New videocard, without bottleneck?

T

thepirat

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 1, 2005
Messages
147
So after buying the Orange Box, it's time to replace the ol' X600xt. But, I'm afraid of bottlenecking my card with my somewhat old processor. My current specs:

3.0ghz P4
1.5Gb DDR2 533 PC-4200
500w PSU
ASUS X600XT 128mb

Any ideas on a good GFX card that won't get bottlenecked? I don't even know how to begin looking. Thanks much in advance!
 
Price range? Resolution? Your system is old enough to warrant a full upgrade IMHO. Id wait til the beginning of next year and just do a full upgrade. If your not interested in that though, give us a price range and the resolution you play at.

EDIT: either way, im most likely going to recommend either a 7950GT or a x1950
 
i would say a 7600GT, faster than a 6600GT, better if you're gonna play TF2 and Portal etc.
 
I'd recommend the 7600gt or even a 7950gt although it may bottleneck the system a bit.
 
Price isn't really an issue, my main concern is avoiding wasted money by bottlenecking. But, if my system is too old I may as well just build a new system. Is a 7600GT going to be much of an improvement over X600XT to warrant spending 100$? I plan on playing with widescreen resolution. Thanks for all your replies!!!
 
thepirat said:
Price isn't really an issue, my main concern is avoiding wasted money by bottlenecking. But, if my system is too old I may as well just build a new system. Is a 7600GT going to be much of an improvement over X600XT to warrant spending 100$? I plan on playing with widescreen resolution. Thanks for all your replies!!!
Click to expand...

Yes the 7600GT would be a huge improvement, but for the extra money you pay for an 7950GT, your system would last that much longer for 50 dollars or so (keep in mind, enthusiasts pay 1000-1500 dollars per year for high end SLI in GPUs alone, disregarding the expensive PSUs required for that). Also advise you to buy used part if they are older, in this case. Generally, parts are going to fall rather quickly, or last for a very long time. That is to say, if all you want to do is upgrade your GPU. Hell, if your interested, ill be upgrading my GPU soon and selling my current 7900 GTX (fwiw 7900GTX is approxiamately a 7950GT), which would floor you (compared to your x600 that is).

Quite honestly though i would wait a few more months, at least til the Penryn release, and upgrade your whole system with all new hardware. Thats more or less what i plan on doing.

Also, common widescreen resolutions go from 1280x800, 1440x900, 1680x1050, 1920x1200, 2560x1600, so which one do you play at? Most ws LCDs now are 1440x900 and 1680x1050. Resolution is a very important factor for choosing a GPU. Lower resolutions are bottlenecked by CPU, while higher resolutions are bottlenecked by GPU generally speaking, that is. Its really all relative on your setup as a whole, however.
 
I've decided I don't want to (can't afford to) build a whole new rig. Newegg has a PowerColor X1950 Pro for $130 after MIR. According to a few reviews the X1950 Pro is better than the 7900 GS. I'd like to play on 1440x900 res, but I'm more concerned about FPS than jagged edges because I plan on playing TF2 competitively. Any thoughts? Thanks!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131055
 
that would be a really nice upgrade, tons of improvement over the x600 you have and should be balanced well for that system
 
thepirat said:
I've decided I don't want to (can't afford to) build a whole new rig. Newegg has a PowerColor X1950 Pro for $130 after MIR. According to a few reviews the X1950 Pro is better than the 7900 GS. I'd like to play on 1440x900 res, but I'm more concerned about FPS than jagged edges because I plan on playing TF2 competitively. Any thoughts? Thanks!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131055
Click to expand...

Should be fine for TF2 at that resolution.
 
IMO, this would be a better choice. Performance is on par with (and better than too, depending on the game) the X1950PRO, plus it has lower power requirements and runs cooler too.
 
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