High end AGP graphics card and processor/RAM requirements

toxicsox

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Aug 16, 2004
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I intend to upgrade my graphics card to an XFX GeForce 6800 GS 256 MB DDR3 8X AGP Extreme Edition card to get some extended life out of my current system and play the latest games. The system is a Gateway 700S:
Gateway® 700S
Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 2.4GHz w/
512K L2 Advanced Transfer Cache and 533MHz FSB
Memory: 1GB (2x512MB) RDRAM® PC800
Video: 128MB NVIDIA™ GeForce4 Ti-4200G with TV Out
and DVI Graphics Accelerator

My question is: will the overall graphics performance of the higher end AGP 6800GS card be limited by the slower 2.4 GHz processor and 1MB of RDRAM?
Cheers
 

MarkG

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Oct 13, 2004
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It will depend on the game: older games may well be CPU limited and not show any performance improvement (Orbiter, for example, gets almost exactly the same frame-rate on my 7800GS as it did on the Radeon 9500 Pro... but then it gets up to 250fps anyway), but new games that are graphics limited will be a lot faster.

Plus, of course, on CPU-limited games you could always increase resolution and AA to give better image quality at the same frame-rate.
 

toxicsox

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Aug 16, 2004
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Thanks for the advice, I am playing Doom3, Fear and HL2, so I believe that the 6800GS or at least the 6600GT will keep me happy for a while until I get the monster machine with a car radiator for cooling the latest gear...
 

hongkongphuey

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Feb 14, 2006
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Dude you'll be fine with the 6800GS. My system

P4 2.66HT w/800 FSB
Generic 1GB Ram PC3200
BFG 6800GT OC'd 400/1100 (AGP) with PCI slot Fan

And I get great framerates, in all of those games. You may not be able to swing 1600x1200 online, but rest assured you can do that in D3 offline with 45-60 FPS, HQ EFX Shadows...etc.

So good luck on your buy and let us know what goes down!
 

toxicsox

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Aug 16, 2004
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Thanks for the info, I am shoppping for the best deal on a 6800GS and will let you all know the resukt once the card is in.
Cheers!