Upgrading my 6600GT - recommendations?

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Spacetrucker

Weaksauce
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Sep 22, 2005
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My Leadtek Nvidia 6600GT has served me really well for the last 2 and a half years, but it is now starting to struggle with some of the new games around. I bought this machine just before PCI Express came on the scene so it has to be an AGP card I upgrade to. Ideally I want one that will save me getting a new motherboard(with PCI Express) for at least one more year. It seems 7600GT is the way to go, and I am looking at the following:-

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-088-LT&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/127243

Ideally, I don't want to spend any more than £70 or so. I've had a great experience with my current Leadtek 6600GT so I wouldn't have any worries sticking with them. What do you think? Many thanks in advance :)
 
for what you are wanting to spend that should work fine. I just dont think you are going to get all that much bang for your buck. It was a hard bullet for me to bite, but i did finally make the transition from agp to pci express. My real recommendation is save that hard earned mula, and wait til you can buy a new mobo, processor, memory, and powersupply. because really you can buy decent budget parts for probably $500 american.

Trust me it will be worth it
 
Lamont Cranston said:
for what you are wanting to spend that should work fine. I just dont think you are going to get all that much bang for your buck. It was a hard bullet for me to bite, but i did finally make the transition from agp to pci express. My real recommendation is save that hard earned mula, and wait til you can buy a new mobo, processor, memory, and powersupply. because really you can buy decent budget parts for probably $500 american.

Trust me it will be worth it
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply, and I completely see where you're coming from :) I'm not a big gamer though, infact the only games I play at the moment are Pro Evolution Soccer 2008(Winning Eleven in the US), Hitman: Blood Money and Outrun 2006. It runs all of these really well, the only one it struggles with a little is PES2008, I can only play it on 'medium' quality. This new card will undoubtedly be my last AGP one and I'll bite the bullet and upgrade to PCI Express possibly at the end of next year.
 
I just upgraded my 6600GT to an HD3870. I figured the 3870 was about the same price as my 6600GT was when I originally bought it, so why not :).
 
muppetboy said:
I may be tempted to go for a 2600XT instead of the 7600GT if I was in your place, the comparison at toms hardware site puts it around 20% faster.
Overclockers have one at around £68: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-162-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=403
Click to expand...

Thanks, that might be worth thinking about :) I've had problems with ATI cards in the past though, and changing from Nvidia back to ATI would mean I have to clean out the drivers. It's worth it though if the card is even better.
 
Spacetrucker said:
I'm also looking at this one on Ebay:-

http://tinyurl.com/2u6esd
Click to expand...

Don't buy the 7600 GT 512MB you linked, they all come with ultra-cheap DDR2 memory at 800 MHz...yea, this card you linked has the same or LESS memory bandwidth than your 6600 GT!

You want the 256MB model, and make ABSOLUTELY SURE the memory is DDR3 clocked at 1400 MHz (or more), or else you won't be getting much of an upgrade.

If you can afford it, I highly recommend the x1950 Pro AGP (if they still sell them).
 
Thanks for your replies :) It now looks like it's between the Leadtek 7600GT and the Sapphire Radeon 2600XT. It seems the 2600XT is more powerful, but like I say - I'm a bit iffy about going back to ATI. Would the 2600XT run OK with my specs? They are as follows:-

MSI MS-6741
Athlon 64 3400+ 2.2Mhz
2GB Crucial RAM

Also, how is the cooling on it? Currently I have pretty low temps with my 6600GT. Finally, is this the same 2600XT linked earlier, it's £71 at Ebuyer with free delivery:-

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/134856/show_product_specifications?spectype=extended
 
Actually, just read through some reviews on the 2600XT and it seems there are a lot of driver issues, i.e ATI don't make up to date drivers for it etc :(
 
defaultluser said:
If you can afford it, I highly recommend the x1950 Pro AGP (if they still sell them).
Click to expand...

I would love to buy that one, but being as it's after Christmas I just don't currently have the money to get that and the new PSU(my current one is 430w, it needs 550+) to run it.
 
Spacetrucker said:
Actually, just read through some reviews on the 2600XT and it seems there are a lot of driver issues, i.e ATI don't make up to date drivers for it etc :(
Click to expand...

Yeah, if you want AGP, you're better off with Nvidia 7 series or ATI 1900 series. The AGP support in the 2000 series from ATI is piss-poor, one of the reasons I don't recommend it. Unfortunately, creating an AGP part isn't as simple as slapping a PCIe-AGP bridge chip onboard, they have to have proper driver support from the chip maker.

Even worse, one of the best AGP deals out there dried up recently, as ATI discontinued the x1950 Pro AGP. You can still pick up the 7900 GS AGP, if the 7600 GT isn't powerful enough for you, but expect to pay around $150.

Here's a link to a 7900 GS:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150174

Unless you like fishing through auction sites (or the hot deals forum), you'd better act fast, because retail AGP cards are drying up quickly.
 
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