AGP Upgrade from 6600gt - 4 Choices

[Lazarus7]

Hey all, a friend of mine is currently running a 6600gt 128MB 128bit with 2.8ghz P4 and 1 gig pc3200 ram, Asus P4P800 mobo.

He wants to get a new pc when dx10 etc comes out and is just wanting something to tide him over until then (games like Company of Heroes, NFS Carbon, Rise of Legends etc).

So the question is are any of these graphics cards worth upgrading to and if so which one?

7600GS 256MB 128bit - $209AUS
X800GTO 256MB 256bit - $209 AUS
7600GT 256MB 256bit - $389AUS
7800GS 256MB 256bit - $459AUS

Cheers
Lazarus

 

[p90m16mp5a4]

x850XT for performance
7600GT for performance and visual quality
7800GS for uber performance and visual quality

Although I'd suggest buying from ebay >.>. The 7800gs is much cheaper there. That rig is showing it's age, i'd go with the x850XT since that p4 might bottleneck the 7800gs heheheheh

I think AUS like like 2x USD? The 7800gs shouldn't be that expensive, are you shopping at bestbuy? big nono.

 

[mad_fitzy]

The Aussie dollar is about 76 US cents. I dont know where you got that 2x crap. And read his choices first before you make reccomendations. He never mentioned an x850xt. I didnt even know the 7600gt had been released here in Aus. personaly, I would choose the GTO in the hopes of unlocking.

 

[randomizer]

I would go with the GTO too, since I have it . But dont go for it just coz it can be unlocked, since the chances that the unlocked pipelines will fail is fairly high. Most GTOs are just x800xts that have faulty pipes so they disable the faulty ones and sell it as a cheaper model. However, ATI cant bank on too many dodgy cards, so some will have disabled piper that work perfectly fine, and may even overclock well too. Just dont count on it.

EDIT: That GTO is expensive, I got mine for around $AU160, excluding postage. Glad I live in Sydney

 

[Lazarus7]

Yeah they have the 7600gt at netplus. One thing I am a bit iffy about is whether or not any of these cards will represent a significant increase in performance over the 6600gt or if the money will be better saved for the new pc.

Cheers
Lazarus

 

[pauldh]

I think it depends on what resolution he games at and how happy he is gaming on the 6600GT. I'd take a X800GTO over the 7600GS, but really unless he is willing to spend the money on the 7600GT, I'm not so sure I'd upgrade unless the 6600GT truely isn't cutting it at the settings he wants to game at. Your prices are high and the 7800GS isn't all that bad priced compared to the 7600GT. It's a bigger difference in the USA, making the 7600GT a clear better buy IMO.

Anyway, look over the digit-life charts and the games/resolution/settings that matter most to him. Those charts are PCI-e, but except for the 6800GS(PCI-e clocked higher), things will translate the same in AGP. The 6600GT, 7600GS, X800GTO and 7600GT are all in those charts. The 7800GS would be a bit above the 7600GT but obviously always below the 7800GT. 1024x768 no fsaa the 6600GT will do pretty good. But 1280x1024 4xaa/16xaf, the 7600GT will show a big lead.
http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/digest3d/index.html

example, farcry at 10x7 6600GT does fine keeping up: http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/digest3d/0806/itogi-video-fc1-wxp-1024-pcie.html

But look at 12x10 4x/16x and the 6600GT & 7600GS struggle compared to the X800GTO and 7600GT: http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/digest3d/0806/itogi-video-fc1-wxp-aaa-1280-pcie.html

 

[Lazarus7]

mmmm thanks for that...he plays at 1280x1024 which i think is a bit of the problem but based on those figures it seems the X800gto would be the best buy.

Thanks again for the help