Just get AGP cards? or upgrade for PCI Express

[Elminster]

My wife and I mostly play Worlds of Warcraft atm, I used to play alot of FPS and strat. might even get into those again, but right now we are experiencing slowdowns and bad gameplay. both computers were mine before we got together so when I upgraded my main I would put the old parts in the 2nd comp. trying to be fair to us both at this point and have a good performance upgrade for the 2 machines. budget is tight, about 500 or so, might change but thats it atm. should I get more memory and new video cards for the systems? or upgrade the main one to PCI-E and give her my old one? quick system specs:

p4 3.0 800 bus 478
512 corsair xms 3000 running at 400 bus
reference intel 865 mb (got processor and board with win xp pro from a retail sellers deal) its dual channel, good board, just no OC or voltage options
200 gig serial ata WD 7200
good quality 350 power supply (brand escapes me atm)
radeon 9800 non pro 128

p4 1.8 478 (used to run at 2.4, current at stock because of heat issues)
512 kingston hyperX pc4000 memory, yeah should be in the other system but the reference board won't give enough voltage to even boot
albatron 845 mb
40 gig maxtor 7200 ata
geforce 4 ti 4200 8x 64

let me know what upgrade path I should take, would love any advice

 

[Maxiius]

Drop 2gigs of ram in each system and you'll see much better performance. Just adding more ram to a system now adays will give you a much better performance increase rather then upgrading the entire system, to PCI-e and/or upgrading AGP video cards. I've been playing MMORPGs since early 99' and they are very ram intensive games. Also your strat games would love the ram too, like LotRs battle for middle earth and such in that genre.

Now if your MBs can handle 2gigs a piece, I don't know 8) not my area of expertise.

Jack of all trades, knowledgeable in many, master of none :|

 

[bagg]

My advice would be to double the memory in each system and get a better AGP video card, something like either a 6800GS or the ATI equivalent. With $500. to spend, you're not going to get too far with a new gaming system, however by doubling the RAM in each and upgrading the main system's video card you both will be happy with the performance increases. I've seen WOW on a ti4200 with 512 RAM and I don't think it's very appealing. The 9800 currently in the main system will be a nice upgrade (it's at least a dx9 card) for the second system and you will be similarly pleased with the performance of a more modern card as well. In WOW you can definitely tell the difference between 1 and 2 gigs of ram, so it wouldn't be a bad option to get the new vid card and as much RAM as you can afford.

 

[cleeve]

WoW is pretty easy on the CPU & videocard... I've seen an Athlon 1.2 with a Ti4200 run it super smooth.

How old is your OS install? Might be garbaged up & time to update.

If WOW is the only game you're upgrading for, invest your cash in 1gb of ram for each machine, that should do it as far as hardware goes.

But WoW is no monster, it should run real nice at decent detail on both of those machines...

Of course, if you want to run it at super-high res with max detail, get a couple 6600GT's or X800 GT's in addition to the RAM and you're off to the races...

 

[Elminster]

well wow is the primary concern at the moment, but I will be playing other games soon and I hope to have a card and system that is capable of handling current shader effects and details. and yes I know at least the 2nd system needs a fresh xp install.

 

[Nytro]

for the first system, 1 gb of ram and a 6800gs.
for the second one, 1 gb of ram and a 6600gt should be enough.
both of them are enough for WoW, and the first one u can use it in all the new games without problems

 

[cleeve]

6800 gs isn't a great card in AGP, still based on the 13 micron 6800 unlike the 9 microm PCI-express version... better off with an X800 GTO for AGP.

Regardless, the extra gig of ram coupled with 6600 GTs or X800 GTs willprobably take him close to $500 as it is.

But if you can he can afford two X800 GTOs in addition to the RAM, that'd be ideal.

 

[Elminster]

some of the agp cards you just mentioned and also in your lists seem to be dissapearing from websites, any site you reccomend or specific card on a specific site you can link?

 

[FACEBASH]

Have no fear Nvidia is here.. and im sure youll no doubt read the review on nvidias new 7800 AGP card.. If not.. then do so , you have no need to changout your MB, CPU , just to get a MAJOR increase in performance..

As far as your gaming preference atm .. i would agree with everyone that Ram should be at the top of your list.. But ifyou ARE going ot invest a dime in an AGP upgrade.. there can be only one choice imho.. nvidias 7800 AGP crushes EVERY CARD IN THE AGP CLASS !!! yaay !!!

i imagine the price shoudl be nice for you as well in a month or so from now. i think they ship the first units this weekend..

Cheers and good luck :}

 

[FlyGuy]

As far as your gaming preference atm .. i would agree with everyone that Ram should be at the top of your list.. But ifyou ARE going ot invest a dime in an AGP upgrade.. there can be only one choice imho.. nvidias 7800 AGP crushes EVERY CARD IN THE AGP CLASS !!! yaay !!!

Pfft, 'crushes', ha! I'm by no means a fanboy but CCmmmoonn!! It barely outperforms a X850XT in some benches and gets outperformed by a small margin in others. Save yourself $150 and pickup a X850XT.

 

[Elminster]

where do I get one for that price?

 

[cleeve]

Newegg.com has all of the cards I list, last time I checked.

[edit: here's the cheapest X800 XT I could find right now: $279

http://www.futurepowerpc.com/scripts/details.asp?PRDCODE=VCGA-R80T256V&REFID=PW

over the past couple months X800 XT and X850 XT sales have been on and off. If it stays consistantly hard to find them I'll have to modify the list]

Only a retarded midget would spend $350 - $400 on an AGP 7800 GT when they could get an X800 XT or X850 XT for $250...

Nvidia rescued no-one, what they've done is introduced a crappy money sink for people with old platforms.

If they intro'd an AGP 7800 GT, that would be a different story. Don't know why they bothered, except maybe to get rid of 7800 GT gpu's that didn't make the cut.

 

[bourgeoisdude]

Todays your lucky day! http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/02/02/nvidia_7800gs_confirms_agp_aint_dead_yet/

Wait a week, this AGP looks pretty darn awesome man!