AGP question

[ItalianIce]

My motherboard is kinda old, and i don't feel like changing it now.(asus p4b-lx) My current graphics card is geforce4 ti 4200 128mb, and i want to get one of newer cards (geforce 6800 or radeon x800) that should run on 8x agp. Is it really a lot worse if i run one of those cards on a 4x agp?

 

[entium]

whats your cpu? the port itself won't slow ya down much but higher end games need a good cpu

 

[ItalianIce]

intel p4 1.8 ghz, i'm going to get another 1gb of ram soon, currently at 512 now, and windows xp home edition.

 

[entium]

yeah its best to get a new cpu and mobo as well a 1.8 is going to be more of a bottleneck for ya.

 

[ItalianIce]

well hl2 says 2.0 ghz recommended. so i dont know, wouldn't games still run good with one of the best graphics cards (and you said the agp doesnt matter much)

 

[pauldh]

The bad news is, probably not. You have a P4 1.8 (Willy) running SDRAM. An Athlon XP1600+ is a better gaming CPU than your P4 on SDRAM. Mobo/CPU/RAM isn't cheap, but I wouldn't waste the money on a 6800 or X800 without upgrading those components as well.

ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 512MB Corsair TwinX PC3200LL, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

 

[entium]

ditto, the physics in half life 2 are very intenstive a 2.0 intel is bare minimum, even then expect some lag where they use breakable polygons.

 

[pauldh]

A 2.0GHz P4 running rambus or DDR is very different than on an 845 running PC133. Look at this link, a 1.7GHz P4 Willy paired with PC133 games about like a TBird 1.2GHz.
<A HREF="http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20010702/pentium4-10.html" target="_new">http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20010702/pentium4-10.html</A>


ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 512MB Corsair TwinX PC3200LL, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

 

[davemar14]

I would assume a 2.0 GHz Athlon would handle the game better. I have a Athlon XP 2400+, and I want to upgrade to a 6800. I currently have a GF4 Ti 4200, so I should gain a noticable increase. Would my CPU hold the card back a lot?

Athlon XP 2400+
Corsair 512 MB DDR400
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
GF4 Ti 4200
Western Digital 80 GB
Seagate 20 GB

 

[pauldh]

Unless I am wrong and you are not on a PC100/133 i845 motherboard, definately don't upgrade to the top video card, and don't BUY 1GB of PC133 even if your board supports it. PC133 doesn't offer the P4 enough memory bandwidth, not to mention it is very expensive now. You won't be happy with the results of that expensive RAM/ GPU upgrade. All that upgrade money could be put to much better use upgrading other key components. If all this is overbudget, I'd say downgrade the video card to a R9800 pro and pair it with an NF7-S/XP2500+ or mobile XP2500+ and some PC3200. If you truely want an X800 or GF6800, upgrade your system and pair it with a nice Athlon 64.


ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 512MB Corsair TwinX PC3200LL, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

 

[pauldh]

And just how high can you overclock that XP2400+? You have the Ram for it

ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 512MB Corsair TwinX PC3200LL, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

 

[davemar14]

I need to order a new CPU cooler and thermal paste, probably order it tonight. I have got the CPU stable at 2140 Mhz (142x15) through 3DMark on the stock cooler. I am hoping to get 2250 Mhz (166x13.5) on the new cooler. I'll post what I can get with the new heatsink. Here is the link to my 3DMark score. Its not too bad, I want to crack 13,000 when I get the FSB higher. That is what is holding me back.

<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=7499444" target="_new">http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=7499444</A>

 

[ItalianIce]

yes it is a pc100/133 mobo. and thanks for the info