• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

What should I upgrade to?

B

barking frog

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 18, 2002
Messages
366
I'm currently using a Radeon 9500@9700 on a 3GHz P4 with a gig of RAM. I will be playing my games at 1920x1200 res and right now my video card is dying with the options off. I've been hearing about the 6600GT AGP (AGP is a must), but how much of an improvement can I expect to see? What would be the next step up after that?

Thanks
 
6800gt is the best bang for buck right now. I went from a 9800pro to this card and it blew my mind.

BFG 6800gt has a lifetime warranty and is about 95% chance of hitting ultra speeds with stock cooling. I think the lowest price is around $385.

I do think the 6600gt is going to be the next best thing for the price under the 6800gt.
 
To play at 1900x1200, I think you're going to want 256Mb of fast RAM on the card. The 6600GT has only 128Mb. The tests I've read show the 6600GT punching well above its weight/price at 1280x1024 resolution and below, but badly struggling at higher resolutions, seemingly because it doesn't have the memory capacity or speed.

What sort of games do you play and what sort of budget do you have?
 
Most likely I'll be playing mainly World of Warcraft and HL2. The reason I didn't state a budget was because if a 6600gt is inadequate for my needs, I am willing to look at more expensive options.
 
Check out this AnandTech review:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2196&p=1

You can see that the 6600GT would be ideal for playing most games at most resolutions, but come 1600x1200 (the highest the review goes), the card plummets in the fps stakes. No doubt the lack of memory and grunt on a mid-range card is starting to show here and clearly NVidia don't want prospective 6800GT/Ultra buyers getting the cheaper card by letting it do all things for all people.

To play comfortably at your preferred resolution puts you in the bracket for the premium cards. Whether or not you are interested in overclocking, the 6800GT, as mentioned above, is widely regarded as the best for the money. If you're especially lucky, you might actually find one for sale as well, unlike the 6800Ultra and X800 XT, both of which people are reporting issues with getting hold of.

EDIT: Reviews of HL2 are going to be flooding in very soon as well. Then the hardware tests, which will give you a better idea of whether the much-touted ATI benefits with the HL2 engine turn out to be true. CS:Source tests show little difference from what I've read, but you never know things might turn out to be like.
 
Well I'm having trouble finding a 6800GT in Canada, so I guess once the 6600gt agp comes out it should offload the demand on the 6800.
 
Depends on what games you play etc.... if you like doom3 then go nvidia if you like halflife 2 then go ati
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top