$100-165 Graphics card

[Concept]

I've spent the last 3 days searching for ideas as to what card I should upgrade from my geforce fx 5200 to play Oblivion, which cannot even play the game. Period.

I came to the conclusion that there are soooo many options to choose from that its killing me. I want something that will run Oblivion smoothly on normal-high settings, but not MAX.

Oh, it needs to be AGP by the way, and around $150, although if it makes that much of a difference I could probably climb up for around $180.

Thanks.

 

[cleeve]

AGP makes a big difference, unfortunately.

In PCIe you could have gotten a 7600 GT or X850 XT;

In AGP, I'm afraid your budget only allows for an X1600, 6800 GS or X800 GTO. The 6800 GS and X1600 will let you see some of Oblivion's niftier effects.

The X1600 will be cheapest, probably around $150. The 6800 GS will probably be a bit more expensive, but will also probably perform a bit better.

 

[pauldh]

It's going to be hard to find a $150 AGP that can run Oblivion at high settings, especially at 10x7 resolution. Med-high no FAAA is more probable. Just make sure the rest of the system is up to spec also.

The best AGP you are going to find for that price is a X800GTO 256MB. It performs as well as a 6800GS, which are more expensive ($200-220 now) and slower clocked than the PCI-e versions. And $180 won't make a difference as unfortuanately their just aren't many options for AGP. To do better you need to spend $270+ on a 7800GS.

Basically in AGP here is a rough pecking order, just in case you can find one on the list that's better than a X800GTO and priced in you budget. Example, a X850 pro would be a step above the X800GTO and some COmpUSA retail stores had them for $179 a short while back.

GF7800GS/X850XTpe
X800XTpe/X850XT/GF6800U
X800XT
X800XL/GF6800GT/ X850pro
X800 pro/X800GTO/GF6800GS
GF6800/X800 GTO 128MB (slower mem clocks than the 256MB version)

 

[Concept]

AGP makes a big difference, unfortunately.

In PCIe you could have gotten a 7600 GT or X850 XT;

In AGP, I'm afraid your budget only allows for an X1600, 6800 GS or X800 GTO. The 6800 GS and X1600 will let you see some of Oblivion's niftier effects.

The X1600 will be cheapest, probably around $150. The 6800 GS will probably be a bit more expensive, but will also probably perform a bit better.

If you where in my shoes, would you get the 6800gs, or the x1600? would the 6800gs be worth the extra $30 you think?

 

[pauldh]

Argh, ya beat me too it.

The X1600 pro would be below the other two. Kinda between a 9800 pro and 6600GT I'd guess. I don't think there is a X1600XT AGP, but I could be wrong.

Side note: I have a 9800 pro, X1600 pro AGP, and a X800 128MB PCI-e that I am so eager to bench on the Asrock Uli. Too bad no 6600GT in stock though.

 

[pauldh]

GF6800GS in AGP is going to run you $200 plus now. It has SM3 but is not faster than a much cheaper X800GTO 256MB. The X1600 pro is cheap, $120-$130, but would get blown out by a GTO.

We don't have Oblivion benchmarks for these cards. But here you can find other benchies. You'll see that card #19 a 12-pipe 6800 256-bit clocked 350/1000 is identical to a 6800GS. In most benchies they did, the X800GTO performs higher.

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/digest3d/index0511.html

 

[smartel7070]

I just traded my x1600 pro for a 6800gs and my 3dmark05 went from 4759 with x1600 to 6229 with 6800gs so I would go for the 6800gs, performs much better than x1600.

 

[Scougs]

I have an AGP X800GTO. It is a pretty good card and has potential for overclocking and/or unlocking. The only disadvantage of the X800 series is that they don't support Shader Model 3. That doesn't matter too much now but in the next year or so it might start making a significant difference.

The card I have the memory overclocks a fair amount but the core doesn't. I did, however, modify the bios so that it now has 16 active pixel pipelines.

 

[Concept]

Thanks all of you for the replies.