AGP card upgrade for Athlon XP 3000

[Jetboy55]

I cant believe its been almost 4 years since I built this machine. But it continues to do everything I want, so I cant seem to bring myself to upgrade. Now with the Core2 Duo coming in, I definately will wait a year longer for prices to drop on it. Anyway.....

I have Asus A7V8X Mobo, Athlon XP 3000+ Barton @2400Mhz, 1GB PC2700 DDR, Audigy 2, and Radeon 9800Pro 128MB.....

Im thinking of upgrading video card one last time for this PC, when I overclocked my CPU from 2100 to 2400MHZ, it had absolutely no effect on my 3DMark05 scores, none at all. It seems Im still video card limited, not bottlenecked by my CPU yet. Does this sound like the right line of reasoning? If so, any suggestions on an AGP video card for my PC? Ive see in the ORB at Futuremark that others with my CPU have scored 4000 higher with GeForce 7800GS 256MB card, sound good to you? Thanks alot.

 

[Maximilian]

Yep, good reasoning. Cant really reccommend anything specific, but i gather that the 7800GS is expensive and you can get an X850XT or XTPE or whatever for cheaper, and its almost as fast. Dosent have SM 3.0 though, but i doubt thatll matter much.

 

[NoStateofMind]

You can usually find an AIW X800XT for around $150 to $179 these days. Had one myself and liked it til my PC bit the dust

 

[Jetboy55]

Thanks, I think I read at Anandtech that the X850XT PE was a little faster than the 7800GS, but all the prices of the X850XT PE's are over 300$, and 7800GS can get for 279.00. Thanks alot

 

[NoStateofMind]

Originally posted by: Jetboy55
Thanks, I think I read at Anandtech that the X850XT PE was a little faster than the 7800GS, but all the prices of the X850XT PE's are over 300$, and 7800GS can get for 279.00. Thanks alot

Dude, listen up, and listen good. The performance difference between an X850XT and an X800XT are minimal. Expecially after you figure in pricing.

Just a note, this is more of a Video Forum question.

 

[Jetboy55]

Yep, the X850XT and X800XT for AGP are all $350.00, I did find an X800XT AIW for $179.00, I wonder if that card is decent?


.....yeah, I guess your right, but its kinda related to my Athlon XP limitation, and weather a video card update is even a good choice with this older CPU setup.

 

[myocardia]

Jetboy, going with anything faster than an X800XT would be silly, if you're planning on keeping your cpu. An X800XT is alot faster than a 9800 Pro, as is a 7800GS, but if you buy anything faster than an X800XT, you'd then have to upgrade your processor, not to be cpu-limited, unless you game at ultra-high resolution.

 

[Jetboy55]

Thanks for the good advice. I found an AIW X800XT at newegg for $179.00, it appears to be pretty much the same spec's as the non-AIW card....16pipes, 500Mhz core, 1000Mhz effective memory....I'm wondering if this AIW card is equivilant to the normal X800XT card for gaming? Thanks.

 

[imported_Kiwi]

Typically, ATI slows down both the core and the RAM on an AIW compared to the namesake card. Not always a lot, so you'd need to visit www.gpureview.com to compare the two and see how much in this case.

You were looking in all of the wrong places if you found prices above about $200 for various X800 cards. I bought an X800 XTPE through an eBay auction last spring for $90, but that was way below the going rate then. Using either Price Grabber, or Pricewatch, there were a lot of X800 Pro cards for right about $140-160, and X800 XL cards for slightly more than that, just a month or so ago.

 

[Stumps]

from my experience back when I was using an AXP 3200+, my GF6800GT was bottlenecked by the AXP CPU...so anything faster is a complete waste of money.

 

[VooDooAddict]

I'd recomend looking for a used 6800GT or 6800 Ultra. They will give you a nice boost and shouldn't cost you an arm and a leg.

 

[elkinm]

Get the AIW X800XT. It is just barely slower then the X850XTPE and the AIW goodies alone make it a very hot deal. Why would non AIW be so expensive?

Can't beat this deal, especialy if you want TV tuning.

 

[Jetboy55]

I'm not really interested in the 12pipe versions of any of these cards. How much faster than a 9800 was the original X800 anyway? The best prices I've found on X800's and X850's using pricegrabber and pricewatch are as follows: X800XT 224.oo, X800XL 252.oo, X850 XTPE 339.oo all in 256MB AGP versions. Certainly not worth it for my system, I wish I could find one of these 16 pipe cards for under 200.00 but no luck. PCI-Express versions are all considerably cheaper. Anyway, thanks for all the help and advice.

 

[secretanchitman]

6800GS/7600GT.

 

[NoStateofMind]

Originally posted by: Jetboy55
I'm not really interested in the 12pipe versions of any of these cards. How much faster than a 9800 was the original X800 anyway? The best prices I've found on X800's and X850's using pricegrabber and pricewatch are as follows: X800XT 224.oo, X800XL 252.oo, X850 XTPE 339.oo all in 256MB AGP versions. Certainly not worth it for my system, I wish I could find one of these 16 pipe cards for under 200.00 but no luck. PCI-Express versions are all considerably cheaper. Anyway, thanks for all the help and advice.

Dude, the X800XT and the AIW X800XT are the SAME card except one has a tv tuner. Check the spec and see for yourself. I'm no longer posting in this thread.

 

[MrUniq]

If I were you I'd get the X850 PRO or one of the XT lines. They will give you around 7600GT or better performance for a great price. They'd blow that 9800 out of the water(I had one BTW).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102606

 

[imported_Kiwi]

Anyone around here want to try figuring out what our original messager's problem with pricing engines is? I came up with a $139 X850 Pro as soon as I started to look!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102606

 

[nullpointerus]

Originally posted by: Kiwi
Anyone around here want to try figuring out what our original messager's problem with pricing engines is? I came up with a $139 X850 Pro as soon as I started to look!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102606

Non-U.S. currency, perhaps?

 

[Netopia]

Originally posted by: Stumps
from my experience back when I was using an AXP 3200+, my GF6800GT was bottlenecked by the AXP CPU...so anything faster is a complete waste of money.

I've got an XP-M running at 2255MHz, GIG of CAS2 mem. I just upgraded from a 5900Ultra to a 7600GT and what I found was that I couldn't really up anything. I was able to take it from 1024 to 1152 on the resolution, but that was about it. If I do anything in the AA/AF area other than just trilinear (which I already had on the 5900U) then games become VERY slow and basically unplayable.

IF the 5900U wasn't bottlenecked (and I had it pretty overclocked), there certainly wasn't much more headroom. I don't know the ATI world, but in nVidia I would recommend a max of a 6800GT, and maybe just a 6600GT if you can find one at a good price.

I was VERY excited about getting my 7600GT and VERY disappointed when I realized that I was crippling it by sticking it in my well loved, but old XP-M based system.

Joe

 

[imported_Kiwi]

I also swapped an FX 5900 for a newer nVidia card, a 6600 GT. I saw no great improvement in image quality, but I gave away 128 Bits of memory system from a 5900 plain with 256 MBs of RAM versus the Leadtek 6600 GT with a 128 Bit system and 128 MBs of RAM. Speed, I did get, however. The 5900 performs poorly running Dx9's Shader Model Two functions, and Oblivion uses those constantly. That particular PC has an XP 3000 cpu (as in the thread title this time), mine is the second type Barton, with a 400 MHz FSB. I think it runs slower, stock, than the XP-M referenced by Netopia.

I also have an XP-M, and Oblivion didn't like it running at XP 3200 speeds (more or less Netopia's speed, I think), so I had to back off there, to slightly less core speed than my XP 3000 runs at. But that PC had a Radeon 9800 XT in it, and the image quality (large textures) possible with a 256/ 256 card is so much better that none of the nVidia cards I've tried come close! (I tested with four nVidia cards and two ATI cards - of course, three of the nVidia parts were FXes).

If the XP-M is bottlenecking the current X800 XTPE card, I am not aware of it. But a 7600, even a GT, is still a 128 Bit card (and what brand is selling an AGP version? Last I heard, those weren't yet available.)

 

[betasub]

Kiwi - made a similar 5900 to 6600GT change on my XP-M system, & found similar improvements in Dx9 titles. There was no real improvement in older games because both cards have a similar fill rate, and at high detail/res the 256-bit memory subsystem of the 5900 did help it out. The XP-M/660GT system is pretty balanced for medium detail/res Dx9 gaming, but not surprisingly I needed an A64/x1800xt build to handle Oblivion at my prefered high detail/res settings.

 

[GundamSonicZeroX]

Originally posted by: secretanchitman
6800GS/7600GT.

I agree with my fellow penguin. If the 6800GS is cheaper and you have a good ammount of luck, you can unlock it and OC it past the speeds of 6800 Ultra.

 

[Uhtrinity]

Originally posted by: Kiwi
Typically, ATI slows down both the core and the RAM on an AIW compared to the namesake card. Not always a lot, so you'd need to visit www.gpureview.com to compare the two and see how much in this case.

You were looking in all of the wrong places if you found prices above about $200 for various X800 cards. I bought an X800 XTPE through an eBay auction last spring for $90, but that was way below the going rate then. Using either Price Grabber, or Pricewatch, there were a lot of X800 Pro cards for right about $140-160, and X800 XL cards for slightly more than that, just a month or so ago.

Most likely that ebayed card was a modded X800 pro vivo model. Physically they are identical, so hard to tell unless you look up the model or serial number. I still use one myself.

I would go with the x800xt. Right now I am finding it hard to find a faster card than what I have w/o spending alot more money. And by faster I don't mean 10% in one game and 15% in another, I am talking about performance you can actually see..

Check out this link to do side by side comparisons.

 

[Netopia]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122009

 

[BUTCH1]

Originally posted by: Netopia

Originally posted by: Stumps
from my experience back when I was using an AXP 3200+, my GF6800GT was bottlenecked by the AXP CPU...so anything faster is a complete waste of money.

I've got an XP-M running at 2255MHz, GIG of CAS2 mem. I just upgraded from a 5900Ultra to a 7600GT and what I found was that I couldn't really up anything. I was able to take it from 1024 to 1152 on the resolution, but that was about it. If I do anything in the AA/AF area other than just trilinear (which I already had on the 5900U) then games become VERY slow and basically unplayable.

IF the 5900U wasn't bottlenecked (and I had it pretty overclocked), there certainly wasn't much more headroom. I don't know the ATI world, but in nVidia I would recommend a max of a 6800GT, and maybe just a 6600GT if you can find one at a good price.

I was VERY excited about getting my 7600GT and VERY disappointed when I realized that I was crippling it by sticking it in my well loved, but old XP-M based system.

Joe

I just got a 7600GT as well and so far have had a similar result, upgraded from a 9600XT
and was expecting more. Running a xp2100@ 2.1Ghz just wont get it these days no matter what card you pair it with. Interestingly newegg has a hard time keeping these
in stock, I felt lucky to get one. I guess if you've got a Sk. 939 W/AGP it might work
out better. at least I wont have any trouble selling it if i decide to...