I'm long over due for a new videocard. Ive got a Geforce 4 ti 4200 128mb right now and it's served me very well but it's time to ditch it. I've got an agp system and about $200 CAD atm (though I might have to buy another textbook for school and delay upgrading). I would ideally like to spend about $150 CAD. I'm not interested in incredible frame rates , I just want my games to be playble at decent resolutions.

Theres a lot more selection than the was when i bought my GF4 so I have some questions:

- is 512mb really worth it? Last year the consensus was 256mb is just fine but will a 512mb card get me some headroom for future games?

- 6800 series cards and 7600 series cards are roughly in the same price range. Is 6800 with a 256 bit memory interface faster than a 128 bit 7600? What are the advantages/disadvantages of getting one ore the other?

- Ive seen posts saying that a Radeon X800 (XT?) will outperform newer ATI cards. Is an X800 a good choice?

- Is support for Shader Model 3.0 important? Will it be in the future?

Thanks in advance for you help.

Id get a 7600...I have one and it plays just about everything.....Also works well with Maya..

512MB is great if you can afford it, but if you're going to spend $150 right now, I would worry more about Pixel Shader 3.0 and a higher speed as opposed to RAM alone. 512MB will buy you more headroom, but for the next gen games, you can always lower their super-high settings to decent settings and you'll see what you're used to. Either that or you could always leave the settings a little higher and see a slight hit in frame rate. Either way, it depends on the game. I say stick with 256MB and concentrate on more important details.

The nVidia GeForce 8800GTS/GTX are Shader Model 4.0 - given that, they are top of the line cards, but it just shows that 3.0 is on its way out over the next year or so. I say stick with at least 3.0.

Forget about ATI - go with nVidia - BFG GeForce cards are excellent for the price (check out CompuSmart.com - Canada's Online Computer Store) - I know you're in Canada. I work at the Kennedy/401 store (assuming you're in Toronto) and our prices are excellent, plus we match anyone else anyways.

I say 6800 - for what you're doing, its an excellent card and the 7600 is a little bit less powerful. Price is decent too, about $150CAD.

Good luck!!

^he has a AGP system not a PCI-E
read before posting

yea for ATI the x800GTO is best for AGP slot
the x1950 PRO AGP is due out in another 3 months or so

the x800GTO is somehwat hard to find though
newegg doesnt ship to canada either...

as far as nVidia I really dont know

I just spent the last month going over this with Nerdz in PM's...he has several threads on it, maybe they will help you choose.

BRB with some links.

http://forums.pcapex.com/anything_go...?highlight=agp

http://forums.pcapex.com/video_card_...ight=nerdz+agp

http://forums.pcapex.com/other_pc_pr..._part_2_a.html

I would think one of the 7600 series cards should make you pretty happy though

Quote: Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro I just spent the last month going over this with Nerdz in PM's...he has several threads on it, maybe they will help you choose. BRB with some links. http://forums.pcapex.com/anything_go...?highlight=agp http://forums.pcapex.com/video_card_...ight=nerdz+agp http://forums.pcapex.com/other_pc_pr..._part_2_a.html I would think one of the 7600 series cards should make you pretty happy though

Thanks for the linkage. I guess it might be worth mentioning that my system is like 4 years old and my AGP slot is 4x slot. Will that be a problem with newer 8x cards? Its an Abit KR7A Raid. Also my powersupply is 420w. Will that be sufficient for most cards?

I'm really leaning towards nvidia. I've been looking at some benchmakrs and generally i've found that a 6800 card usually comes out a bit faster than a 7600GS but behind a 7600GT. I've also found 6800 cards are a little lower in price than 7600GSs. Would I miss out on anything if I chose a 6800 over a 7600 card? Does the 6000 series support HDR?

Heres a few cards i'm comparing:
EVGA GeForce 7600 GS 256MB GDDR2 AGP 8x DVI VGA HDTV Video Card 256-A8-N542-TX in Canada at TigerDirect.ca
XFX GeForce 6800 Xtreme 256MB GDDR3 AGP 8x Dual DVI HDTV Video Card PVT42KVDE3 in Canada at TigerDirect.ca
Biostar GeForce 6800 XT 256MB GDDR2 AGP 8x DVI VGA TV Out Video Card V6802XA21 in Canada at TigerDirect.ca
XFX GeForce 7600 GS 256MB GDDR2 AGP 8x DVI VGA TV Out Video Card PVT73KUAL3 in Canada at TigerDirect.ca
PNY GeForce 7600 GS 512MB GDDR2 AGP 8x DVI VGA HDTV Video Card VCG76512SAPB in Canada at TigerDirect.ca

EDIT: The first one seems to be the best. Appearantly its 4x compatible and its clocked higher than the others.

Personally, I would save the money towards a total system overhaul/upgrade. If you've made do so far with what you have, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to wait a little longer...

Do you have to go with AM2 or the C2D processors/mobos/DDR2 mem? No, I don't think so... I think you can get by with a 939 or 478/775 board/CPU/PCI-E card for a kick-ass setup that will be a noticeable upgrade from what you have right now.

Now, if you REALLY have to have a system like say, a 939 3500 with an 8X AGP board (Gigabyte K8NS-Ultra 939) and an eVGA 6800GTX, let me know, I'm looking at upgrading the wife's machine to PCI-E, and all I need is a new CPU...

4x vs 8x isn't a real big deal, especially with a mid range card,however...the chipset they use is pretty old..even by Athlon XP standards! Does it at least have a 333FSB?


I wouldn't worry much about PS-3 or HDR, with your rig and that card, new games will probably be only able to play low res with medium to low details.

If new games are on your wish list soon..it would be best to just sell it and put it towards a whole new rig...

A E4300 will be 130$ in the 2nd quarter this year, a good PCIE single card OC'able Motherboard is around 100$

1GB of DDR 667 or 800 is another 100$, or 200$ for 2GB (Wich most games will want)

DX-10 cards will be in the 250$ or less range by that time from NVIDA (8600 series)

Add a nice 80-100$ PSU and your gaming in the butter zone for the next year or 2...for around 700-800$ (Or less)

When Unreal 2007 or Crysis comes out, you will be CRYING cause your current rig with a new card looks like a slideshow!

OH..and FYI, the new NVIDA cards now have Shader Model 4.0!

Looks like im gonna have to buy some more textbooks for this semester so no upgrades for me for a while

It's KT266A chipset. The KT333 came out just when i bought it. Plays Half Life 2 pretty decent at 800x600 with most everything set to medium. I don't really play many games anymore. My interests shifted from hardware to software and I do a lot of programming now. The Half Life 2 series are the only new games that i must own (and I want bioshock too). It gets me by for what I use it for.

I would say you should be able to get 150$ or so for your complete rig, typically a complete older pc will bring more money than parting it out.

Add the money you have now saved up (200 CAD, wich is 170 USD) and your about half way there... I am listing everything else in USD, so you can easily convert it with the link below.

Convert Canadian Dollars (CAD) and United States Dollars (USD): Currency Exchange Rate Conversion Calculator

I know you don't game much these days, but considering how long it took you to upgrade this time, I realy think you would be better off starting from scratch....I think you wil be much happier in the long run!

There are a few things you can do to trim the budget though...


First...get just 1GB of ram for now for 120$ and add the second GB of ram when you can afford it...though this is not the ideal way, it will do the job.

118$ A-DATA 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
Newegg.com - A-DATA 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

There is a relatively cheap but good PSU I know of for around 50$

Fu3lman uses it, and it's a low cost version of the same OCZ 520SLI one I use, minus a few features you won't need (Adjustable voltage rails..black chrome finish...etc)

52$ ePOWER ZU-550W ATX12V Version 2.0 / EPS12V 550W Power Supply
Newegg.com - ePOWER ZU-550W Power Supply - Retail


This motherboard easily does up to 500FSB! and is highly rated.

104$ BIOSTAR TForce965PT LGA 775
Newegg.com - BIOSTAR TForce965PT ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail


The CPU and video card you will need are not out yet, but we can estimate the prices as 120$ for the E4300, and lets go with 200$ for the low end NVIDIA 8600


A new case can be found locally for around 20-30$ wich is usually good enough, I have built many like that....ordering them online can nearly double the price with shipping!

So to sum it up:

130$ CPU
104$ Motherboard
118$ Ram
52$ PSU
200$ Video Card
25$ Case
629$ USD or...737$ CAD

Sale of old PC 150$
Savings 170$
320$

629$ (New PC)
320$ (Cash)
309$ (362$ CAD) is what you need to save up for a complete upgrade!

If you can put aside 100$ a month...your there in 3-4 months, and at 50$ a month...it's 6 months or so away.

The only areas you could trim it down from that would be to go with slower ram that is not as highly rated and can handle a decnt OC, and that will only save you 20$ at best, a cheaper non OC motherboard (Another 20$) and a DX-9 vid card (Maye 50$)...but for that 90$ you are giving up an OC to 3GHZ CPU speed, and crappy looking, slow running DX-10 games (Cause they will run on DX-9)

Of couse you will need Vista wich starts at around 200$ but that is something you would have had to go with down the raod anyways...and you are probably not gonna want to do that till about this time next year when SP-1 comes out.

This combo, given your habits and needs should last you another 3-4 years without the need for major upgrades, other than adding more ram.