9700 Pro Equivalent or better

[buji]

I'm looking to replace my 9700 Pro with an NVidia card that's either better or the same (all things being equal, looking at marginal price difference). It has to be AGP, and I don't want to spend a lot since I just need it for maybe another year. I was looking through the old reviews but couldn't find anything, so if anyone has a link or knows of an answer, I'd appreciate it.

 

[ep1taph]

I have a 6600GT and it's a little more powerful than my friends 9800pro and has some newer features. I had a 9700pro AGP and upgraded to a 6600GT PCI-e and the difference was noticable but not dramatic.

If you want a noticable performance boost, go with anything in the 6800 series (NU, GS, GT) in AGP flavor.

There are a lot of 6800XT AGP's flying around now -- I don't know if they're unlockable, but they have similar stats to a 6600GT except with a 256bit memory bus. If you have easy access to one it may be a worthy change if you really want to play OpenGL games.

Someone may know more about where the 6800XT stands in the scheme of things.

 

[AltTabbins]

I have a 6600GT and it's a little more powerful than my friends 9800pro and has some newer features. I had a 9700pro AGP and upgraded to a 6600GT PCI-e and the difference was noticable but not dramatic.

If you want a noticable performance boost, go with anything in the 6800 series (NU, GS, GT) in AGP flavor.

There are a lot of 6800XT AGP's flying around now -- I don't know if they're unlockable, but they have similar stats to a 6600GT except with a 256bit memory bus. If you have easy access to one it may be a worthy change if you really want to play OpenGL games.

Someone may know more about where the 6800XT stands in the scheme of things.

Its a little bit more powerful than a 6600gt.. Still a good card when you compare it to its 6600 brother.

 

[compulsivephreek]

dunno, I went from 6800 to X800 XT PE and the image quality at the same resolution was better with the ATI card. Much better, sharper, better filtering of textures. I have used many of both ATI and nVidia, and have always felt ATI was the better quality card. I feel nVidia plays on fps, while ATI may be a tad slower sometimes, but a better overall card. The drivers are fine, just finicky. Once properly installed one should have no issues.

 

[tim-x]

dunno, I went from 6800 to X800 XT PE and the image quality at the same resolution was better with the ATI card. Much better, sharper, better filtering of textures. I have used many of both ATI and nVidia, and have always felt ATI was the better quality card. I feel nVidia plays on fps, while ATI may be a tad slower sometimes, but a better overall card. The drivers are fine, just finicky. Once properly installed one should have no issues.

i think you've got it backwards

 

[AltTabbins]

i think you've got it backwards

I wasn't too big on the 6800's quality either.. I am not a fanman of either company.. I buy what I want to (performance for price).

 

[ElMoIsEviL]

the main problem with the 6800 series (as is the case with the 7x00 series) is the damn shimmering bug. Really takes away from the image quality and is mainly caused by nVIDIA's Adaptive AF implementation. It is noticeable under certain circumstances on ATi x8x0 and x1x00 boards as well when Adaptive AF is used... but goes away once high quality AF is used.

In other words.. ATI's AF does an overal better job.. Adaptive or High Quality.

 

[ep1taph]

Back on topic, this is directed at the original poster:

Looks like your best bet at this point is going to be something on the 6800 series. Performance wise, in somewhat ascending order the following models exist in AGP format:

1) 6800XT -- many available now.
2) 6800NU -- available.
3) 6800GS -- now hard to find retail.
4) 6800GT -- difficult to find retail, FS/FT or ebay yes.
5) 6800Ultra -- FS/FT best bet.

All should be at least comparable to your 9700pro and most will be better.

 

[buji]

Thanks for the help guys! Looks like I'm going for the 6800 today