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Upgrade 9800pro or wait....

R

rbarr110

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 8, 2003
Messages
278
I am eageraly awaiting Battlefield 2 and considering a video card upgrade.

I currently have a 9800Pro on an Athlon XP 2800+ with a Gig of DDR3200 ram. I am not sure if I want to upgrade the video card or not. I am hesitant to upgrade because I dont want to sink a bunch of cash into the quickly dieing AGP format.

If I end up buying a higher end AGP card (6800), is the card going to be bottlenecked by the CPU? Or maybe buy a current mid grade card around the $200 level and hold out 2 years before a major upgrade. Or should I just keep the 9800pro and save the money and put it toward a new mobo, cpu, and vid card, and possibly new memory within the next year.

Hmmm decisions.
 
id wait and upgrade all of it at once. thats not a bad system BTW. You might be surprised how well BF2 does. Wait and see.
 
A 6800, 6800GT or 6800U will all improve the level of grpahics you see in games, especially where the GPU is the bottleneck. Even so, if you had a newer CPU you would get higher framerates.

I'm in a similar situation with a 3.2 Ghz P4 and a 9800pro that's approaching about 18 months old, not so old that an upgrade is a no brainer, but with the extensive FPS gaming I do, I'm tempted to upgrade even though I know within 6 months Im going to want to upgrade the whole PC (once dual core chips are mainstream.)
I think the agressive pricing of the intel dual core chips will force AMD to compete at a similar pricing level, even if the AMD chips are faster - which will make full system upgrades more attractive.

I'm considering picking up a used 6800GT AGP and selling it off in 6 months. If Im lucky it will be a $80-100 (or less?) hit in 6 months, because I don't think the next gen cards in the ~$300 price range will be available for AGP systems, and the worst case is that 6800GT level cards will have dropped to $200 from it's current $300 price.

The other option is to upgrade now, unforunately the PCI-e 6800GT is $80 more than the AGP version, so it's almost like taking that $80 hit while selling the card. Or I could get a x800 XL for $300 and sell that if and when some SLI system seems worthwhile. So many options...
 
agp will be around for a while just like pci has been.

you can wait and take a wait and see approach or try to get a 6800 non ultra as they are a lot of bang for the buck and can unlock sometimes.
 
I would wait until the reviews of the game came out - and showed which performed better - nvidia or ati - then decide - besides, isn't around June when both ati and nvidia "refresh" their video card line up?
 
that's when they "say" they will, maybe a few months after that then you can start buying them, and I didnt say retail either :p so anyways...your 9800pro will run great on BF2, by then if you don't see it holding on, upgrade the whole system then, I am sure a complete a64/6800gt system then would cost veyr little :)
 
Keep your pro for now and wait. Its only a few more months, and youll kick yourself if a month after you spend $400+ on a card, and they release brand new cards, which are twice (or more) times as fast.
 
I've got a system similar to yours - XP 3200 + 9800 Pro + Gig 3200 RAM.
I'm going to wait until the new cards come out and then make the switch to PCIe and likely get a Venice CPU. The only game that I've been playing recently is CS:S and my computer can run the CS:S video stress test at about 60fps at 1600x1200.
In the mean time, you can always overclock your CPU + GPU. If you aren't already overclocked, you can probably get another 5-10% out of your video card and about a 20% overclock on your processor.
 
epGandalf said:
I've got a system similar to yours - XP 3200 + 9800 Pro + Gig 3200 RAM.
I'm going to wait until the new cards come out and then make the switch to PCIe and likely get a Venice CPU. The only game that I've been playing recently is CS:S and my computer can run the CS:S video stress test at about 60fps at 1600x1200.
In the mean time, you can always overclock your CPU + GPU. If you aren't already overclocked, you can probably get another 5-10% out of your video card and about a 20% overclock on your processor.
Click to expand...


completely agree :D
 
epGandalf said:
I've got a system similar to yours - XP 3200 + 9800 Pro + Gig 3200 RAM.
I'm going to wait until the new cards come out and then make the switch to PCIe and likely get a Venice CPU. The only game that I've been playing recently is CS:S and my computer can run the CS:S video stress test at about 60fps at 1600x1200.
In the mean time, you can always overclock your CPU + GPU. If you aren't already overclocked, you can probably get another 5-10% out of your video card and about a 20% overclock on your processor.
Click to expand...

Totally agree.

Wait, you'll be so much happier if you do. Lower prices on current things and more hardware to pick from.
 
The next gen is not far off.
I would wait

I plan on sticking with my AGP 6800 GT until PCI Express motherboards become more affordable and the next gen cards are under their original prices.
 
I vote keep it. It's true that it might not support the fanciest features out there, but honestly, those features are not worth the money. You've got a very powerful system, so be happy with it!
 
Similar system here too: 9700pro
Overclock it all and squeeze another 6months plus out of it.
 
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