Dont bother with a 6600GT as its almost the same as the 9800Pro maybe a tad faster.

Just a thought, it may work out to buy a PCI-E mobo, a cheap athlon 64 and keep all your other stuff (depending on the ram) and build a X800GTo2 system and go for unlocking the extra 4 pipes making it almost a X850XT which would be much faster than the 6800GT. The price of this upgrade path may equal the price of paying for a single AGP 6800GT card. Play around with the prices your sure to find something intresting.

 

[imported_Kiwi]

To any gamers still using ATI Radeon 9xxxx's, you know ATI always is way behind on their drivers. Their newest cards jumped about 30% in frame rates with the latest drivers, so it would be a cheap investment in time to see what effect those drivers have on the generation before last, like the 9800's.

I can never allow myself to "afford" current gear at current prices if I want to keep up on my other bills, so I have only just acquired a 9800se myself, and I want to see what the driver change will do, but the jump, shoot, and twitch console style stuff like the FPS' never have appealed to me, so I will have to see what benchmarks Maximum PC included on their last DVD's and use one of those here.

 

[Patt]

I wondered the same thing, but bought a relatively cheap X850 Pro AGP card. Someone mentioned in thread I had on it that there are MB's capable of running either an AGP or a PCIE card. Might be worth getting a better AGP card now, if you buy one of those motherboards for future expansionability?

 

[kyparrish]

OP, I've got a socket 754 system that is still plenty fast for me for now. I have a 6800GT that was a GREAT upgrade from a 9800pro. One day, I'll get the Asrock Dual Board that is socket 939 compatible, with an AGP and a PCI-E slot. When I upgrade, I'll use my good AGP card with a dual-core processor, then 2 or so years down the road upgrade to a PCI-E video card to complement the rest of the rig.

I'd go with an x800pro or 6800GT for now in AGP form, then in the future when you absoultely have to upgrade your CPU, get the Asrock board so you can continue to use your good AGP video card.

My $0.02.

 

[duragezic]

I'm not sure if I can swing a X800 Pro or 6800GT AGP for under $200. Is there any list of cards from the last couple of generations that shows which models are available in AGP? I think the connect3d X800GTO, X800GTO2, or 6800LE would be my best bet since they are killer values if you can unlock and overclock them.

I thought the X850Pro would be way outta my range. Also, I don't believe the newest drivers helped the old cards. I do have the Cat 5.10s right now, I generally stay updated every few Catalyst updates.

I was thinking about a cheap Socket 754 combo, but that's probably not the smartest idea considering I built this current rig in August 2004 (only about 15 months old). DOn't the need AMD cpus require DDR2 ram, or is my regular-ass PC3200 still okay?

 

[PingSpike]

There aren't any chipsets/processors out right now that use ddr2. Although there are some on the horizon.

Socket 754 is indeed a dead end platform. However, it also offers pretty damn good performance for its cost.

 

[Patt]

Originally posted by: duragezic
I thought the X850Pro would be way outta my range. Also, I don't believe the newest drivers helped the old cards. I do have the Cat 5.10s right now, I generally stay updated every few Catalyst updates.

Yeah, when I mentioned it, I wondered. I bought it for $250 CDN, which was $150 off the regular retail price. Great deal that is now dead though. If you can find something like that, and the dual board that kyparrish mentioned, you'd be laughing.