Is it worth upgrading?

[twall]

Here is the thing guys:

I have been using a Radeon 9600 Pro (built by ati) for 2 years and some months. I have never had problems or anything, I am really an ATI fan. I have an agp motherboard, i don't have any problems with the speed of my computer, and don't feel like upgrading it for now, at least until summer. My question was, should I stick with my Ati Radeon 9600 Pro until I fully upgrade my computer to a motherboard with pci e, or should I upgrade it CHAINTECH Geforce 6600GT SA6600G for $150 at Newegg? I have read many artcles, in TG, and also other places which simply says NVIDIA is kicking ATI's boot with its new 6 - 7 series.

My Ati has 400 core clock, 300 memory, 4 pipelines, this card has 500 core, 900 memory, and 8 pipelines. And i bet the newer 6600GT gpu is better then 9600 gpu, but i don't know how much better, is it worth it, will i see too much difference?

Other question, if you don't like this card, what else can you recommend me under $150, better then 9600 pro. Keep in mind that i will eventually uprade my computer for good, so i do not want to pay much for little difference.

 

[dhlucke]

The whole kicking butt thing is a bit off. Nvidia is doing better on the very high end but in the midrange and low end (which is what you're talking about) they both have very good cards.

Your question really can't be answered unless we know what games you're playing and your full system specs. You keep saying you don't have any problems so I guess I'm wondering why you want to upgrade.

Keep in mind that if you upgrade to AGP now you'll have to get a brand new videocard down the road since you'll almost definitely get a pci-e motherboard.

 

[margag_]

if you have a p3 or 1st generation p4 based system a 9800pro (used or new) would be a greath cheap card in tune with your computer.

i have a pci express 6600le 256meg overclocked (to the max)and i mostly have the perf of my friends having 9800pro on recent p4 computer (3ghz) (doom3, battelfield2, quake 4)

If you could go to 6600gt it would be good but much $$$

 

[cleeve]

The ***ONLY*** time it makes sense to upgrade is when you can't play a game at settings you want to play it because your hardware is too slow.

If you haven't found that game yet, you're wasting your money.

 

[twall]

My specs:

Pentium 4 2.4 HT (It is a 478 pin)
Soltek Springdale Motherboard
ATI 9600 Pro
1 Gig Ram 3200 (Decent)
Audigy 2ZS Soundcard

120 Gig Harddisk IDE
DVD+-r
DVD Rom (Both Sony)

450 Watt PS

The reason i was thinking about upgrading my video card is, when I was playing half life 2, everything runs at full, but from time to time it was lagging, so i had to turn of the AA and such, (and this is at 1024-768). Plus it freezed a couple of times, but only a couple.And also, i have been a fan of the original battlefield, and now battlefield 2 is out there, and everybody is talking about how they need to upgrade their, I don't know, 9800 XTs, in order to get satisfactory graphics. And I also want to play FEAR, but thats a whole other story.

Keep in mind that, as dhlucke said, when if i upgrade now, i do have to buy another card when i upgrade my motherboard. That is true, but also if i am going to be able to play these games above, let say better then decent (1024-768, and who cares about Antialiasing and stuff, for now), i would delay my full upgrade, maybe one more year, maybe even more. Probably I would still need to upgrade my ram for better loading times, but i dont want to waste money on a better P4 cpu. After I built a computer for my friend, i am completely an AMD fan.

Otherwise, I dont have any problems with any of the games im playing (except the one described above with HL2). But holiday season is coming, and maybe i will do a lot more gaming during the break. You know how college students dont have time to play games during school time. Well, at least during the weekdays...

 

[dhlucke]

BF2 is awesome. If you're upgrading for that game then I'm all for it. The 6600GT is pretty much the minimum that I'd recommend. If you want to do it, go for it, but realize that you will have to get a new card when you do a full system upgrade. $150 to upgrade for a year is basically $13 a month.

 

[dhlucke]

The ATI card you'd want to compare to, pricewise, would be the X800GT. The 6600GT beats it in BF2.