AGP Upgrade from 9700 Pro to AGP x1950 Pro worthwhile?

I am running an ATI 9700 Pro AGP card on my PC, and am looking to improve the PC's ability in running some of the latest games (Oblivion, BF2142, NWN2, etc).

The main problem I face is that my motherboard (ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe) only takes AGP cards, so it would cost me an estimated £520 to upgrade onto a decent PCI-E card. I have a P4 3Ghz CPU on the motherboard.

I'm wondering if you think I would notice any decent gains by changing my card for an X1950 Pro, or whether it would be held back by the other parts of my system?

Would it be better to stick with what I have and try overclocking the card and/or CPU while saving up for that PCI-E upgrade?

Thank you!

I have used the 9800pro. Then went back to 9700pro. Now I have the X1950XT. Wow, what a difference in even the little open GL games.

So yes, it's worth every penny.

trizomik

your psu should be fine, however your cpu will bottleneck the card by a pretty large amount. Depending on the res you plan to game at, you may just be better off with a 7600GT.

so your gonna have to decide if you want to spend that extra bit for a x1950 pro and not make full use of it at places. It will definitely give you a big boost compared with ur current system, but perhaps not as much as you would want it to.

no way, you will not see any difference. Ati made the x800 and x1000 series just for fun, not for better or faster graphics

OFCOURSE you will see a HUGE difference! Even with a p4 @ 3ghz. The more eyecandy (and higher res.) you use, how greater the difference with your 9700. yes, it will be faster with a conroe. but yes, it`s really a big difference.

Bonus: you will get SM3.0 and HDR

What are the specs on that PSU? I'm looking at the 12v rail(s) particularly. I can't seem to read that label in the picture...can you take a look?

Definitely upgrade! I had a 9700 Pro and upgraded to a x1950pro and it's AMAZING! Do it, you wont regret it at all. Just make sure your psu can handle it, as others have said.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/0 [...] -analysis/

Hope this article helps you decide. I miss my 9700 pro, but my x800xl does fine. I don't have the latest and greatest, but I don't need the high resolutions or maxed out graphics. Good luck

Yes, I am planning to upgrade in the next year or so onto a whole new PCI-E board, etc.

This is the usual problem with PCs, isn't it! You think about something to tide you over for a while, and then the cost gets a bit more and you start getting tempted with the bigger upgrade...!

I'd be interested to know what sort of PSU you would advise which would be useful for a decent dual-core PCI-E system in the future (although maybe they'll be quad core, etc by then...!)

I've read a good article on Custom PC which compared PSUs; I'm not sure if these are any that you'd advise?
(See the High end and Mid range Lab test on www.custompc.co.uk)

Thank you blade and everyone for the pointers - I'll look over on the PSU area to take this forward.

I'm convinced now about the usefulness of moving up to the x1950pro, which is what I wanted!

Thank you.

I recently migrated to a 1950 AGP Pro. I tried three different cards and numerous versions of CCC until I found one that worked as advertised. I'm not running an HIS X1950Pro AGP with 512 of ram. I'm using Version 2 of this card and it simply has saved me from migrating to PCI-E for another year. Glad somebody at ATI realized that there's still money, GOOD MONEY, to be made with the AGP format. They got about 280 dollars of mine and I couldn't be happier. Now, if Patriot will return my RMA'd RAM I'll be one happy camper and my rebuilt rig complete.

Da Worfster