planning to upgrade first my current pc before buying a new one. unfortunately, the slot for this mobo is agp 8x . now, i've been researching on the net about agp video cards, the 6800 ultra caught my attention but too pricey and some online stores don't have that card anymore. any recommendation on what graphics cards should i get, aside from the 6800 ultra???? hopefully the card that you guys chose will be able to run/play oblivion 4, FEAR, GRAW and the upcoming c&c tiberium wars. i don't expect it to be at the max graphical settings, but i do expect it to run the games above without framing or slowdown.. by the way, does the memory of the card matters?? does it affect the overall performance of the card??
prozac is right 7800gs is the best but if you r going to build a new pc soon better not buy something too pricey the X850s or 6800GS should do just fine with oblivion fear at medium settings in 1024*768 IMO
the memory of the card does matter, but is not the size but the speed of said memory wich will affect the performance of the card, the size only affects the quality of the textures you can select, in any case you should go with the fastest memory over the biggest capacity (better ugly textures that low fps especially in fear and graw)
so if you planning on buying any of this cards check the memory clock timings and latency (also the bus aperture), that should guarantee you get a better performance for your money
A lot of "bang for the buck", especially if you unlock the other four pipelines (you usually can on the VIVO models such as this; basically becomes an X850XT then). You'll spend a lot more to gain any significant performance increase. The only downside is this card lacks Pixel Shader 3 support, but frame rates are great otherwise and you can live without PS3. Just make sure you have a decent power supply with an extra 4-pin connector.
My link above is for X850Pro VIVO AGP at NewEgg, $140 + $6 s/h, no MIRs involved. I've unlocked three of these cards now with no issues. X850XT performance for under $150 to your door is a GREAT deal.
I'm not knocking the nVidia stuff, just noting the bargain here...
mjam, you're right. For some reason, I thought the X850XT I linked to was AGP.
In that case, I'd recommend X850PRO to OP as well. It's a solid card, and opening up 16 pipes and overclocking it are easy. Just remember to get an aftermarket cooler if you're going to do that.
The x850xt by ATI is a very sweet card, I bought it last year and have since upgraded to dual BFG 7900 GT OC. BFG also makes the 7800 in AGP format so either of those would give you rock solid performance.
Anyway, I'll share my AGP rankingbest to worst) Gaiward 7800GS Bliss (24 and 20 pipe) not available North America
7800GS/ X850XTpe
X800XTpe/X850XT/6800U/7600GT
X800XT
X800XL/X850pro/6800GT
X800 pro/X800GTO/6800GS OC (higher clocked models)
6800GS (reference clocks)
7600GS
lol damnit i just signed up to make this exact post
anyways i have a ati 9800 pro 128mb agp card. my system is a 3.2 ghz p4 with 2 gb ram. will the 7600gs be a big enough improvement to warrant buying it? my limit is just around $150. id like to think my computer isnt obsolete just yet
I have an asus 6800 gs unlocked to 6800 gt. So there you go, if you can get one of those (nv40 chip) you can unlock to 16 pipelines and 6 vertex shaders and with overclocking you get a free 6800 GT. google for articles on how. I've done all these to bios and don't need to load any programs. Been stable for 4 months now. No problems whatsoever. A great improvement from my ati 9600 pro crap card. They are dirt cheap, that is if you can find them.
anyways i have a ati 9800 pro 128mb agp card. my system is a 3.2 ghz p4 with 2 gb ram. will the 7600gs be a big enough improvement to warrant buying it?
NO. The 7600GS won't provide a noticeable (or worthwhile) improvement over your 9800Pro. If there is a performance gain, it's 5-10% at best. IMO, you should buy that 7600GT that Paul linked to. It's a little more than $150 ($170-ish), and it's out of stock, but it will provide a significant improvement over your current card, and it's got newer features like SM3.0. Plus, you could eBay your 9800 for about $50.
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