Got Shakes. Need fix, or should I wait.

[PCaddict]

Hi, I'm an average computer gamer now without a proper video card.
It starts with my 9550 which i mod/oc to 9600. worked fine then the stock fan failed, it melted. replaced with a cpu heatsink and fan screwed on (not really more like pinned on by bolts)

My mistake was to remove the card to test a 9600xt my friend had problems with. The 9550 fell and the heatsink flew off. after that the 9550 was unusable (2d artifacts and lines no proper 3d).

I was planning to upgrade to X1600. with a new cpu and mobo with parts from the old pc. but right now i only have 400$ Is it still possible with this much cash?

I was planning to jump when i had saved enough. so should i wait or just buy a vid card now (6600 plain) or can i upgrade my cpu mobo and vidcard with only 400$??

I live in SE asia where prices are usually 10 more than what they should.

oh in case your wondering i'm running on the old s3 virge 2mb that i used to mod my 9550 with.

Any help, insight would be greatly apreciated

 

[jeremy_pro]

Don't throw more than 100$ for now. At the and of the year go for a new rig. Questions like the new M2 socket, Windows Vista, NVIDIA 7900, DirectX 10 should be clear by then.

 

[PCaddict]

I'm not looking for high end (with 400$?!?!?).
just need an opinion on getting parts with a good upgrade path.
the x1600 is good since i also watch a ton of dvds and future driver optimizations would make it a good choice. I would have liked a 939 mobo coupled with a low cpu to upgrade later.

but right now that x800 looks good.

I need input on whether i buy what i can now or wait till i can afford it later or if possible to do it with the cash at hand.

for the record i was planning on the x1600pro, 939 mobo and cpu.
I game at 1024, the native res of my lcd monitor (the candidate for my next upgrade).

I'm now suffrering from gaming withdrawal.

 

[TabrisDarkPeace]

A Radeon X800 will be around 4x as powerful as your old card.

Likely your other parts would hold it back, and a X800 XL/XT on a PCIe platform is a better choice than the X1600 Pro for gaming.

DVD playback on a X800 will also be fine.

The cards (X1600 Pro vs X800 XL) are similar in performance at 1024 x 768, but at 1280 x 1024 with 2 x FSAA the X800 series will perform better. Since you are planning to upgrade your TFT/LCD down the track, this move would be wiser.

A X1600 (non Pro) is not that good a choice for a Socket 939/940/AM2 platform if gaming is one of your goals

The minimum X800 i'd recommend is the X800 GTO / GTO2, but ideally an XL/XT.

http://apps.ati.com/ATIcompare/ is a good place to look at, but remember that GPU MHz x # of pipelines = Pixel fill rate, higher clocked GPUs are not always faster. Ditto for memory, I'd rather 400 MHz 256 bit GDDR, vs 500 MHz 128 bit GDDR.

===============================================

Actually, look for this board: "Winfast Leadtek Foxconn 6150K8MA-8EKRS"
http://www.foxconnchannel.com/products_motherboard_2.cfm?pName=6150K8MA-8EKRS

The onboard video on it (GeForce 6150) may very well outperform your Radeon 9550, or come very close, and you can install a X800 XL / X1600 Pro, etc in it later on (without performance, stability, etc concerns), the board is fantastic considering the price.

The board is also easy to get in your area (SE asia), and should cost very little compared to other solutions in that geographical area.

 

[PCaddict]

Thanks for the help!!

just checked my local comp store and they have the board in stock :lol:
paired with a nice cpu this should ease my symptoms abit.

but i'm leery about that shared memory thing. better a dedicated gpu.

Although it's better than what i have now

so get that mobo n cpu now upgrade to a vidcard later.

about the x800 vs x1600: i knew that the x800 was stronger than the x1600 but the x1600 more efficient. so given the fact that the're still working out the proper drivers for the card that the x1600 would be a better buy in the long run. an assumption in my part

please correct me if i'm wrong

 

[corvetteguy]

7800gt, especially the evga 7800gt co 470mhz is very good deal for under $400.

 

[pengwin]

iv heard the 1600 series is a "joke" series

dunno my opinion get a 7800GT or a 6800GS

 

[corvetteguy]

just testing to see if my sig picture will show.

 

[TabrisDarkPeace]

The Radeon X1600 Pro/XT are 'OK' cards, comparable to GeForce 6600 GT and most likely the GeForce 7600 series when it comes out in a few weeks / months.

The Radeon X800 will always scale better than the X1600, as it has more pixel pipelines

X800 XL vs X1600 Pro

490 vs 390 Video RAM clock speed (MHz)
256-bit vs 128-bit Video RAM bus width (total)
31.36 vs 12.50 Video RAM thoughtput (GB/sec)

16 vs 12 Pipelines in GPU
400 vs 500 GPU clock speed (MHz)
6.4 vs 2.36 * Gpixels (Pixel Fillrate)

* From ATI website although my personal figures put the X1600 Pro at 6.0 Gpixels peak, still below the X800 XL

http://www.ati.com/products/RadeonX1600/specs.html
- 157 million transistors on 90nm fabrication process
- ** 90nm process only takes half the space of 130nm process, which makes GPU fabrication cheaper, thus cheaper parts. (Basically '90 x 90' vs '130 x 130').
- Has Shader Model 3.0, but SM 3.0 performance is not that great so you'll end up using SM 2.0b when given the choice just to keep performance high enough for playable frame rates.
- Supports Crossfire setups quite easily (no master card required), which adds future value.

http://www.ati.com/products/radeonx800/specs.html
- 160 million transistors on 0.13 micron low-k fabrication process
- Has Shader Model 2.0b, but good performance for SM 2.0b part.
- Has +33% more pipelines (per clock)
- Has +20% more vetex processing power (per clock)
- Has over 2.5 times (+150%) the video memory bandwidth available to it, which counts at 1280 x 1024 (down the track), during 'heavy' scenes, and high quality textures will benefit from this more.

Tip: Remember that textures compress 6:1 (or more) so a 256 MB of Video Memory can can hold around 1 GB of bitmap textures, leaving 85 MB for the frame buffer.

Since games will support SM 2.0 for quite some time, and the performance of the X800 is going to surpass the X1600 in pretty much every test, now and tomorrow, the X1600 is not the wisest choice.

Benchmarks and testing across various sites, games, 'testing suites', etc puts the X800 Pro / XL in a better performance for your investment light than the X1600 Pro / XT.

 

[PCaddict]

Thanks for the posts, everyone.

With respect for corvetteguy, i cant spend 400 on a single card. (actually i could) but coupling a 7800 to an aging pc isnt the wisest of choices.

Thanks Tabris got the mobo, cpu. will upgrade the gpu later (much later).

 

[Covered_in_bees]

just testing to see if my sig picture will show.

Try putting [/img] at the end - probably just a typo I think

 

[pengwin]

just testing to see if my sig picture will show.

Try putting [/img] at the end - probably just a typo I think

hmm

corvette PM me k? ill teach ya