upgrade from 6800GT

ronboronbo Connecticut
edited January 2007 in Hardware
I have never owned a ATI card before. I have been with Nvidia from the start. My Leadtek 6800GT works very well with most games I play. I want a little more and was thinking of this card. Will it be better that the 6800GT I have now, and how does it compare to the 7800GS Agp from Nvidia? Here is a review I found for it. It sure looks pretty...

Comments

  • miragemirage
    edited January 2007
    ronbo wrote:
    I have never owned a ATI card before. I have been with Nvidia from the start. My Leadtek 6800GT works very well with most games I play. I want a little more and was thinking of this card. Will it be better that the 6800GT I have now, and how does it compare to the 7800GS Agp from Nvidia? Here is a review I found for it. It sure looks pretty...

    For the games that are already running fine with 6800GT you will not see much difference. But some of the new games need a better card for the best visual quality. Such games I know by experience are Company of Heroes and FIA GTR2. X1950Pro will run them at higher visual quality at 1280x1024 or 1680x1050. And if you care about it, 3DMark05 score of X1950Pro is ~2X better than 6800GT. So, you should be able to see a noticeably better performance in the new games with this upgrade. It is for sure better than a 7800GS, I would compare it with 7900GT or an overclocked 7900GS. But, if you are interested in overclocking, X9150Pro is not a good overclocking card unlike 7900GS.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    The X1950XT is <i>much</i> more powerful at higher resolutions than the card you've got now.. Sometimes it'll be up to 100% faster. It's nuts. :D
  • miragemirage
    edited January 2007
    I saw a nice deal for a X1900GT, which is very close to X1950Pro that you have linked but at a much better price of $165. You might want to check out this discussion at Tom's Hardware as well.
  • ronboronbo Connecticut
    edited January 2007
    Gentlemen, thank you all for your fast replys and advice. It looks like I will be breaking my relationship with Nvidia for awhile. Thrax, you mentioned the X1950XT. I do not think I can buy that in AGP. The links I gave are for the X1950Pro-AGP. I cannot afford to upgrade to PCI-X yet. So now my choice is between the X1900GT that mirage mentioned or the X1950 Pro.
  • miragemirage
    edited January 2007
    Sorry, I missed that your link was an AGP card. The X1900GT that I saw is PCI-E. X1950Pro is the best AGP available, AFAIK.
  • ronboronbo Connecticut
    edited January 2007
    I can just hope that NewEgg will get then in stock again soon. I put myself on the auto notify feature...
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    There is a nasty rumor a 7950GS will be rolling out to replace the 7800GS for AGP :)
  • ronboronbo Connecticut
    edited January 2007
    I hope so Sledge because now NewEgg is not listing the AGP version of the ATI X1950Pro anymore???
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    From the people I talked to the 1950 AGP card has had a ton of issues, and will not be released in huge numbers.
  • ronboronbo Connecticut
    edited January 2007
    Thanks for the heads up, Sledge. Lets hope Nvidia comes up with something good for us AGP users too. I have to guess that 70% of all the computers in the world are still AGP. Why would a graphics card manufacture want to loose a market share that big. A lot uf us cannot afford to upgrade to PCI-X yet. It would mean a new MB, new DDR2 ram, and a new video card. I would guess that would cost about $700. And my AGP system is only a little over a year old. CPU is still fast, Athlon 64 (FX-55), Memory is very fast, 1 gig 2x512 dual channel, ( Patriot XBLK DDR ) timing is 2 2 2 5 and the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum has been trouble free all this time. Guess I will stay away from that ATI X1950pro if it has issues....:usflag:
  • miragemirage
    edited January 2007
    Sledgehammer70 wrote:
    From the people I talked to the 1950 AGP card has had a ton of issues, and will not be released in huge numbers.


    I bought an ASUS EAX1950Pro PCIE sometime back when it was $165. There was not much problem other than it was running hotter than I liked. And there was almost no overclocking margin at all. I read in a forum from some people, especially Sapphire owners, that the power circuits were really hot and causing instability. Although the performance was very good, I swapped the X1950Pro with a friend's XFX-GF7900GS since it was one of the best overclockable boards, running cooler, and at a lower price. After overclocking (see sig) I can say 7900GS is at almost the same performance with X1950Pro and running without any heat issues. If 7950GS will be similar to 7900GS I would be excited about it.

    Additionally, the latest AGP cards from ATI has an AGP-PCIE bridge chip (they call Rialto) on the back side of the card which also is on my X800XL AGP card (see sig). It gets very hot and, I suspect, it is occasionally causing instability on my computer. I have been looking for an opportunity to replace the X800XL with a 7900GS (7950GS?). But I have an advantage that Asrock 939Dual supports PCIE as well as AGP :)
  • rapturerapture
    edited January 2007
    I was in your position a few months ago, I found it cheaper to buy a new motherboard (took a while to find a socket 754 PCI-E board) and 1900XT than to get another AGP graphics card.

    I don't like the ATI CCC or whatever they call it but it's the best video card I've owned and probably my best hardware purchase so far.
  • ronboronbo Connecticut
    edited January 2007
    Rapture, if I can get away with not buying new DDR2 Ram and Cpu I would go with a new MB that supports PCI-X. Then I might be looking at about $400. I can afford that now..As it is I have DDR memory and socket 939 Cpu. I will look at NewEgg and see if there is such an animal.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    The only way would be to stick with a 939 mobo and get a 7600 or even a 7950GT Graphics card as they offer the best bang for the buck.

    Motherboards:
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Category=20&N=2010200022+1070907495+107191007&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=22

    Graphic Cards:

    7950GT's
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150189
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130066

    With some of the options you can keep the price at $350 or go up to $400 depending on what series GPU you get and Motherboard.

    With what I have seen Biostar, ASUS, DFI, and even Foxconn offer great 939 products and I have built many systems with all of their products. For graphic cards I have narrowed down my choices these days to XFX and EVGA as they are the kings of Nvidia cards... next to BFG and ASUS who both make great cards also...
  • miragemirage
    edited January 2007
    ronbo wrote:
    Rapture, if I can get away with not buying new DDR2 Ram and Cpu I would go with a new MB that supports PCI-X. Then I might be looking at about $400. I can afford that now..As it is I have DDR memory and socket 939 Cpu. I will look at NewEgg and see if there is such an animal.

    If you upgrade the motherboard now to buy a PCIE card, you will need to upgrade the motherboard again when you buy a new processor. On the other hand, if you buy an AGP card now, you will not be able to reuse it with your next motherboard. It seems like both strategies have disadvantages. I think buying an economical mobo from Sledge's link and the best PCIE card you can buy is the better option. Good luck!
  • rapturerapture
    edited January 2007
    Motherboards tend to be significantly cheaper than a good graphics card.

    Either way you're going to have some spare hardware in a year or two, I got a budget motherboard which I'd have no problem with flinging when it comes to upgrade time.

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136163 Looks like a good board for the money.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    If he has a single core 939 he still has plenty of room to upgrade CPU wise... If he isn't looking for top of the line bleeding edge processing power. A FX60 CPU is still pretty dang fast even for me these days and it is dropping in price daily. So if he wants to stay 939 he still has room to grow. Going with a new setup will force him to buy a new Mobo, Ram, and a new CPU plus the GPU he will be buying anyways.

    So in my opinion staying 939 isn't all that bad... unless you do want cutting edge top of the line CPU power down the road. but that will cost much more $$$.

    To be honest at the rate CPUs are rolling out with more cores etc... All our setups will be obsolete in just a year or so...
  • ronboronbo Connecticut
    edited January 2007
    Sledge, is a FX60 that much faster than the FX55 I have now? The reason I was thinking about a new graphics in the first place was because of games like Tom Clancys Rainbow Six Vegas which I hear my 6800GT will only play on low or medium settings. If this is the way new games are heading then I have to do something in the graphics department. I do not want to play a game with no eye candy on medium settings. I want to be ready for games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
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