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Totally disagree with your there, Mach5.
When discussing best price, there is very little reason to talk 'brick and mortar' from what I have seen.
Agreed, most people who come to these forums do not shop at "brick and mortar" stores. The only time I go to BestBuy is when I feel like getting music the legal way. The only time I step into a PC shop is to go visit my friend who works at one or if I need a part immediately.

This is why I don't like going to "brick and mortar" shops.

I wouldn't buy a "modded" graphics card from anyone on eBay. There's no telling what you could be getting into.

Cheap PCI-E Motherboard, and a 7600gt, cheaper then that 7800gs.

I would either go for an x8xx series, a 6600 gt, or (if you can get one) a 6800 model. those sound like your best choices and in your price range.

They are all good choices, and it sounds like the 6600gt beats all the other cards. So that may be your card right there!!

IF you get an x800 gto, you can unlock the extra pipelines to give you 16 pipelines easily and if you end up with an R430 core (like I did) it will still overclock and not show much of a difference in performance.

What do you have to say kindageek?

Yeah , but a 7800 GS would kick the living hell outta that 7600 even if its PCI-E against AGP.
AGP wont slow that card down much, besides you can crank up AGP speeds too....
I got a 7800 GS and when overclocked it surely has the advantage over that 7600 , besides the 7600 only has a 128-bit mem interface I think.
And that seriously fuck up the cards performance......
I admit my 7800GS was overpriced , but I needed to go on with this system for a while , and I just LOVE Oblivion, its just my X800Pro couldnt handle it so well , and it didnt do HDR
system specs
A64- 3500 Newcastle @ 2.4 (220x11.0- 1.55v)
EVGA GeForce 7800 GS CO SuperClock(stock for the moment , but i'm gonna let the beast go soon )
2GB of DDR 400 CL3.0 Corsair CMX-1024-3200 x2
36 GB Raptor
160 GB WD1600JD
Soundblaster Audigy 1
Dont remember my mobo's make and model but its a NF3 250 based board from MSI fully loaded.
Maybe its no killer system , but its too good to buy a new one right now.....

Don't forget to add in the price of a new processor and possibly new memory to that.

Just thought I would follow-up to say thanks to everyone who gave suggestions. I ended up going with the Sapphire X800 GTO. Great card for only $130, so I'm happy with it.

Here are my before and after 3DMark scores.

3DMark05: 2613 || 4097
3DMark06: 629 || 1392

Thanks again!

save money and upgrade it to a core 2 or w/e with pci-express slot.

Apprently, you do not realize that he's already made the purchase and posted the before and after benchies.

I'm crying because your 3DM05 score with a 9800Pro is higher than I've ever scored with my X600 POS.

Anyways, it's always nice to see someone who's happy with their purchase.

Good to hear. Are you gonna try and unlock it now?

Just like the others have stated I would not spend a lot of cash on a high end
AGP card If you ask me the X800GT or the X800XL would be the better buy
becasue on most test the X800XL bested the 6800GT. My experience have been great with the X800XL when I had a AGP system now my Mom has it in her PC. Hope this helped.

I got an 7600GS 512meg BFG here. I could let go for $60+s/h if interested...
I no longer use that system...


Dang.. Talk about replying to a dead thread..
I really need to check the dates on these things..