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Graphics Card Upgrade

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Name: ToolPunk
Date: February 1, 2008 at 09:12:27 Pacific
OS: Windows XP
CPU/Ram: Pentium 4 3.2Ghz/3GB DDR
Product: Dell Dimension 8300
Comment:

Looking to upgrade the Graphics Card in an AGP based system. I am wondering if the upgrade is wroth the cost (the difference in graphical power over my old card is evident)?

My Current Card:
BFG NVIDIA GeForce 6800GT OC 256MB GDDR3 AGP

The New Card:
BFG NVIDIA GeForce 7800GS OC 256MB GDDR3 AGP
(I have a Dell account I will be using for the purchase so this is the best card I have to chose in the selection.)



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Response Number 1
Name: jackbomb
Date: February 1, 2008 at 19:56:23 Pacific
Reply:

IMO, not worth it. The 7800GS isn't that much faster than the 6800 Ultra, which in turn isn't much faster than the 6800GT.

If you really want to upgrade the graphics card in that rig, and you trust eBay, then head on over there and try to find a swingin' deal on an X1950Pro/GT. Those would be significantly faster than your 6800GT.

The lean, mean, movie playing P3 machine
P3-S 1400 @ 1.66GHz, 158MHz FSB
2GB PC2700 DDR
7950GT AGP
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Response Number 2
Name: Sabertooth
Date: February 1, 2008 at 20:03:40 Pacific
Reply:

Just get a used X1950Pro from fleabay to tide you over .... hopefully you have a decent enough PSU for the card.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/02...


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Response Number 3
Name: ToolPunk
Date: February 2, 2008 at 02:46:20 Pacific
Reply:

As far as ATI goes (which I have always had problems with) I have these choices:

Radeon Xtreme Gamer Edition X1600XT 512 MB AGP Graphics Card

Radeon X1950 Pro 256 MB AGP Xtreme Gamer Edition Graphics Card

Radeon HD 2600XT 512 MB AGP 8x Graphics Adapter

Radeon HD 2600 XT 512 MB GDDR3 AGP Graphics Card

Radeon PC/Mac Edition RoHS Compliant 9600PRO 256MB AGP Graphics Card


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Response Number 4
Name: jam
Date: February 2, 2008 at 09:18:53 Pacific
Reply:

ToolPunk has posted before & apparently will only buy from Dell. The X1950Pro is the best card on the above list:

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graph...


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Response Number 5
Name: ToolPunk
Date: February 2, 2008 at 15:31:52 Pacific
Reply:

"ToolPunk has posted before & apparently will only buy from Dell."

As far as this computer is concerned, yes I will only buy from Dell. I am not about to shovel money out of pocket to upgrade an AGP based system (I have 2 PCIe based systems and I am happy to report they do not contain any parts ordered from Dell). If I can get it on my Dell acount, along with discounts, sounds good to me. The only reason for the upgrade is due to my GeForce 6800GT going out. Besides those reasons, I have already looked at 5 other online stores including NewEgg and they all carry the same cards as Dell offers.

As for that link Jam, it is useless for me. It is not current as there are several cards not on this list including the above mentioned 7800GS. Also, the list contains so many cards and their Marks and yet they do not mention if the card is AGP/PCIe. Clicking on the Mark Score reveals that all of the cards in the list are PCIe based cards (which explains why the AGP model cards were not on the list) and as I am looking for an AGP card that list is definately not for me.

As for your link Sabertooth, that was wonderful, very informative. I had somewhat of an idea of what the better AGP cards were currently but could not find a proper side by side comparison. I had read about NVIDIA chosing to downgrade the 7800GS at build for budget reasons but until I had a comparison to the X1950Pro I did not realize how much they had degraded it.

I have always used NVIDIA cards (due to early bad experiences with a couple ATI cards) so I hope this venture does not go sour for me.

Thank you guys for the help.


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Response Number 6
Name: jam
Date: February 2, 2008 at 17:27:49 Pacific
Reply:

"the list contains so many cards and their Marks and yet they do not mention if the card is AGP/PCIe"

There is little or no performance difference between AGP & PCI-e models of the same card. The X1950Pro AGP will produce virtually the same numbers as the PCI-e version, provided all other hardware is equal. And yes, there are plenty of cards on that list...the ones that you should be concerened with are in blue.

The 7800GS is vastly inferior to the X1950Pro. If you want to see it on the Tom's Hardware charts, you'll have to go back to 2005, however, the X1950Pro wasn't available back then...here's how it compares to the 6800GT (both AGP versions):

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graph...


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Response Number 7
Name: ToolPunk
Date: February 2, 2008 at 18:42:58 Pacific
Reply:

Are there any better cards then the X1950Pro or is it safe to say that this card is one of the best and there is not much better?


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Response Number 8
Name: jam
Date: February 2, 2008 at 21:32:01 Pacific
Reply:

If you can find one, the Radeon X1950XT is said to be THE fastest AGP card available. However, rumor has it that ATI is gonna release an AGP version of the HD3850, but it will cost in excess of $200.


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Response Number 9
Name: Sabertooth
Date: February 3, 2008 at 09:58:50 Pacific
Reply:

The kicker for you if you go with any card beyond the X1950Pro is that, your CPU will become the weak link since it will bottleneck any faster card.


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Response Number 10
Name: ToolPunk
Date: February 3, 2008 at 12:59:19 Pacific
Reply:

A Pentium 4 3.2Ghz w/HT is no good past the X1950Pro?


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Response Number 11
Name: Sabertooth
Date: February 4, 2008 at 09:49:26 Pacific
Reply:

Yup .... so no X1950XT for you, at least not on that P4 based machine :-(


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Response Number 12
Name: ToolPunk
Date: February 5, 2008 at 01:01:33 Pacific
Reply:

That is actualy good news!! That means that I can finaly say that this machine is fully upgraded and I can finish upgrading/building my PCIe machines.

Thanks again for all your help guys!


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