Revive a gaming system

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kenham40

Gawd
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Apr 3, 2001
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Currently I use my powerbook and mac mini for most of my needs. I do have however, an athlon 64 3200+ system w/ 2 gig ram, 2 raptors in raid0, etc.. for gaming. The video card in there currently is a 256mb ddr2 9800 pro. What would be the best AGP video card to get me to today's type of games (shaders and all that jazz). Also, would it be worth while to upgrade the cpu? This system is socket 754 (I think that's the older one - before 939). Thanks in advance fellas. I am not partial to nvidia or ati, I just purchased the 9800 pro 256mb because it was the best at the time (got it the day it was available at compusa). I don't upgrade my vidcards that often.

Edit: If you needed to know, I am running an IBM p260 21" CRT that supports 1600x1200 @ 85hz.

Edit2: This system will be playing Age of Empires III as it's newest game.

I am not against getting a new system, it just seems this stuff isn't THAT bad is it? Would a new motherboard, chip and 7800GTX or whatever (X1000 series for ati?) be a better route ?
 
there have been alot of posts such as this one lately, people are either going to tell you to get a 6800gt or ultra, or x850xt. Those are your choices for top end agp. I had a 6800 ultra and it was a great card. If I had to do it again at that time, I would have gotten a 6800gt and overclocked it to ultra speeds. And no I am not an nvidia lover, my card before the 6800 ultra was a 9800xt and it was a fantasic card.
 
My system runs BF2, FEAR, AOE III fine at 1280x1024 with the 6800GT. Buying anything more expensive would be a waste since AGP is kinda getting to the "legacy" stage.
 
No need to get a new motherboard, chip, and GPU. Just get a new motherboard and GPU. Your proc is fine.
 
Cyrilix said:
No need to get a new motherboard, chip, and GPU. Just get a new motherboard and GPU. Your proc is fine.
Click to expand...
They only made up to a '3700+' in Socket 754, and there will be no faster coming out. Getting a new Socket 754 mobo to support PCI-E would be kind of short sighted.

Best bet for a modest upgrade would be to pick up a 6800GT or X850XT in AGP flavor.

If you want to upgrade to be set for another couple years, you'll probably want to go Socket 939 and pick up a dual-core CPU with, yeah, an X1800 or 7800 GPU. Which will cost a small fortune, naturally, but....best you can get today, and will have you set for a while again.

(OTOH, AMD is just about to release the Socket M2 in Q2'06, and that should be their new standardized format for the forseeable future....so there is certainly a lot of sense in doing the AGP 6800GT/X850XT thing now and looking at the picture again this time next year....realizing your system will be VERY long in the tooth by then.)
 
6800gt is nice fitted price vs perfomance IF u and shader 3.0
x850xt can be found on sale at bout $350 or cheaper ( www.compusa.com ) puts em at that price every once in while. They are great cards will whoop an 6800 gt, ultra and will get close to an 7800gt. Has added support for videos, deblocks em and makes em look better with divX. Downfalls include lack of shader 3.0 , does not perform HDR in most games (emulated in supported ones) and you have to put up with ATI catalyst.
I had a GF4 ti4200 recently got the 6800 gt and I am content with performance since it is something to keep me ammused for a year or so. I chose technology over speed, my next card will most likely ATI since they now offer shader 3.0 full 32bit color support (last gen x800 line was really 24 bit not 32, new card will force run 32bit)
As you can see this is something to keep u running for 2yrs at least.
Direct X10 is coming late next year wich will spot destructible environments and real time lighting. wich ever card u get they will sastisfy, good luck.
 
dderidex said:
They only made up to a '3700+' in Socket 754, and there will be no faster coming out. Getting a new Socket 754 mobo to support PCI-E would be kind of short sighted.

Best bet for a modest upgrade would be to pick up a 6800GT or X850XT in AGP flavor.

If you want to upgrade to be set for another couple years, you'll probably want to go Socket 939 and pick up a dual-core CPU with, yeah, an X1800 or 7800 GPU. Which will cost a small fortune, naturally, but....best you can get today, and will have you set for a while again.

(OTOH, AMD is just about to release the Socket M2 in Q2'06, and that should be their new standardized format for the forseeable future....so there is certainly a lot of sense in doing the AGP 6800GT/X850XT thing now and looking at the picture again this time next year....realizing your system will be VERY long in the tooth by then.)
Click to expand...

Err...you're right...I now realize that I hadn't fully read the initial post, so I thought he was referring to socket 939. My bad. Please continue on.
 
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