ATI 9800XT 256MB vs X1600XT 512MB: Which is better?

well, it would be faster & you gain PS 3.0...

but it would be better value to get the AGP x1950pro...

Yeah the 1950 is not in my budget. I am looking for a good AGP upgrade for the 9800XT that's under $200.

is the x800 better than the x1600? I thought the higher the number the "better" the card?

I think those cards are PCI xpress though. I need an AGP card thats better than the 9800XT. I am don't want to have to upgrade my motherboard to use the card. I checked around on Newegg and can't seem to find the AGP versions of the cards you suggested.

This is turning out to be more complicated than I thought! Maybe I should just play console games...

I would like to play all the latest PC games with an AGP card that doesn't choke at a decent resolution, say 1280 x 1024...

forget the 1600xt then...whats the best gaming AGP card for under $200?

I would recomend the X800. It's a great card and will outperform the X1600.

From what I've seen, the X1600 is about the same performance as the 9800 pro, the xt should outperform it.

If you look on Ati's site, there were a few good deals for X800's that I can remember.

As for the numbering, the X800 is top card from the last gen, the X1600 is just above the lowest budject card for this gen. The X800 outperforms the X1600 hands down.

Also, the fact that the X1600 has SM 3, it's basicaly useless as the card doesnt have enough power to use it and achieve decent framerates.

Thats my $0.02

One more suggestion. From what I read, I assume you need a decent mid-level card to let you game with decent image quality at 1280*1024.

Consider

1) 6800GS ( roughly the same as a 6800GT, overclockable)

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] &CatId=318

2) 7600GS (performance on par with a 6800GT, poor overclocker on memory - DDR2, potentially decent core overclock) - SM 3.0

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] 27&CatId=0


Both are significantly faster than your 9800XT, that will give you roughly 2x the fps you're getting currently. In the AGP segment, it's hard to find anything that gives you the same performance for that price (110-130$).
If you get one of these cards, you can last just long enough so that your next upgrade would be a midrange DX10 card, when those become affordable.

Keep in mind that neither of these cards are monsters, but they are both a significant upgrade from the 9800 and offer good value for their price.

Ideally I would look for an AGP version of x1950Pro, but I cant seem to find one for a good price, and 280$ is borderline pointless to pay for a card whose PCI-E version sells for less than 200$.

There are definitely better cards to be found for AGP, but they are grossly overpriced compared to their PCI-E counterparts. Almost to the point that you can get a new motherboard and PCI-E card for the price of the equivalent AGP version of the card.

Cheers

I agree with that suggestion. The only thing that the X850PRO lacks is sm3, other than that it's a decent card.

Unless you can get an AGP version of the 7600GT. It's probably the best >$200 AGP card out there, if you can find it.