I Need Best AGP

Nvidia drivers are more "tweaky" then the ATI counterparts.

ATI's monthly driver release schedule is nice. When I had an ATI card it was nice knowing when the new drivers would come out. You just keep installing the latest ones.

You never know when a new nvidia driver is going to come down the pipe... sometimes it is through "leak" channels... sometimes it is an official release. Sometimes the latest driver is buggy and you need to go back a few revisions. Like I said they are "tweaky".
 
I'm also thinking about getting "the best" AGP card out and was considering the 512mb HIS x1950pro. I currently have a P4 northy 3.2 ghz with no OC and a stock pny 6800gt. I want to extend the life of my AGP system as long as I can but I dont want to get something like that if my cpu will bottleneck the hell out of it. I know it says in my sig that I already have it but I just did that last nite and I'm pretty much set on it, just waiting to make the final plunge for it. The rest of my system specs are in my sig so please let me know what you guys think. Thanks.

Edit: I totally forgot to put my PSU in there so here it is. Its a Hiper 530 watt modular(the black one with chrome accents on newegg)
 
devil_trigger said:
I'm also thinking about getting "the best" AGP card out and was considering the 512mb HIS x1950pro.
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I have a P4 3.0GHz and an X850 XT PE and have been trying to figure out if my CPU would bottleneck an X1950 Pro. Based on the information I've been able to find at Tom's Hardware site, I won't see much if any bottlenecking. Since your CPU is faster than what I have, I think you will also be fine.

BTW, the HiS is the card I've decided on too, because HiS has a great reputation, they overclock the card, and their cooling system is awesome. I just want something to tide me over for playing Vanguard until I get a new system in a few months. I have a friend with a P4 3.4GHz (and PCI-e), and he just got the nVidia 7950GT (equivalent to the X1950 Pro according to Tom's Hardware site), and he said the difference from his old X800 XT PE, in Vanguard, is like night and day.

Almost forgot... your power supply is more than enough.
 
"Bottlenecking" is relative...

Your max FPS might be limited, but you would be able to crank up the visual quality options much more without seeing an FPS drop.

The line is drawn where you cannot get playable FPS even with everything turned all the way down...

The best thing to do is to turn all the *visual* quality options off (AA, AF) and your resolution at 640X480. If you are able to get a playable frame rate in all of your games then your CPU is not holding you back.
 
Oh sweet, thanks guys. Its settled then. Now I just have to wait till newegg or some other place gets them back in stock, unless I give in to ebay lol.
 
time out....

why not wait until the Nvidia 8 series AGP card comes out?

I'd agree that the 7600GT vs. 6800 GT isn't a worthy option.

But the 8 series AGP card is coming and there is NO reason no to wait until that point. The 6800 GT should run most anything you can throw at it with your current proc setup.
 
Archaea said:
time out....

why not wait until the Nvidia 8 series AGP card comes out?

I'd agree that the 7600GT vs. 6800 GT isn't a worthy option.

But the 8 series AGP card is coming and there is NO reason no to wait until that point. The 6800 GT should run most anything you can throw at it with your current proc setup.
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Where did you hear the 8 series is coming to AGP??
 
i didn't, but no one heard the 7 series was coming to AGP for a long time either when 7 series was announced.

Nvidia would be foolish not to....There are still a LOT of customers on AGP, and the performance difference between AGP and PCI-E identical cards is only like 5-15% so it's not that big of a deal. Expect the annoucement to come soon, and hold off for it ---I say.
 
I have to disagree.

The 8800 series is the generation where I feel nvidia will drop AGP support.

Even though it is a forced obsolescence, we are still lucky to even have gotten a 7 series card and the x1950.

Buy the x1950 now while it is still worth it and plan to build a new machine eventually for DX10.
 
i actually was deciding between the HIS x1950pro 512MB, and the powercolor x1950 pro which has 256mb. i ended up going with the powercolor because i read a review which the powercolor had better benches and scores than the 512mb AGP cards. i looked for the review, i cant find the review now.

im not saying the HIS isn't good, but the powercolor may be better, just some food for thought...

if anyone has a different review please feel free to post a link, im still in my return period;)
 
Yashu said:
I have to disagree.

The 8800 series is the generation where I feel nvidia will drop AGP support.

Even though it is a forced obsolescence, we are still lucky to even have gotten a 7 series card and the x1950.

>>>>>.
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Agreed :)
 
Susquehannock said:
Agreed :)
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I agree too. I think the only reason Nvidia would make an 8 series AGP card is if ATI forced thier hand by making one of thier own, wich is less likely because the only reason we got the X1950 agp is because they had to answer for the 7800GS.
 
jp2005 said:
i actually was deciding between the HIS x1950pro 512MB, and the powercolor x1950 pro which has 256mb. i ended up going with the powercolor because i read a review which the powercolor had better benches and scores than the 512mb AGP cards. i looked for the review, i cant find the review now.

im not saying the HIS isn't good, but the powercolor may be better, just some food for thought...

if anyone has a different review please feel free to post a link, im still in my return period;)
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I'm mostly leaning towards the HIS because of the "stock" cooler, I've used the arctic coolers on all my video cards.:) I'm just being lazy this time and buying it with it already on there lol.

Another thing guys, would having 512 over 256 be that worth it, besides bragging rights? I game on a Dell 2005FPW at 1680x1050, so would the extra RAM be worth the $50?
 
did you not take a look at the powercolor x1950pro, it also has a nice cooler...

as far as the powercolor vs HIS issue--although the powercolor has less RAM, it was benching higher in a review i read
 
jp2005 said:
did you not take a look at the powercolor x1950pro, it also has a nice cooler...

as far as the powercolor vs HIS issue--although the powercolor has less RAM, it was benching higher in a review i read
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No I've seen it, in fact I was going to get that since it was the first one newegg had in stock before they got the HIS ones, but I love how the arctic coolers exhaust the heat out of the case. I've used them on my last 3 video cards and loved every one.
 
"with regards to the ram, make sure it is only two 1 gig sticks. you will suffer horrible instability placing more than 3 sticks in a system. and putting 3 sticks in will slow your overall ram throughput and speed. not a good idea."

i have:

amd 64 3200
1 gig ddr ram(two 512 sticks)
9800 pro

i was gonna get a 7800gs or x1950pro but then i find out my psu isn't good enough so im gonna get another psu which really pisses me off. now you are telling me i have to scrap my two 512 sticks and buy two 1 gig sticks of this old ram if i want to game with 2 gigs?

good god i'll be spending $500 on this old system! honestly i love pc gaming cause of the k/m but i have the right mind to buy a 360 and just deal with crappy controllers. are you freaking serious about that ram?!!! can anyone confirm this?
 
Drew, let me help you out a little bit. We have very similar systems so I might be able to help with some of the questions you have.

Easykill1978 said:
what ever you do dont use more than 2 sticks of ram if you want dual channel ddr. basically if you ram is running at say 200mhz (400ddr) and you dump 1 extra stick (or 2) it will drop down to 166 (333ddr) your ram through put will drop from 5.8G/s to 3.6 (give or take) and the power used will go up and themps of the cpu (or northbridge) will climb according, system response will fall. so no dropping more in is bad. your system will also become unstable and have random crashes. buy the 2 gig (two 1 gig sticks) and sell what you have or use it in a server or htpc or another computer. also you will note that games will load faster and close quicker, windows will be more responive and overall system use will be more pleasant with 2gig of ram (less hdd page file use). you will be glad and happy with 2 gig. i have 2 gig now and any computer i buy or laptop will have no less than 2 gig of ram (it is like the difference of night and day.).
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This is not true. I have four 512MB PC3200 ECC, Registered sticks of RAM in my system and it runs just fine. It did not drop from 200MHz to 166MHz. Just make sure you buy some decent RAM. Two of my sticks are Mushkin RAM, great stuff. The second set is some HP RAM that I bought off eBay from a system integrator that upgraded his server. The RAM had never been used and was pulled from an HP Opteron Server. Also good stuff and I think I got it for something like $75 shipped for two sticks of 512MB.

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cajun47 said:
i have:

amd 64 3200
1 gig ddr ram(two 512 sticks)
9800 pro

i was gonna get a 7800gs or x1950pro but then i find out my psu isn't good enough so im gonna get another psu which really pisses me off. now you are telling me i have to scrap my two 512 sticks and buy two 1 gig sticks of this old ram if i want to game with 2 gigs?

good god i'll be spending $500 on this old system! honestly i love pc gaming cause of the k/m but i have the right mind to buy a 360 and just deal with crappy controllers. are you freaking serious about that ram?!!! can anyone confirm this?
Click to expand...

He is correct on the PSU. Make sure you have the power to run the card you want to buy.

I am currently using a BFG 7800GS and it works great in Vista and was great in gaming under XP. The drivers are not up to speed yet on Vista, they need to mature, same with ATI. You really can't go wrong with either card but if you want to have the BEST then an ATI x1950 Pro with 512MB will outperform the 7800GS. Since we have such similar systems feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.
 
im looking at the same kind of cards. my specs are in my sig. what vid card upgrade should i get?
 
saintrobyn said:
Drew, let me help you out a little bit. We have very similar systems so I might be able to help with some of the questions you have.



This is not true. I have four 512MB PC3200 ECC, Registered sticks of RAM in my system and it runs just fine. It did not drop from 200MHz to 166MHz. Just make sure you buy some decent RAM. Two of my sticks are Mushkin RAM, great stuff. The second set is some HP RAM that I bought off eBay from a system integrator that upgraded his server. The RAM had never been used and was pulled from an HP Opteron Server. Also good stuff and I think I got it for something like $75 shipped for two sticks of 512MB.

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He is correct on the PSU. Make sure you have the power to run the card you want to buy.

I am currently using a BFG 7800GS and it works great in Vista and was great in gaming under XP. The drivers are not up to speed yet on Vista, they need to mature, same with ATI. You really can't go wrong with either card but if you want to have the BEST then an ATI x1950 Pro with 512MB will outperform the 7800GS. Since we have such similar systems feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.
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what about the ram though? i have two 512 sticks ddr 400. my gigabite mother board has 3 ram slots and supports up to 3 gigs of ram. the middle slot is empty and i wanted to put a one gig stick of ddr 400 there but it seems like some say it will be unstable or slow. would i be better off adding one stick of 512 ddr 400?
 
You have s754?

What core rev. is your CPU? Is it newcastle, clawhammer, or venice?

You are going to be completely overtaxing the memory controller with 3 sticks if you do not have a rev. E (venice) core.

You might not even be able to get it to work at any speed if you have one of the older cores. Trust me, I tried it.

512 and 1gb modules are full double sided modules and you are just not going to be able to get 3 of them on a single channel unless you have a rev. E.

If you have a rev. E you will have to run at 2T, but it will work better.

I would replace your 512 sticks with 2 1gb sticks if you want more memory. You can get some 1gb value sticks for reduced price or you can get one and keep one 512 and have 1.5gb. Filling the slots if you have one of the older cores is just asking for a headache.
 
cajun47 said:
what about the ram though? i have two 512 sticks ddr 400. my gigabite mother board has 3 ram slots and supports up to 3 gigs of ram. the middle slot is empty and i wanted to put a one gig stick of ddr 400 there but it seems like some say it will be unstable or slow. would i be better off adding one stick of 512 ddr 400?
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I really can't comment on your motherboard since I have never used it. Generally speaking, on a S754 system more than 2 sticks of RAM causes instability. As posted above, the newer Venice Core processors have helped to alleviate the problem but I have had a friend with a Venice on an Asus K8V SE Deluxe use 3 sticks of RAM and it was still a tad buggy at times no matter what BIOS version they used. After dropping back to two sticks he had rock solid system.

As for the SK8V that the OP is using I know from first hand experience that populating all four RAM slots does not have an adverse effect on the speed or stability of the system.
 
ok i thank all. all i know is that my pc is over 2 years old from ibuypower(i know never again). its a 754 amd socket on a gigabite mother board. im just gonna play the games i have now and the hell with the pc hardware ripoff scam. i won't be buying any more pc games. **** it. i had it with this crap.
 
but I have had a friend with a Venice on an Asus K8V SE Deluxe use 3 sticks of RAM and it was still a tad buggy at times
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I was NOT able to run 3 sticks at any speed on a DFI nf3 250gb, however, I was able to do it stably at 2T with a newark core mobile 3700+.

I don't recommend it though unless you really know what you are doing and can tweak things to fit.
 
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