Radeon 9800 Pro to old computer = waste?

[mawkish]

Can anyone advice me if it is a waste to buy a Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB graphics card for my computer that is a couple of years old.

My mother board is Asus CUV4X with a PIII 733 MHz, 384 MB RAM. It supports AGPx4 mode but the Radeon has AGPx8. I will upgrade from Win98 to XP.

I will get the gfx card for a fairly good price, but how much more would I get out from the Radeon if I also buy a new computer? Should I go for a P4 too?

Thanks!

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by mawkish on 01/08/04 05:14 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[sargeduck]

In your case a 9800 would be a complete waste of money. I currently have a 1.4ghz (celeron 1.1 oc'd to 1.4) with a 9600 Pro, and I know my system is holding my card back. For a system like that, I would probably say a 9100 would be good. However, if you really a want a fast card, I'd say a 9600 NON PRO. Don't waste your money on anything more than that. Your system just can't take it

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[pauldh]

What is your current card? Does it play your games satisfactory? a 9800 Pro will not work at all to it's potential and not even beat out slower cards on your system. So yes it is a waste, unless you see the PIII733 as temporary and out the door soon. Otherwise Ti4200 would be nice and when you upgrade you PIII 733 system, the 9800 Pro will be much cheaper. (we hope)

http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030120/index.html

In Toms VGA charts part 2, you can see that even on a TBird 1.0GHZ, there is very little gain past a Ti4200 or even Radeon 8500le.

ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 512MB Corsair TwinX PC3200LL, Radeon 9500 Pro, Santa Cruz, Antec 1000AMG, TruePower 430watt

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Just a thought. If you are planning on upgrading your system to a P4 later anyways. Get the [edit]R9800PRO and then upgrade your CPU/MOBO/ETC. as the next step. Yeah for the months you have the [edit]R9800pro it won't be getting full use, but once you upgrade then you won't have to get another graphics card ontop of that.
An R9600Pro/XT would also be a good choice and would not be the dead weight a lesser card would be on that newer system.

Just my view from the cheap seats.

EDIT: Changed non-pro to pro, misread thread in haste.


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<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by TheGreatGrapeApe on 01/08/04 05:44 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Actually there is a large enough gain in Aquanox under normal conditions. I have a feeling more modern games are more VPU sensitive than CPU sensitive. Sure you will gain some from a better CPU, but you will also have significant gain from a better VPU even on a relatively hobbled system. But unfortunately Lars didn't address that in the latest review. Too bad really, as this is a common question/situation.

I know a fair number of people don't see it that way, but so be it.
The only concern I would have would be price now versus price later. If the price of getting an R9000/9100/9200 or GF4ti plus that of the THEN price of an R9800 is less or equal (include resale value of R9/GF4 to be accurate) then it would make sense to do it in stages. I think even during the wait while a GF4ti would perform about the same, he would also have the benifit of better AA/AF in the meantime. And for those games that would play on his rig now anyways I would think he would be seeing ~100+ FPS anyways, and therefore AA/AF may offer a nice boost over RES. increase.

As ever, just my two frames worth.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[Crashman]

I'd go ahead and get the 9800 Pro 128MB since you've found a fair price on it. The fact it's 8x and you'll use it on a 4x board means nothing when it comes to performance. The only thing holding you back will be the CPU, and you can upgrade that with a new motherboad later.

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[mawkish]

Ok, many ideas, thanks for the good inputs guys!
Mawkish, Sweden