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Some expertise might be handy....I mean HELP!

Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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An upgrade for my 9600 pro 128mb...
My desktop specs:

AMD Athlon Xp 2800+
Crucial 768mb 333MHz PC2700
Maxtor 6Y200P0 Plus9 200Gb 7200rpm 8mb Cache ATA133
AGP 8x only motherboard. (no pci-e)

Have had the 9600pro since November 2003, and as one can imagine, I have got pretty sick of it.

I need a good upgrade for my gfx but I don't want to break the bank. I am planning to get a new laptop late next year, so all I need is a card that will last me until then.

This means that I would not consider buying a PCI-E ready motherboard in order to get a pci-e card; not worth the money.

I'm budgeting about £80 - £100 for this ($150-$190), and I would ideally like to play BF2, CSS and SCCT at a high resolution (c1280x1024) with high settings.

This is my first post, and therefore also my hello (!) to the forum. Any help would be greatly appreciated.



Cards I have been thinking about - Geforce 7600GS, 6600GT, Radeon X1600XT. However, am not sure if such powerful cards would be pointless, given my relatively low specs elsewhere.

Thanks again.

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I completely disagree with the first reply. Your system is clearly limited by the 9600 pro and any of the cards mentioned would provide a nice boost little boost. I can't help you on your pricing, but I'd say good matches best to worst would be 1) X800GTO/pro, 2) 7600GS/X1650 pro/X1600XT 3) 6600GT/ X1600 pro 5) cheap/used 9800 pro (not far behind the last two)
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Don't mind the guy that is telling you that your rig will bottleneck those cards.

I went from a 9600XT to a X800 and it was a big difference on my system with a 2600 barton. So, your 2800 won't do that. I also found a nice boost on a X1600, but it's not that snazzy of a card. Cheap, though.

Your CPU is pretty decent.

The new X1650 PROs are out in AGP now for $130 or so... great deal. A bit faster than the 7600 GS.

It'd make a nice fit for your system, and a huge upgrade from the 9600.

If you can afford it, the 7600 GT is worth the $175 though.

None of the mentioned cards are going to allow the likes of BF2 to be played truly at high res, especially with their lack of pipelines, 800mhz DDR2 memory etc other than maybe the 7600gt but still only 12 pipes.

Alpha wants to run with eye candy, choices are limited these days in AGP. But you certainly arent going to be able to AA or ASF with those cards.

I agree with Cleeve. If you can afford it, definitely the 7600GT ($175USD). You should also consider any X8XX series GPU. Any of those would be a huge upgrade, and meet your needs quite nicely.

Missed the games list in the original post.

Best bet in AGP is still the 7600 GT, regardless of pipelines... but high res and AA isn't going to happen.
Might squeeze out 1280x1024 resolution iun any given game, but a handful of titles will require lowering a few settings.

PCIe upgrade time for this fellow, and an X1900 XT 256mb at least if high res and eye candy are the goal.

I slightly disagree.

My X800 XT PE runs all my games at 1280 x 1024 with mostly maxed out settings! EQ2 very demanding, almost maxed!

The 7800 GS+ will outperform that further.

And I x4 aa and x8 - x16asf depending on game.

The 7600 is never going to acheive that due to lack of pipes. But it will run everything very well, depends how into things like AA you are etc....

OK, so I just went for it and have ordered an XFX 7600 GS 256mb.

...I hope that wasn't the moronic option. It was £72, ($137), and i'm sure in the USA I could have got it a lot cheaper, but I think gfx cards are a bit more pricey here in the UK.

Here's the link.
http://westavon-systems.co.uk/pd_256mb_xfx_7600gs_agp.c...

They wanted me to pay by bank transfer, as opposed to credit/debit card. Sounds a bit dodgy to me, should I pull out or is that perfectly normal?


Thanks everyone for the really helpful replies.
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