I have an: AMD Athlon XP3200+ ASUS A7N8X2.0 Deluxe MOBO 400Mhz FSB Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb AGP 1GB Duel Channel PC3200 Memory 500watt PSU I am going to upgrade from my current video card to either the x 800xl or the x 850xt video card. Is there any point in getting the x 850xt (520Mhz) over the x 800xl (400Mhz) because of the clock speed? Will the 850 bottleneck above 400Mhz because of my cpu and memory speed? Its a gift from someone so price not a factor because I found a store where the x 850xt is only $50 more than the x 800xl. I am paying the difference anyway so I would get the x 850xt even if it would be just a little better. Thanks...

Based on your current system, is it really worth upgrading the video card at all? The cards you've listed will be bottlenecked by your system & I doubt your next rig will have an AGP slot. I suggest you either stand pat, or set your sights a little lower. http://www.pcguide.com/ref/video/perfProcessor-c.html This space for rent

What exactly will cause the bottleneck?

Did you not check the link? Basically, your CPU is the bottleneck. This space for rent

Graphics card clock speed works totally independantly from the CPU and RAM. Your CPU and RAM will not stop a graphics card operating at a higher clock speed. Whether or not the upgrade is worthwhile or not, or whether any other bottlenecks will limit the end performance, I can not comment on.

Maybe I should copy a portion of the link since no one seems to be checking it: "The video card and its performance level are tied tightly to the performance of the other components in the system. The most important one of these is the CPU itself. A PC with a top caliber processor will have faster video performance than one with a slower CPU, all else being equal. The type of motherboard (and chipset) and the amount and type of memory and system cache also have an effect, as does the system bus..." In other words, if you wanna take full advantage of a high end video card, you need a high end system. And although the AXP 3200+/nForce2 combo *was* a kickass system, it's no longer considered so. If you wanna shell out $300 for a high power video card that's gonna be held back by your aging system, by all means, go for it...it's your money. This space for rent