hello im undecided on this im upgrading my cpu from celeron 2.6 to pent 4 3.0 e yeah im 478 socket. i have a gig of decent ram. im spending about 250 bucks so after getting the pentium and the psu i thought which video card is better . i want to play oblivian and fear, prey at good settings. i currently have a gf 6600le yuk, atleast its the 128 bit bus. so which is it a 7600gs or radeon x850 pro mind you iver never hat an ati ive always been into nvidia. thanks

The X850 pro is easily the more powerful card and would beat the 7600GS in most games. But, the higher clocked (yet stil 128-bit) 7600GT would beat the X850 pro in most games.

IMO the 7600GS is too wimpy to worry about the Sm3.0 vs. Sm2.0 debate. If the cards were tied in performance or we were talking much faster cards, then sure SM3.0 would be the way to go. But neither is the case when comparing these two cards...IMO X850 pro easily wins.

thanks. im a little nervous about atis. like i said ive always been a nvidia guy. next year im getting a whole new rig. so ill be pcie but for now im agp. im also on a crt so i dont need crazy resolutions. i didnt know if the gf was more advanced than the x850. but i looked at the benchmarks and the x850 is faster. i think either will beat a 6600 le {it was a gift to replace 5200} so sm 3 doesnt matter to play oblivian or is it just like lighting shadow thing? also i just bought hitman blood money but im saving it because the celeron doesnt like it lol.

Go with the ATI card as it will be a lot better not only in performance but also picture quality - especially in filtering. The less said about nvidias very poor 2d quality the better - if you still have a CRT screen then the ATI will blow you away at the desktop for clarity and stability - even a TFT will show you a nicer picture (just).

For the fanboys - ATI are better quality full stop, this has been fairly tested and is a known fact in the highest level of computing - however even ati is only 2nd best to Matrox.

And for those who say Im trash talking let the people who actually own both - and or have compared both on their own setups and then reported on it be your guide. However this is NOT to say nvidia is bad at all - far from it as I say I own and run both and NV have an edge in opengl so Im not adverse to them and have run nv since the Riva128 but ATI are better quality for output and filtering full stop.

ps Im not blind and making stuff up !.

If the 7600gt beats the x850pro, why not just get the 7600gt than?

Is the difference between the two cards significant enough to dish out a little more money for the 7600gt?

You can get the X850 pro for $50 less than the 7600GT, not to mention Newegg is out of stock on all 7600GT AGP again.

But both are as good a deal as can be had for the money in AGP.

The 7600 GT is only a little bit more expensive then the 7600 GS, but it is a LOT better, maybe even close to 2x as good.

Not to mention is has Pixel and Vertex Shader 3.0, a 90nm core (wich means it can become a LOT better then the X850 Pro) and it has more support being a newer card.

7600 GT all the way. It's what I usually recommand.

I assume you mean a lot better by OC'ing the card?

Yes, of course thats why i mentioned 90nm.

budget is tight and im going newegg all the way.those are my choices do too me getting a cpu and power supply. i mean there is also 6600gts and what not but the x850 and 7600 are more of an upgrade. i dont want a 6800 xt so those are my choices

Unless you can afford to take the 7600GT then please buy an ATI x800 or x850 - you will not regret the higher quality purchase regardless of what others here may try to say.