AGP upgrade from 1600 Pro

[homerjelly]

I just recently bought a X1600 Pro (less than 2 months) and I have a Vantec VF900 ready to put on it and overclock.

Here's the predicament:
- I got some extra $$ (200 CAN) to spend.
- I found a used BFG 6800GT OC 8x AGP 256MB w/ NV Silencer 5 and a BFG 6800GS OC 8x AGP 256MB for $200
- The guy with the GS said the extra pipes can be unlocked.

My CPU is an AMD Barton 2500+ running at stock and I have a Thermaltake BT which I plan to put on it and overclock.

Note: I know about overclocking and the risks etc and I've minimally tried it out once or twice but experience wise I am a newbie overclocker.

My questions:
- What's the difference between the GS and GT? (pipes, clock speeds etc)
I can't seem to find solid info on the individual versions of the 6800, just general specs.
- Does the GT have unlockable pipes as well?
- What should I do? Upgrade? Or stay where I am and just spend the $$ on something else?

This system is mainly for games and I already have 1GB of RAM and the sound card is an oldie (Sound Blaster Live).

Help please! Any suggestions outside from what I asked are also welcome.

 

[ep1taph]

The GT and GS are essentially almost the same card. The GT comes stock with 16 pipelines, and the GS stock with 12 pipelines. If I were you, I'd just grab the 6800GT if it's the same price. No hassle, and you can probably overclock it to ultra speeds with that zalman cooler. Though, the unlocked GS would pretty much BE a 6800GT then. It kind of doesn't make a difference, but I'd just go for the 100% guaranteed 16 pipelines.

[edit] Oh, the GT has a silencer. Yeah I would definitely go GT :]

 

[homerjelly]

The GT and GS are essentially almost the same card. The GT comes stock with 16 pipelines, and the GS stock with 12 pipelines. If I were you, I'd just grab the 6800GT if it's the same price. No hassle, and you can probably overclock it to ultra speeds with that zalman cooler. Though, the unlocked GS would pretty much BE a 6800GT then. It kind of doesn't make a difference, but I'd just go for the 100% guaranteed 16 pipelines.

[edit] Oh, the GT has a silencer. Yeah I would definitely go GT :]

Cool any ideas on how well 2 6800GTs would handle Oblivion with HDR, shadows and everything turned on at about 1280x1024 resolution?

I suppose the only thing that the nVidia cards can't do is AA+HDR; otherwise they are the same as the ATI cards?

 

[ep1taph]

I can't really say, as I don't play Oblivion and haven't seen benchmarks on 6800GT's. I bet you could find benchmarks for 6800GS's and they would be very close to the 6800GT's.

Well, the image quality battle goes way deeper. I won't get into that. I tend to play games for gameplay, not graphics... I've owned ATI cards and Nvidia cards. Liked both.

 

[Superunknown98]

You would be better served by saving your money for a new system. Unless you can sell you x1600pro for cash, why waste the money you spent on it? Upgrading your graphics card on an already outdated system is pointless. If you plan on using this system in the future, it won't matter what graphics card you use becasue the processor and memory will be to slow.
Do yourself a favor and just overclock what you have now to get speed gains, and save the money for when you can afford a new system.

BTW- you can't sli agp video cards, if thats what you were asking about in your last post. Only PCI-E

 

[homerjelly]

You would be better served by saving your money for a new system. Unless you can sell you x1600pro for cash, why waste the money you spent on it? Upgrading your graphics card on an already outdated system is pointless. If you plan on using this system in the future, it won't matter what graphics card you use becasue the processor and memory will be to slow.
Do yourself a favor and just overclock what you have now to get speed gains, and save the money for when you can afford a new system.

BTW- you can't sli agp video cards, if thats what you were asking about in your last post. Only PCI-E

Actually I was thinking about the SLI/full system upgrade route and that's why I mentioned the 2 6800GTs and yeah I know you can't SLI AGP

Thanks for the advice! I think the upgrade route is pretty much how I will go - just a matter of when.