AGP card or new whoile system???

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xcamarox

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 20, 2003
Messages
84
OK, my system is as follows:

Abit IC7-G Max3
Pentium 4 3.0C@3.6Ghz (240 FSB)
1GB Corsair @ 240Mhz Pro Edition
2 - 36GB Raptors RAID 0
2 - 300GB RAID 0
Antec 480W PS

Now I have a 9800Pro Flashed to 9800XT and it works fine at 412/365

I got decent cooling in the system, which in turn has worked fantastic in tha last 2 years.

I got about $300 that I can spend on this, either this or get myself a new complete system.

Is it worth the $300 upgrade (6800GT or X800-850). Is my processor capable of playing nicely with these cards? I just dont want to jump in the upgrade thingy yet because of the new intel processors due next year...I think I want to keep the system for 6 more months at least. I want to play BF 2 and some of the new games to come for at least 6 more months or a little bit more...

I need opinions...Thanks!!!
 
Tough choice. My roommate plays BF2 reasonably well on his 9800 pro. In fact, if he had decent RAM, I'd say it would run quite nice on that card.

I'd say stick with your 9800 as long as you can. BF2 and HL2 should run fine on it. But FEAR and anything beyond that might suffer. Actually, my roommate was running FEAR on his 9800pro and it looked like it ran pretty darned good. I only watched it for a minute or so, but I didn't notice any horrible chopping.

Aren't the 7800GT's approaching $300? I'd probably try and pick one of those up at this point compared to a 6800GT if you were in fact going to upgrade. Hmm.
 
If your looking for 6-8 months more service you can find 6800GT's in FS/FT section for $230-250 which aint bad considering you can't find one for near that price retail if you can even find one. I hear some people like the x800gto's and then flash to x850xt. I'm not that experimental but since your a past flasher and all. One of these cards would for sure last you a good 6-8 months till you upgrade.
I've even seen 6800 Ultra's for under $250 in FS/FT. Just gotta be vigilant.

As for your proc........I put a 7800Gt on a 3.0 Pentium D for my in-laws and it drives it nicely. Not as nicely as a FX57 (or 3.6-3.8 P4 single core) but nicely nonetheless.
 
You have a sweet system. I would say spend $200-$250 on a decent AGP card like 6800GT or X800GTO/XL/whatever (I haven't been keeping up, but heard GTO is a good value), and keep that for another year.
 
OH well...thanks for your responses...I guess I wasnt that bad after all...I actually can play BF 2 pretty well on 1024 X 768 with full graphics and it runs really smooth...FEAR I dont like so Im not too concerned on that one...HL2 I play it all day long and no problems at all, full 1280 X 960...I sometimes get some slowdowns but not too often.

If worst comes to worst I'll just get a different video card and tha hell with it...besides I only play 3 or 4 times a week for like 1 hour max...sometimes not even 15 minutes...

Thanks for all your responses!!!
 
Yeah man, I'd stick with your system its still pretty up there...Your 9800Pro sounds like its still doing its job. So It should still play all the lastest games. And in 6 months get yourself a awesome new rig.
 
You know, a few months ago when I had my P4 rig I made the mistake of buying a 6800GT AGP card. Though I loved to see the improved numbers, honestly I could have skipped that step since I got myself a major upgrade/overhaul to a new CPU/mobo/GFX card.
 
i debated the same thing for a while (system upgrade vs. new agp card) and finally decided to just get a new AGP card.

With all the standards changeing, ive just decided to save my cash to afford an entire new system in 18-24 months. By then i'll need 2 gigs of DDR2, PCIE vid card, and a socket M2 amd chip. Just makes more sence to wait.
 
I have a similar system as you, and I've been going back & forth.

If you had a 6800GT you'd probably be content for at least another 6-8 months. Check the FS: forums they have plenty of them moving in there for $225-250 everyday.

Anyway my system is plenty fast enough. but I'm an upgrage whore & I wanted a 7800GTX. So I was on the virge of buy the Albatron 915 motherboard, so I could keep my 478 socket chip, DDR, and get a PCIe 16x slot for a 7800GTX!!

After going back & forth with the idea. I finally decided to quit being such a whore and wait another month or 2 for 975 motherboards to come out and do a major upgrade and just pass down my awesome parts to my ShuttleXPC.
 
Same thing here. Kind of at the end of the rope with money i want to throw into a dead platform. The problem being i have an itch to upgrade. There just isn't a whole lot of room under the ceiling anymore. I have a great chip. Hyperthreading. A great OC'ing 6800gt. It really has me debating if there is even anything out right now that would be worth buying a whole new system.
 
I just went from a 9800 pro to a 6800 ultra on the rig in my sig. Doubled my 3Dmark05 score - around 2800 to around 5600 points, for $300.
 
jdLordHelmet said:
I just went from a 9800 pro to a 6800 ultra on the rig in my sig. Doubled my 3Dmark05 score - around 2800 to around 5600 points, for $300.
Click to expand...
I have a very similar system and bought one of those x800xtpe refurbs this summer to upgrade from a 9700pro. Made a huge difference, was well worth the $300.00 canadian shipped and taxes. Like having a whole new system - though a pair of 7800gtx in sli would have been even better.
 
why wait for a new pentium? everyone knows pentiums are pretty poor at games AND more expensive. i dont understand the logic in saving up for a supersystem and ruining it with a pentium made for office apps.
 
00fil00 said:
why wait for a new pentium? everyone knows pentiums are pretty poor at games AND more expensive. i dont understand the logic in saving up for a supersystem and ruining it with a pentium made for office apps.
Click to expand...

Except that my previous AGP system was a Pentium rig, and my current PCI Express system is an AMD :p
 
00fil00 said:
why wait for a new pentium? everyone knows pentiums are pretty poor at games AND more expensive. i dont understand the logic in saving up for a supersystem and ruining it with a pentium made for office apps.
Click to expand...

Im a Pentium guy, you are a AMD guy. I do know why the AMD is a little bit faster than P4 in certain applications, such as games, but I dont want to have a patch for my programs to make them work on AMD, nor I want to have cretain work arounds for AMD processors.

This is not a rule of thumb, but it does happen.

Thanks for your suggestion tho...
 
Lol you dont have to patch a game for it too work with amd systems and simple fact is that the amd x2 64 is a superior chip to any intel period. I run a amd x2 64 3800 at 2.6 ghz thats way beyond a rated x2 64 4800 by 200 mhz and I have never had to patch any game for amd only where do you get this crazy info lol. Paired with my 7800gtx I get 9k 3d mark 2005 what you get with that pentium setup.... dont tell dont want ya to get shamed. And btw the amd x2 64 is faster than a intel system in all areas not just games bud.
 
Shane said:
Lol you dont have to patch a game for it too work with amd systems and simple fact is that the amd x2 64 is a superior chip to any intel period. I run a amd x2 64 3800 at 2.6 ghz thats way beyond a rated x2 64 4800 by 200 mhz and I have never had to patch any game for amd only where do you get this crazy info lol. Paired with my 7800gtx I get 9k 3d mark 2005 what you get with that pentium setup.... dont tell dont want ya to get shamed. And btw the amd x2 64 is faster than a intel system in all areas not just games bud.
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My words exactly.

No shame dude

But you need the facts.

This was way back in the day. I think your getting confused with SSE and all of that junk. It's a non issue. Also 64 bit processors work great with anything. The only thing everyone is waiting on (maybe a "patch") are the true 64 bit operating systems (windows longhorn or vista hwatever) and true 64bit applications.
 
xcamarox said:
Im a Pentium guy, you are a AMD guy. I do know why the AMD is a little bit faster than P4 in certain applications, such as games, but I dont want to have a patch for my programs to make them work on AMD, nor I want to have cretain work arounds for AMD processors.

This is not a rule of thumb, but it does happen.

Thanks for your suggestion tho...
Click to expand...


TeamStrykerCore said:
My words exactly.

No shame dude

But you need the facts.

This was way back in the day. I think your getting confused with SSE and all of that junk. It's a non issue. Also 64 bit processors work great with anything. The only thing everyone is waiting on (maybe a "patch") are the true 64 bit operating systems (windows longhorn or vista hwatever) and true 64bit applications.
Click to expand...


werd.gif


as long as you use the normal 32-bit version of Windows XP, instead of trying to go 64-bit, there should never be a need to patch or workaround any program.

and to be honest, there's not really much reason to upgrade to the 64-bit version of WinXP anyway.....the main advantage of going from 32- to 64-bit hardware is to raise the amount of addressable system RAM from 4GB to ??? millions of GB of system RAM.
 
xcamarox said:
OK, my system is as follows:

Abit IC7-G Max3
Pentium 4 3.0C@3.6Ghz (240 FSB)
1GB Corsair @ 240Mhz Pro Edition
2 - 36GB Raptors RAID 0
2 - 300GB RAID 0
Antec 480W PS

Now I have a 9800Pro Flashed to 9800XT and it works fine at 412/365

I got decent cooling in the system, which in turn has worked fantastic in tha last 2 years.

I got about $300 that I can spend on this, either this or get myself a new complete system.

Is it worth the $300 upgrade (6800GT or X800-850). Is my processor capable of playing nicely with these cards? I just dont want to jump in the upgrade thingy yet because of the new intel processors due next year...I think I want to keep the system for 6 more months at least. I want to play BF 2 and some of the new games to come for at least 6 more months or a little bit more...

I need opinions...Thanks!!!
Click to expand...

I'm in the same boat as you with a 9800 Pro at 412/365, but I just have a 2.3Ghz AMD XP Barton. My buddy with a 2.4Ghz Barton just put a unlocked 6800LE into his rig and it made my jaw drop. So I think that I will try and find another 6800LE or pick up a 6800GT since it pulls 60FPS out of Quake4 in bitchin detail!

My 9800pro on the other hard is starting to be a real big dog in FEAR, Q4 and COD2.
 
The catch is that if you get the 6800GT then you'll want to run BF2 at 1280x960 with all the eye candy, so you'll be tempted to buy another gig of RAM too... :D
 
Hey right now isnt a smart time to upgrade since like someone else said all the standards are changing... I dont think a new vid card would be worth it now (If you was going to, the GTO2 would be the best thing out, but I dont know if its AGP).

With $300 all you can do is buy a good vid card anyway so just wait...
 
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