Yep, researching an upgrade and would like to discuss!

[Malladine]

Ok, gaming system, going from (all stock):

Radeon 9700 non-pro
1700+
ECS K7S5A motherboard
Keeping 1gb PC2700

Looking at upgrading to:

939 motherboard (probably Chaintech VNF4 Ultra)
3000+ (cheapest 939 available )
and one of the following, PCI Express definately:
ATI X700 Pro
6800 (not GT)
6600 GT

In benchmarks (#1 #2) from tom's hardware the X700 Pro lags behind the other two, with 30.6 in Doom 3 1024x768 high quality 4xAA 8xAF, the 6600GT has 42 and the 6800 54.5 in what as far as i can tell are the same test setups (x700 pro and 6600gt for sure). heh, if anyone can find a direct comparison without using two seperate benchmarks i'd be indebted

Anyway, the prices on those are:
X700Pro - $246
6600GT - $223
6800 - $335

My concern is that the 6600GT will eventually fall behind due to only have 128 as opposed to 256mb ram (even though it's clocked much faster than the others). Also concerned by the 6800 apparently not having GDDR3. Is that even true?

The X700 Pro is clocked high in processor and ram speed, but benchmarks lower than both the nvidias...

Anyway, lots of info here certainly, but you know you like it

 

[nick1985]

clock speeds on graphics cards mean jack sh!t.


IMO, the 6600GT is the best bang for the buck out of the cards you listed.

 

[Malladine]

Alright...

Ya, do like the price tag on that 6600gt and it's still a huge upgrade from the 9700 np. You don't see the lesser ram as a potential speed bump?

 

[ribbon13]

16 pixel pipelines and 256-bit memory bus are important

 

[Malladine]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
16 pixel pipelines and 256-bit memory bus are important

Alright, makes sense. The 6800 is faster because it has 256 bit architecture. Ok. But why then is the X700 Pro slower than the 6600GT? They are both 128bit but the X700 has 256mb ram as opposed to the 6600GT's 128mb, both GDDR3. The 6600GT is clocked higher, but i've heard somewhere that clock speeds on GPUs dont mean jack...same pipelines too right?

btw, reading anandtech reviews now

"If $200 is in the budget, and PCI Express is a necessity, the 6600 GT is absolutely the way to go. "

alright!

Anyone else have opinions/suggestions? On the other parts too, didnt intend to turn this into an out of place post on video only!

 

[darkeyed]

You might want to keep your eyes out for the prices on the ATI 800XL to come down to MSRP. It should be just over 300 and has 6800GT performance.

I have heard some good stuff about the Chaintech VNF4 Ultra.

 

[Malladine]

Originally posted by: darkeyed
You might want to keep your eyes out for the prices on the ATI 800XL to come down to MSRP. It should be just over 300 and has 6800GT performance.

I have heard some good stuff about the Chaintech VNF4 Ultra.

wow that would be very tempting, thanks.

 

[ribbon13]

I have no experience with socket 939 boards, just 940s. The processor you seem to have already decided upon. If you can afford it get the cheapest 90nm Winchester A64

 

[fishmonger12]

the 256 meg memory doesn't mean anything on cards in this pricerange because they aren't fast enough/ don't have a big enough memory bus to use that 128 megs of extra memory. look at the 9800 pro and the 9800 pro 256 meg edition. they perform exactly the same. for the high end cards, the memory matters, that's why you don't see any 6800gt's around with 128 megs of memory (cept asus, they're crazy)

 

[Malladine]

I figure this system will be upgradeable for a long time to come, probably the most upgradeable machine i've owned yet!

ribbon13: yeah that's the 90nm Winchester

fishmonger12: makes sense, thanks. Thing is, i know that already games are taking advantage of the extra memory on gpus, whether the gpu has the power to utilize that memory is a different matter. That's the one hangup i have with going for the 6600GT