Name: ToolPunk Date: February 1, 2008 at 09:12:27 Pacific Subject: Graphics Card Upgrade OS: Windows XP CPU/Ram: Pentium 4 3.2Ghz/3GB DDR Model/Manufacturer: 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.)
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 Optoma 1280x720 projector JBL 5.1 amp and speakers Now storing 114 HD movies
"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.
"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):
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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