Compairison help Radeon 9800 pro vs Radeon x700

They are about same performer. You are wasting your money.

The x700pro was just a hair behind the 9800pro. The non existent x700XT was just a hair ahead of the 9800pro. If you overclock the x700pro, it should be as fast. Not sure if its worth if for $50. You are probably better off getting the 2600pro.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

$90 counting shipping, $75 once the rebate comes back. If thats to much, look into getting an old 7600GS/x1600/x1650.

I dont mind spending a couple hundred on a new card, but i dont know what to get, cuz i have agp and most cards are all pci-e nowadays, any recommendations? I play Final fantasy 11, and thats the primary goal of my upgrade to make it play better. Its also the reason i spent 500 on the 9800 pro when it first came out, had to have the best lol.. now i just want some improvement and maybe dx10 support

time for you to get on to a new system then. AGP is a dead bus.

Yeah, i kinda guessed
Any board recommendations? I hate the idea of having to buy a new cpu, current one is an intel 2.4c overclocked to 3

If I'm not mistaken, the 9800pro had some cards that were shipped with 128 bit memory interface and others with 256 bit memory interface. If you have the 128 bit model, I'm pretty sure the x700 would be faster (but not by that much). If you have the 256 bit model, I think the x700 would actually be a downgrade

Also, if you want to stay with the AGP bus, I'd only recommend buying a card that has SM3 capabilities.

If I were you, I wouldn't buy it for that price. you can use the program gpu-z to determine your memory bit interface

This article includes AGP cards http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card,1923....
the highest power available AGP card http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/ite... make sure your power supply can handle it (look at sys req lower down on page)

you can extract a bit more time from that rig with a 7600, or you can build a whole new one which will entail you getting a new one of pretty much everything cpu, ram mobo gfx (possibly HDD - i would imagine you are not using sata)

Like i said before, i hate the idea of buying a new processor, so expensive..
are any of the new boards still supporting -Socket 478 ? Or should i just suck it up?

Don't be afraid of processor costs. A small Core 2 duo e2180 doesn't cost much and performs way beyond any P4. Plus it's a dual core. Just check out prices on newegg and other sites to get an idea about current prices.

I went from a 3GHz 631 Pentium 4 to an e2200 and it's like night and day. My P4 took 5 minutes to convert a CD from mp3 into wave. My e2200 does it in less than a minute. Not bad for an $80 CPU.

A 2.4 @ 3.0 is still very slow for current games.

A P3x MB, E2180, 2GB RAM and an 8800GS would be a little over $200. You would be far better served by this than putting a 3850 with a slower 3.0 P4 and 1GB RAM. It is time to upgrade.

I agree with that. At the current prices of today's hardware, You could just upgrade your cpu, mobo, ram, and vid for around $200-$300. The performance will be night and day.

Isnt there still the HD3850 for AGP?

You want to mate a 3850 with a P4?

I'm not sure I'd do that. I still hear rumors of driver issues with the 3xxx series and the AGP bus. If he can, get the system upgrade that nvalhalla suggested. Any 21xx will be much faster then what he has now.