x850xt upgrade to 7900GS?

[BlueWeasel]

Current setup:
Opteron 165 (dual core) @ 2.75Ghz
2GB PC3200 RAM
x850xt PCIe 256MB (overclocked to PE speeds)

My local BB has the 7900GS (256MB, PCIe) on clearance and after selling my x850xt, I could upgrade to the 7900GS for about $25-30 out of pocket.

I'm not a hardcore gamer and mainly play older games. The x850xt still works fine for me, but I like to take advantage of smaller upgrades if beneficial. I'm not really looking for performance in any particular game, old or new.

Generally speaking, would the upgrade to the 7900GS be worth it?

 

[lyssword]

Yes, it will allow you to play some sm3-only games that you can't with 850xt. Also 7900gs supposed to be faster overall and run cooler. Well, in older games 850xt will prolly hang with 7900gs, so main benefit would be lower power consumption/noise

 

[SlowSpyder]

One of the nice added benefits of the 7900GS is they generally overclock very well. My BB bought Pny could hit 550mhz without breaking a sweat. I tested it up to 575mhz without any problems. I didn't go higher, so I don't know where the ceiling was on it. The memory on my card didn't overclock for anything though. Still, I got 100mhz for free out of it for everyday use.

 

[Denithor]

Cooler and quieter is always nice. And SM 3.0 looks good!

And actually, the 7900gs looks to be a fairly strong upgrade from the x850xt if you game at resolutions of 1280x1024 and above. Benchmarked here.

For $25-30 I would certainly have a hard time passing up that kind of upgrade.

 

[apoppin]

go for it ... for the price it is a nice performance upgrade with SM 3.0
:thumbsup:

 

[BlueWeasel]

Thanks all. 🙂

 

[daveybrat]

Wow, that's a no brainer! That 7900GS is a great card, and for the price difference you stated, go for it! 😀