Is it worth it?

fingerflingerfingerflinger Ohio
edited February 2006 in Hardware
Okay, as you can see in my signature, my computer is a couple of years old. I don't have the cash for a new system right now, but I'd like some more power. My overall system performance is fine, but the lag I'm getting on games like Far-Cry makes them unplayable. Is a stronger video card the way to go? From what I understand, there wouldn't be any real advantage to changing the chip. (Mine's a Northwood core.)

Comments

  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    I believe you are on the right track with your thinking. Faster DRAM would make a difference, so would a faster CPU. The biggest gaming bang for the buck though, would be what you suggested - a more powerful video card.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Seems like a fine system, dunno how FarCry performs, but I would figure the best for you would be the gfx card.
  • fingerflingerfingerflinger Ohio
    edited February 2006
    Well, I think FarCry is just choking because I've got an ATI card. The Cry engine is designed for Nvidia cards isn't it?

    Anyways, are there any AGP cards out that would last me a while? I heard something about a 7800 or something for AGP, anyone tried it out?
  • dstyle347dstyle347 Boston
    edited February 2006
    There's a few 6800gs AGP cards out there, they're pretty affordable ($200) and should last until the rest of your rig needs an upgrade. That's what I would go for seeing as your going to need PCI-E when you upgrade the rest of your rig anyway. No sense in blowing a ton of cash and it's not like the gs is a crap compromise either.
  • tmh88tmh88 Pittsburgh / Athens, OH
    edited February 2006
    fingerflinger wrote:
    Well, I think FarCry is just choking because I've got an ATI card. The Cry engine is designed for Nvidia cards isn't it?

    Anyways, are there any AGP cards out that would last me a while? I heard something about a 7800 or something for AGP, anyone tried it out?

    nah, although the cry engine is "designed" for nvidia cards, it wont make a whole big of a difference. Maybe a few fps but it wouldnt be noticible unless you benchmarked it.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    fingerflinger wrote:
    Well, I think FarCry is just choking because I've got an ATI card. The Cry engine is designed for Nvidia cards isn't it?

    Anyways, are there any AGP cards out that would last me a while? I heard something about a 7800 or something for AGP, anyone tried it out?
    It runs quite well on my X800XL. :D
  • jradminjradmin North Kackalaki
    edited February 2006
    If you can find an older X800 card, I remember that you could flash them up to the next highest card. This was before ATI began lazer cutting the chips and locking them. I could be wrong on this but I believe this was the case with the older X800 cards.

    You could also do this with Nvidia 6800 (LE) cards. These were the budget cards released at the same time as the GT. You could actually flash them up to 6800 Ultra and have an ultra card with half the memory. I have one of these cards in my game server.
  • fingerflingerfingerflinger Ohio
    edited February 2006
    Thanks for the suggestions everybody. The 6800 appears to be within my threshold of pain, and if it can be flashed up to an Ultra, so much the better. Now I have to track one down...
  • jradminjradmin North Kackalaki
    edited February 2006
    If you can find and old one (like from when they were released back in 04) then I would say give it a shot. Otherwise I would go with the 6800GS if your unsure about flashing the card.
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited February 2006
    I would suggest the 6800GS/AGP card, which can be had from Newegg for about $215 delivered (the eVGA brand) instead of an older 6800GT model as the GS versions are made on a newer core and overclock better than the older 6800GT cores. Even though they are running less less pixel pipes than the 6800GT (12 instead of 16), they are manufgactured on a 110 nm process rather than the 130 nm process of the 6800GT and as a result, they run cooler and overclock better generally, with less power draw. Anandtech did an article on the PCI-e versions last Novemeber right here, but the AGP versions are running the exact same core and memory as the PCI-e models so this should apply to the AGP models too (except for SLI of course).

    IMO, that's a pretty good price/performance ratio for that vid card. Another thing to consider too, is the ram issue of some of the newer games. I'm not a big gamer and I haven't run into the problem, but some people have seen that going from 1 GB to 2 GB ram has helped on the lag issue with some games, especially when loading new levels.
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