Hey all, this is pretty unlikely concidering my parents feelings toward me spending money on hardware for gaming mostly but I'm curious just the same. I've fallen a bit behind in times when it comes to AGP midrange performance. I don't really want to blow a lot of cash. I'm good enough on the ram department and I just got a replacement mobo so it's AGP for sure. All I'd like to get a feeling for is what's the best bang for the buck card here? I'll order them from what I suspect is worst to best: X1600Pro X800GTO X850Pro 7600GS 6800GS X800XT (out of stock) All are 256Mb cards (though 512 is an option for some), most are DDR3 while the 7600GS cards tend to be DDR2. Here's the link for further reference: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...rtyCodeValue=0&Submit=Property&SubCategory=48 Let me know what you think, I'm not really willing to spend much more than $160 (assuming I'm able to buy in the first place).
Your best bets on AGP would be the 6800GS or the Radeon X850Pro. However, given that you have a GeForce 6800 already, none of those cards listed will do the job of giving you a healthy gaming boost. The 7600GS is a little faster or about the same a 6600GT from the benchmarks I've seen. The X850Pro has the potential to beat your card, but not to the extent that I'd pick it up. Unless you can snag a GeForce 7800/7900 or Radeon X1900 series card, I think you'll find yourself to be disappointed with any of the choices you make from your list.
Thanks man but I'm just looking at this from personal experience. The computer I built for a friend has an X850Pro and he can run Call of Duty 2 on the highest settings and FEAR runs great on Maximum. UnSeEn has a 6800GS and I saw Oblivion running on Ultra or whatever it's called and it looked stunning as it ran. I have to run FEAR on Medium and HL2 has some choppy bits now and again with my current rig. You're definately right in saying that I won't see a huge gain but I can definately see that my lack of vram is really killing performance here. Benchmarks do seem to point towards the 6800GS, but while the X800XT lacks SM3 it often does better in some games. It's a tough one. Anyone else like to comment?
I would either choose, X850PRO, X800XT PE, or look around for an X850XT PE (there VVVVV cheap now, about 130 pounds) and the X850XT PE would beat all those cards you selected, be a preety big upgrade from what you've got at the moment, last time i seen the specs of the X850PRO, it was just like an x800xt really :\.
The X850Pro's good but it's a 12pipe card, the XT is 16 so that's good in my book. I looked for the X850XT but they're only cheap when they're for PCIe, not AGP unfortunately. Thanks for the heads up though man. The 6800GS is still looking like the way to go as you can unlock 4 extra pipes and a vertex shader to get 16/6, I think you can only do that on the AGP version though which is kind of cool. I'll see. I wouldn't be bothered by an X800XT though. Since that's what you've got are there any games that don't run well? Have you tried Oblivion for example?
Well with my system, last time i was running oblivion at 1280x1024 and max settings, F.E.A.R, 1280x1024, max settings, same for most games althought sometimes i turn them down if there is a laggy scene, but i can live with slight bits of lag, and there is slight lag in some places with the X800XT PE, but it seems to be a good "bang for the buck" now i would say, a nice mid range card that can run most games at max, i would choose it over a 6800GS anyday, as in some reviews an X800XT PE as actually beaten the 6800Ultra in some games Some x800xt pe's are good overclockers ffrom what i have seen, sadly mine was a total pice of crap when it comes to overclocking (i have an ASUS x800 tho, its good tho, in the end i got this x800xt pe for 175 back when i got it after just canceling an order at EBUYER for an X800XT (211quid)
That's really impressive man, I mean maxing FEAR and Oblivion is no small chore. I think I remember you saying that you could crank the settings on Black and White 2 which is very impressive for a card that's no several years old concidering B&W2 is one of the most demanding games on the market for some reason. The 6800GS is similar in performance to a 6800Ultra and it has overclocking and unlocking potential so it looks pretty good too, in some tests it handily beats a 7800GS for some reason Tom's Hardware Guide Processors: VGA Charts Tom's Hardware Guide Processors: VGA Charts It's a tough one though as the X800XT is almost always faster but I'm not sure what it'd look like if the 6800GS has the full 16/6 count. The good news is the X800XT I found goes for around $170 it's an All in Wonder card so that's kind of cool.
thats well cheap, last all in wonder x800xt i seen was about 350quid lol, i dunno if x800xt and x800xt pe would perform much diffo to each other tho.
The PE is like 50MHz faster I belive so it makes pretty much no difference, especially when you OC yourself. If I found a cheap PE then I'd be set but for some reason they're rare and expensive still.
Still expensive , i faintly remember seing an X800XT PE for about 130 quid, you honistly would be best looking for X850XT PE first as you may find one at 130 quid.
Well im going for the 7600gt. Its relatively cheap at £120 and will also be my next purchase on the gaming front
7600GT's are awesome, shame they're not AGP though. I looked around with Froogle for an X850XT or X850XT PE but neither are very good deals, newegg doesn't have any for AGP and the ones that are for AGP elsewhere are still well over $200, usually around $350 for no reason.
Woah, its aghes since i checked, just checked, i cant find one X800XT PE or X850XT PE in UK sites, there are some for PCI-E, X850XT, AEX800XT PE (Asus), Looks like your going to have to get the 6800Gs, i heard long ago that ATi were supposed to be bringing maybe X1800 out for AGP. I cant belive ATi has stopped producing X800XT's for AGP, they could of revamped the core so it had SM 3.0 and extra features, called it X800 XTX or somthing as the X800XT/PE's and X850XT/PE's are the best card ATi has to offer for AGP, there still good cards all over, i bet when it comes to selling my X800XT PE card i could sell it for about 150 quid because it's so rare now and someone wanting decent performance for AGP would want it. Shame on ATi not producing more of the X8XX series, they were the best and most powerfull cards for AGP, Maybe try looking for 7800GS?
so what about the Hybrid X800XL 512mb. it packs a punch and it aint that pricy. On the 7600gt front that was such a schoolboy error. Whoops!!!
I bet the X800XL 512mb costs way more than a 256mb version, and 512MB dont improve performance at all.
The XL's great but it's not really AGP, at least not commonly, or cheaply. I'd have no problem getting an X800XT AGP, newegg has one back in stock and another site I used to buy from has one for a little less. It definately performs better than the 6800GS (probably even after you unlock the pipes/shader) but I'd want to get the best card I can. It's hard as SM3.0 is sort of important. You need it for HDR lighting and softshadows I guess. It probably won't matter anyway as my parents aren't really giving in.
HDR aint that important, umm softshadows work with X800XT's, they do in F.E.A.R anyay for me, i would look at the reviews on the X800XT on the internet, and at the various brands, try to find a review on the same brand graphics card as yours, would be best to get a good overclocker.
Soft shadows do work? Sweet, I based my comment off of Chronicals of Riddick that had the option to change the shader model for some reason, it listed 2.0++ (aka 3.0) as being for softshadows and was for nVida Geforce 6 or better cards. Odd but I'm not complaining. I guess HDR isn't that big a deal, Bloom and HDR don't really look that different in the Oblivion screen comparisons I've seen, I don't think HDR's that big I deal anymore, (I checked after I posted that). Anyone know if SM3.0 is used for anything else?
I aint sure if SM 3.0 is used for anything else, Also, i aint 100% sure actually if softshadows do work, in F.E.A.R i can enable them tho which usually wood indicate they work. Some games can have HDR with SM2.0, for example, Half Life 2 uses HDR, well at leasy Half Life 2 Lost Coast does.
