Choose my video card!!

[NOFX]

Ok ok, I am finally throwing in the towel for my faithful 9500 pro. She has jsut about seen her days,

 

current setup

2.6 @ 3.0Ghz P4

1 gig RAM

 

Which card should I go with. I was orginally thinking 6600GT, but looked at the benches and now Im leaning toward an x800. I can get a X800 Pro for 179, but what about these GTO's Ive been hearing about. I saw a x800Gto for 162 bucks yesterday, but wasnt quiet sure how it compared, does anyone have any info?

[Leveller]

Toms Hardware AGP 2005

 

I presume you're looking at AGP as I'm guessing if you're running a 9500 it's not that new a setup. Tom's hardware does a good review of available AGP cards all in one place (benchmarks etc.), unfortunately don't think this new fangled GTO's listed on there.

Personally, I'm running an AGP 6800GT on a 3.06Ghz P4 (non HT) with 1.5 g of RAM. None of it OCd, and I get a steady minimum of 50-60fps on DOD and b/w 75 and 100 on CSS depending on map.

Edited October 5, 2005 by Leveller

[Acid-Flux]

get the ATI X1K!!!

LOL

[Batman]

The x800GTO is slower than the x800PRO, its just clocked lower..

[NOFX]

yea my system is 3 yrs old, but I do have a HT P4. I have been lookin over at Toms, but they dont have nay info on the GTO2, how is it in comparision to the x800 pro, In the other thread someone mention you can simply flash the bios and get all 16 pipelines, but model is it based on?

[Sir Shertown Pimp]

I have pci-e geforce 6600gt and I love it.

[Magruter]

I've heard that the GF4 MX440 is an awesome card!! Might want look into getting one of those!

[NOFX]

i'll check it out mag

[NOFX]

man, I dont know what to go with. I'm really leaning toward a x800 pro, cuz I can get those for about 179. But then I really want to go with an nvidia card. and a 6800GT refurbed is 240 and performs less than the x800 pro.

 

The 6600GT is looking like a contender to because it is only 126 bucks brand new on newegg

[Batman]

My x800pro card has 12 pipelines, and can NOT be flashed to open the other 4.. I dont know enough about Nvidia cards to offer a suggestion..

[Cujo]

i would never buy an agp card at this point but since you're considering it i'll give you your best option. the new x800gt and gto are pcie only i believe.

 

your best bet is an x800 pro vivo. most vivos can have their pipes unlocked with a simple bios flash because they come with the 1.6ns ram where as the non vivo comes with slower and lower clockable 2.0ns ram. there's been reports of newer cards being hardlocked. anyway it's all explained in the thread below. suffice to say, i've had two. both have unlocked to 16 pipes. one did xt speeds (500/500) and the second one did xtpe speeds (520/560). even if they don't unlock it's still the best money for the value especially for hl2/cs:s.

 

HUGE thread here. don't bother reading it all but read the beginning for how to and the end for current results.

 

again, personally, i would never "upgrade" to a new agp card at this point in the game simply because it's quickly becoming a legacy technology. there are a lot of agp cards still out there but VERY few mobos.

[TheReverend(c)]

Ok ok, I am finally throwing in the towel for my faithful 9500 pro.  She has jsut about seen her days,

 

current setup

2.6 @ 3.0Ghz P4

1 gig RAM

 

Which card should I go with.  I was orginally thinking 6600GT, but looked at the benches  and now Im leaning toward an x800.  I can get a X800 Pro for 179, but what about these GTO's Ive been hearing about.  I saw a x800Gto for 162 bucks yesterday, but wasnt quiet sure how it compared, does anyone have any info?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Radeon 9800 XT R360 256MB agp. its a little older that the current cards but still very good. I play HL2 full out with it and have very few problems. its also $175. Your ram and cpus specs are still good. It also helps to have a fast HDD like the wd 76gb 10k drive or the hitachi 500gb 7200 16mb cache(little spendy on that one though). But if you can get an x800 pro for 179 go for it.

Edited October 5, 2005 by TheReverend(c)

[Guest zerodamage]

Well, 30 minutes from me writing this ATI's new hardware will be publicly released. So I can not answer this question until I know what ATI's new hardware will do. I say wait a couple of weeks and see what prices do.

[Preacher]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16814102593

[NOFX]

good call with the vivo man, but Im in need of an AGP.

 

Now comes the question....will my 3.0Ghz P4 be obsolute before the x800 pro? If not, then I should still wit AGP, but in all honesty if I come across a large sum of cash, im getting a dual core Processor, probably a P4 D, basically a Intel over AMD cuz the lower end 2.8Ghz will OC alot and come with 1Mb on each core and only costs 250 right now, if you want that with AMD you have to get a 4400+ and costs 535 bucks. Plus intel has the 64 bit extensions as well, if 64 bit processing really ever takes off.

 

 

Intel

 

AMD

 

 

bah!!! New CPU, new video card, == $$$

Edited October 5, 2005 by NOFX

[DirtyBird]

I bought a 256 MB X800XL AGP card off of newegg about 2 months ago and love it. I upgraded from a 128 MB 9800, and notice a big difference.

[Norguard]

Same here, Dirty. There is a huge jump in performance, however, I actually think that you may want to have a look at some of the lower x1K boards.

 

The x1600 may be a contender for your wallet, when all is said and done. The new architecture is guaranteed to be an improvement over the last series, the question becomes how much and for what price.

 

The best advice I can come up with right now is the same advice Zero had come up with before. Give it a week or two. Check Tom's, and other hardware sites over the next little while and see how the cards stack up.

 

I would easily believe that an x1600 will outperform an x800 (though definitely not at a 2x ratio, as the name implies), and may be worth a few extra bucks, compared to an x800Pro. And the firmware upgrade you're thinking of, NOFX, was the 9800 series of cards. The "problem" was rectified in the first batch of them. You also used to be able to flash to FireGL standards (though it was popular, it really isn't recommended for gaming... ...increased pixel accuracy and purity will slow down the gaming, not speed it up).

[Cujo]

stop talkin about the new ati cards. he's stated many times he needs agp. the new cards are pcie only.

 

nofx, a64 dual core is their high end. with intel it's their low end. that's why the price is different. as far as i'm concerned, your p4 can not hold a candle to any a64 out right now. amd has had 64 bit extensions for 2 years now. EVERY a64 is 64bit.

 

as to whether an x800pro will become obsolete before your p4. your p4 has been obsolete for a while now so you're in no danger there. i made it pretty clear that i thoguht it was a waste of money to get a new agp card at this point so i'm not sure why you would even ask the question in the first place.

 

rev, the x800pro kicks the crap out of the 9800xt. given the price difference i don't even see why a 9800xt would even be considered...

[NOFX]

nofx, a64 dual core is their high end.  with intel it's their low end.  that's why the price is different.  as far as i'm concerned, your p4 can not hold a candle to any a64 out right now.  amd has had 64 bit extensions for 2 years now.  EVERY a64 is 64bit.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well in those two comparisions, I was looking at cpus with 1Mb cache. P4's low end has 1Mb while AMDs have only 512. and that was the lowest AMD that had 1Mb cache.

 

I don't know about EVERY 64 being faster than this P4 man...

Socket 754 64's only on have 1 memory channel. I built a 2800+ AMD 64 and my P4 was much more responsive. Loaded my OS faster, etc....

 

Socket 939 has 2 memory channels, but I haven't been able to play on one so I'm not quite sure that the performance difference between a 3000+ venice 1GHz FSB and my P4 is worth the $250 bucks.

One can't help but be skeptical about trading in a 3.0Ghz on a 920Mhz FSB for a 1.8Ghz on a 1ghz FSB. I know you get more potenial out of a faster bus, but its very close to 50% slower in clock speed. As far as the 64 bit processing.... We both know virtually no applications are written for 64 bit CPUs now and by the time they are, we will both need new CPUs.

 

I dont think my P4 is obsolete just yet....a 3.0Ghz is still 175 bucks on newegg.

[VooDooPC]

The X800 Pro is back in stock at ATI clearance center for $179. I bought one of them and no one can take it away from me, NO ONE!

[Cujo]

nofx, amd doesn't even have "fsb" with it's a64. the memory controller is on-die. what you're talking about it the hyper transport and 800mhz vs 1000mhz vs 600mhz makes no difference. dual channel memory gives between 5 and 10% perf bonus over single channel. sometimes no difference. cache is max 5% difference 512k vs 1mb and sometimes none.

 

not only that, you can't compare clock speed on intel vs amd. they are totally different architecture. when someone says a 1.8ghz amd is about equal to a 2.8ghz p4 that means that in most benches they are similar. intel obviously is better at some and amd at others. if you look at game benchmarks, a lowly 1.8ghz a64 beats a 3.4 or 3.6ghz p4 in most games specifically hl2/cs:s. as another example of architecture differences, my 1.86ghz pentium m in my laptop would beat your 3.0ghz p4 in cs:s.

 

i won't even go into power consumption. i will say my housemate has a 3.0ghz prescott and it runs at 70c in games. it heats his room. my a64 at 2.5ghz never goes above 42c. on the other hand, their mobile pentium cpus are amazing.

 

oh and have you seen a video card review that doesn't use an a64 machine? you'd be hard pressed to find one. why do you think that is? ask any review site, intel can't touch amd at the moment in desktop performance. they're losing ground every day. that's why they're in such a hurry to get their 65nm parts out.

Edited October 7, 2005 by *|CsLs|*Cujo

[Cujo]

anyway, back on topic. cs:s is very cpu limited. ignore the in game benchmark. in actual online gameplay, you would notice an increase in your lowest fps going to any a64 over your current p4. who cares about avg and high fps if you get dips in heavy firefights. that's all cpu load making things choppy. i've increased visual settings in my game recently and seen no difference in testing with fraps. however if i run my cpu at stock 2.0ghz i notice a drop. i noticed a big increase going from my xp 2500 mobile at 2.4ghz to my a64 at 2.0ghz. my advice is to keep your vid card until you can afford a pci express system. if you do upgrade plz keep your settings the same and test in real game play with fraps your before and after fps.

 

edit - btw, i had an x800xt with my xp2500 system and i downgraded to a x800xl when going pcie. i now run at higher settings.

Edited October 7, 2005 by *|CsLs|*Cujo