WANTED: 512MB AGP GFX Card to replace 9800SE around 200quid

jpe20

Hi folks,

I think my 128MB 9800SE has had it!!!! I have tried for 2wks now trying to eliminate an annoying stutter that seems to embelish some of my games. Yes ... I have reflashed the bios etc used new drivers etc (omega + car6.4). All attempts have failed.

My monitor is a 1920x1200 24inch dell so I would like the new card to handle running games at that res. easily with maybe a small amount of AA and AF say 2x. Is a AGP card/ AGP bus capable of running this type of res comfortably??? (I have a gigabyte nforce2 mobo with 3000+ Athlon XP (Barton))

I am thinking of a 512MB card AGP based and maybe go for a geforce card this time. Budget around 200quid. I want something significantly better than my 9800 card though.

It maybe the case that an AGP card upgrade is only delaying the inevitable in that I should really go for a new system. I am hoping to be able to wait long enough for windows vista to arrive .. wait 6mths then buy a new system sometime next yr.

Any tips appreciated.

Jules

The games I really want to run is GTR, TOCA3 and GTR2.

jpe20

Thinking about the Gainward GeForce 7800 GS card at the moment....... 250quid from overclockers.co.uk.

T4i

I was always into ATi cards, loved my 9700Pro, did me well for years. It died about 6 months ago, got a 6600GT instead (i'm abit iffy with Nvidia cards) but its done nothing but supirise me with picture quality and the shear speed for what I need is brilliant.

A 6600GT is far from cutting-edge now, with a budget of £200 you should be lookig at something PHAT!

maxamos

I wouldn't worry too much about getting a 512mb card, unles you buy at the very top of the range (which costs hundreds) and you have a really good pc you won't see any benefit over a 256mb card as there will be too many bottlenecks.

You could look at upgrading your cpu to an AMD 64 with a new motherboard.

A 3000 or 3200 plus an ASRock Dual motherboard would set you back around £130 and would allow you to use the exisitng graphics card but also let you upgrade to PCI-E when you have enough money, or you could spend an extra £80 on a 6600GT taking your spend to just over £200.

You'd get a reasonable gaming boost from the new processor and if your existing graphics card is running ok I think you should recieve enough benefit in the short term to allow you to save up for a brand new PCi-E card in a few months and unless you need to be at the forefront of technology I wouldn't look at spending over £150 on a graphics card.

HTH

T4i

psshhh...

I'd be vey suprised if he/she saw any difference going 64 bit. Still seems like alot of money for very little difference. M8 of mine went AMD 64 bit some time ago, he's now tried installing XP64 4 times with the end result been a unstable OS and still not having the 64-bit support he needs.

I see no performance increase from his 64-bit over my 32-bit system. The only difference I see is when he tranfers a BIG file to his HDD, he has SATA which is slightly faster than ATA, but we are talking about seconds difference over a 1-4Gig file.

You need to ask yourself if you are happy with the speed of you system, and if its just games that are becoming slower. If this is the case shove a big GFX in and it will seem like a new machince anyway....

thecremeegg

Definately think about the 7800GS for around £220 from https://www.novatech.co.uk - best for the price definately

Toxteth_OGrady

You could get a £340 X800 XT Platinum like this for £200.

How?

By buying an X800Pro like this and then flashing the BIOS to XT PE. The Pro has 12 pixel pipelines but the flash will open the four that are disabled in the Pro BIOS to give you a full 16 pipeline XT PE.

I've done it and it works. 3DMk05 5836, 3DMk03 13127, post flash.

:cool:

TOG