9800 Pro on an older computer

[BunMan]

I have been wanting to upgrade my video card for a while and so I couldn't pass up the latest $200 deal for a 9800 Pro. My question is simple. In your opinions will my computer be able to run this card smoothly or will I run into any potential big problems. My specs are as follows:

Asus A7V266-E motherboard
512 MB PC2100 ram
40 gig 7200 rpm HDD
Nvidia Geforce 3 ti 200 (current video card)
DVD rom
CD-RW
Floppy drive
Network card with cable modem
56k dial modem
Firewire card
AC97 onboard sound
AGI HEC-300AR 300 watt Power supply

I will probably install it this weekend when I have time to trouble shoot any issues without driving myself crazy. I have read some of the other folks troubles and hope I don't encounter any of them. I have done a fair amount of computer upgrading in the past, and had problems, but none that I couldn't work through.

Any opinions would be much appreciated.
Thanks
The "BunMan"

 

[Cawchy87]

How fast is your prosessor? I had the exact same card and upgraded to a 9600XT and had great results, i went from running everything with ultra low details to ultra high and still getting an increase of 10-20 fps. I had the same ram, and a p4 2 ghz processor. Hope it helps!

 

[BunMan]

Crap, I knew I would forget something. My processor speed is an AMD Athlon XP 1700.

 

[Algere]

Your CPU is gonna bottleneck the 9800 Pro

 

[charloscarlies]

It's going to bottleneck it...but still you will see a huge improvement. Go for it if you have the money.

 

[blodhi74]

U will see marginal gains in fps and better results with AA and Aniso turned up .... but to unleash the true potential of the card, update CPU,Mobo and ram in the future.... hope it helps

 

[Pete]

Heh, your CPU might be important. That's not a bad setup, so a 9800P should be fine in there assuming you have an Athlon XP of some sort. (Your MB may be a tad slower than others, but you can upgrade to an XP 2400+ for about $75 for an additional speed boost. You can also get an nForce2 Ultra for as little as $65 for a slight further boost--and keep your current RAM--but that would mainly offer you a platform to upgrade to a Barton core XP 2500+ and PC3200 RAM for serious overclocking.)

If you want to minimize potential problems, download DriverCleaner at DriverHeaven.net to use after you uninstall your nVidia drivers via Add/Remove Programs. Then turn off the PC, swap cards (ground yourself and unplug the PC! ), and reboot and install ATi's latest drivers per their instructions.

Edit: "Marginal gains?" The 9800P will cream his Ti200 in a decidedly unmarginal manner in every way. His CPU may handicap his minimum and average framerates, but it shouldn't be as great of a limitation as his Ti200 was. He can always slap a 2400+ in his current MB (if it supports it) for a further boost.

 

[high]

my 1700 and 512 pc 2100 rig runs ALMOST as good as my 2500 and 512 3200 rig with my 9800NP...dunno wtf you guys are talkin about "CPU bottleneck" Do the upgrade, it will be a HUGE improvement

 

[Algere]

In AA/AF scenarios it'll be the 9800 Pro that'll be limiting the performance but in a non AA/AF environment the CPU will hold the 9800 Pro from performing to it's full potential.

http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1683&p=22

You won't get as much of a performance boost with a slow CPU with a newer generation video card (ala 9800 Pro) since the 9800 Pro scales better in performance in conjunction with the CPU performance so with a CPU such as a AXP 1700+ IMO it would be better off paired with a 9600 Series card since you wouldn't be able to use the Radeon 9800's greater performance potential until you pair it with a higher clocked CPU hence the mention of cpu bottleneck.

Here's 2 stock 3DMark01 test I've done in the past, 1 with a Athlon XP 2400+ and the other one with a Athlon 64 3000+ (system components between the 2 are pretty much identical i.e. sound card, modem, hard drive, etc.)

AXP 2400+ & Radeon 9800
A64 3000+ & Radeon 9800

take for example in Lobby(high detail) the performance in fps is almost doubled between the 2 3DMark01 test among others.

Back on topic: I'd recommend upgrading your power supply as the 9800 Pro's power requirement is 300 watts, While it does meet the minimum I always like to stay above the minimum for assurance.

 

[MDE]

I'd go for it, there's always going to be a bottleneck.

 

[Algere]

Aye there will always be a bottleneck but as shown here if you had a 933MHz CPU and regardless of video card the performance between a 9700 Pro and GF4 Ti4600 is @ simialar performance so it would be a waste of money to pay for a 9700 Pro over a cheaper Ti4600 unless AA/AF is applied to make use of the 9700 Pro's performance. Yes there will be a bottleneck somewhere in the system but it depends on how much of a bottleneck it is. Personal general rule of thumb IMO is to upgrade a pc's component based on simialar hardware generation.

In this case however the Athlon XP 1700+ won't be so much of a bottleneck (in contrast to said example above) and would be worth it if AA/AF is being used, if not a cheaper card would suffice.

 

[Gagabiji]

HHHmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...I'm picking up my 9800 Pro at FedEx in about 2 hours, so I probably should (at some time) get a faster processor. DANG. BTW, I've got a 1700+ also.

 

[Confused]

I'm just about to hit "Buy" on a 9800 Pro as an upgrade for my 4200

9800 will be £150, but i have managed to secure £70 for my 4200, so it's basically an £80 9800 Pro


Confused

 

[dgerard]

Go for it. I recently upgraded my older rig (i845G, 400FSB) with a 9800xt (from a 9600pro). Amazing difference!! scored 3,800 on 3Dmark03 before (~10,000 with 3DMark2001), and now above 6100 (3dMark03) and ~15000 on 3DMark2001. Gameplay is smooth as silk using 1200 x 1024, 4XAA, 4XAF, Vsynch ON, and 85Hz forced refresh rate.

 

[MajorCatastrophe]

I wouldn't worry too much about that CPU being a bottleneck. Checkout Anand's recent budget CPU roundup there's some Athlon XPs in there too. I have an Athlon 1800XP which is not that much faster than yours and the difference between it and a 2400XP at most was about 10-20 fps in one of the benchmarks (as i recall, didn't check). Given the performance it was already getting, doesn't sound like a good bang for buck improvement considering the cost of the upgrade, until the price drops some more that is.

 

[sodcha0s]

Aye there will always be a bottleneck but as shown here if you had a 933MHz CPU and regardless of video card the performance between a 9700 Pro and GF4 Ti4600 is @ simialar performance so it would be a waste of money to pay for a 9700 Pro over a cheaper Ti4600 unless AA/AF is applied to make use of the 9700 Pro's performance.

He's got a 1700+, that chip runs at 1.4ghz (NOT 933mhz) so yes he will see a big improvement, especially at higher resolutions. Then if and when he upgrades his chip and cpu he'll already have the video card covered. $200 for a 9800 pro is hard to pass up (I couldn't... ), go for it.

 

[BFG10K]

You'll be CPU limited somewhat but the card will still give very large performance gains over your current card.

 

[Algere]

Originally posted by: sodcha0s

Aye there will always be a bottleneck but as shown here if you had a 933MHz CPU and regardless of video card the performance between a 9700 Pro and GF4 Ti4600 is @ simialar performance so it would be a waste of money to pay for a 9700 Pro over a cheaper Ti4600 unless AA/AF is applied to make use of the 9700 Pro's performance.

He's got a 1700+, that chip runs at 1.4ghz (NOT 933mhz) so yes he will see a big improvement, especially at higher resolutions. Then if and when he upgrades his chip and cpu he'll already have the video card covered. $200 for a 9800 pro is hard to pass up (I couldn't... ), go for it.

I know that I also said this

"In this case however the Athlon XP 1700+ won't be so much of a bottleneck (in contrast to said example above) and would be worth it if AA/AF is being used, if not a cheaper card would suffice."

after that.

and before that I said this

"You won't get as much of a performance boost with a slow CPU with a newer generation video card (ala 9800 Pro) since the 9800 Pro scales better in performance in conjunction with the CPU performance so with a CPU such as a AXP 1700+ IMO it would be better off paired with a 9600 Series card since you wouldn't be able to use the Radeon 9800's greater performance potential until you pair it with a higher clocked CPU hence the mention of cpu bottleneck."

 

[nRollo]

ou'll be CPU limited somewhat but the card will still give very large performance gains over your current card.

BFG is right. I got 20-30% gains when I went from a Ti4400 to a 9700Pro when I had a XP 1600+.

 

[RussianSensation]

It all depends on the game you play and at what resolution you play the games at.

CPU Scaling Radeon 9700Pro

And here is a more extensive review:

Upgrading 2100+ to A64 3400+ vs. Upgrading Geforce 4 4200 to 5950 Ultra -- Depends what games you play

And here is another useful one from the same source but for a Radeon 9700Pro card which relates a bit more to you especially considering they use a 1.4ghz Athlon which is almost identical to yours. Furthermore, they explore upgrading paths in terms of performance alone (not assessing overclocking advantages) to a Nforce 2 chipset from KT266 chipset as you have.

Enjoy

I hope this gives you more insight and overall for gaming upgrading to a 9800Pro is better than upgrading to a faster cpu and keeping your old videocard or getting a 2500+ and Radeon 9600Pro. You can always bump that CPU to a faster speed especially since Barton XP-M 2400+ is $77 and Thoroughbred 2600+ 266FSB is within your reach if you feel that upgrade is necessary.

 

[BunMan]

I wanted to thank everyone who commented to my question. And also to say that I installed the 9800 pro into my computer without a single hitch tonight. I played Call of Duty, Day of Defeat, watched part of Men in Black, and played with a bunch of the DX9 demos. Haven't found a single problem yet, and the card obviously blew my G3 ti 200 all to heck. I hope that this may help someone else with an old computer who would like to upgrade just the video card without too much apprehension.
Thanks
Bun

 

[Pete]

Glad to hear you upgraded unscathed. Enjoy the card.