upgrading a ATI 9000pro

[sidian]

hi
Im looking to upgrade my brothers video card. currently hes got a ati 9000pro on a ecs K7S5A mobo with an Athlon XP 1.4 GHZ and 512 ddr ram..the real question is how much more video card can this mobo and processor take. at what point does it become over kill or more then the current system can use?
any suggestions would help.
thanks
-s

 

[Alowishus]

depends on how much gaming your brother does and how much hes willing to spend. If the processor being a bottleneck is a great concern to you, you might want to just stick with the radeon 9600 pro or xt.

 

[minc3d]

I wouldnt go to a 9800 Pro, that processor is going to be a huge bottleneck especially in games like UT 2004 and Doom 3.

 

[mulpsmebeauty]

Depending on what the plans are for that PC in future, perhaps you could drop in an overkill card like a 6600GT, which will still be a good performer in a few months time if he drops in a cheap mobo/cpu/RAM upgrade package to get himself a 3000+ CPU or so.

 

[minc3d]

He has to get up to a 3200 or so to get any improvement from the new video card. If he went with a cheap AMD 64 setup, hed see the biggest leap.

 

[V0ltage]

Id say get an athlon 64 2800+ ($110) and a cheap mobo ($60) and then save some more for a 9800pro or 6600GT agp, his current ram, if its any kind of DDR will work.
If he wants to keep his stuff, have him get a refurb 9800pro.

 

[ameoba]

Had that exact setup a while back... went to a 9600, saw a great improvement. Put a 6800 in it (while waiting for my A64 to show up) - didn't see much of an improvement over the 9600 (other than being able to turn up AA & AF a bit). Jumping up to a Pro or an XT might give a bit more of a boost but I definately wouldn't go any higher.