AGPers.. rejoice!!

[Paratus]

Since this keeps coming up, I'm really tempted to make thread for those of us who still have decent AGP rigs with all the reason to sit tight or upgrade and what those options are.

Maybe I could get it stickied if the flaming was kept to a minimum. Cause this topic pops up more times than the mole in whack-a-mole

 

[Mloot]

I stopped by the CompUSA in Houston at FM 1960 and I-45 this morning to see if they had any in stock, and the CSM told me that they expect to get some in tomorrow at around 1:00pm or thereabouts. He said to call ahead of time to see if they came in, so if you're in the area and you want one, you might check it out.

 

[1EZduzit]

apoppin,

Your system sounds close to my system. I have a 2.66 Northwood running at 3.2 with stock voltage in a IT7 Max2 Ver 2 mobo. I paid $115 for the cpu and $45 for the mobo about 2 years ago. LOL, as a matter of fact, the only thing that I purchased new was the CDRW, the DVD burner and the hard drives, I did get a $100 6600GT card to tide me over for a while and gave my old 59+00 to my son. Heck, even the case is an old Trademark AT case I converted to work with ATX and was a gimme from the neighbor when his old system died.

I just bought a used Dell 1905 LCD for $225 shipped and as far as I'm concerned that was a wiser use of the money as compared to a $300 graphics card.

 

[Nextman916]

I run a P4 2.66ghz northwoodas well at 3.3ghz stock voltage and a gigabyte mobo. Since then ive purchased 1gig of pqi turbo (2-2-3-6) and a 6800ultra agp and recently a Samsung 940b. Im very satisfied with my gaming performance. Kinda off topic but ide just like to share.

 

[Zebo]

you are a bit of a HW elitist

You're right I don't mean to sound that way either - totally agree w/ you guys about buy what you need instead of just having to have it because it's there and new.

complete with my $200 x850xt and dropping in into the trash in the next 18 months

You had to go throw that in there huh:Absolutly great deal go for it but I'm mainly talking about these cards coming out like the GS which this thread concerns - people are holding out for. Limited production cards (e.g. newer AGPs) will have a price premium which does'nt make sence to invest in unless you can't buy a mobo for your CPU since you'll find mobo + CPU on PCIe being cheaper. Not to mention you could sell you old AG baord re-coup some cost (not as much now as earlier but still) of the faster newer setup.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit
apoppin,

Your system sounds close to my system. I have a 2.66 Northwood running at 3.2 with stock voltage in a IT7 Max2 Ver 2 mobo. I paid $115 for the cpu and $45 for the mobo about 2 years ago. LOL, as a matter of fact, the only thing that I purchased new was the CDRW, the DVD burner and the hard drives, I did get a $100 6600GT card to tide me over for a while and gave my old 59+00 to my son. Heck, even the case is an old Trademark AT case I converted to work with ATX and was a gimme from the neighbor when his old system died.

I just bought a used Dell 1905 LCD for $225 shipped and as far as I'm concerned that was a wiser use of the money as compared to a $300 graphics card.

Still very decent performance 2 years later . . . especially what we paid for it.

The only "weakness" is the videocards . . . i'd just like more features . . . i am pretty satisfied with the speed of my x850xt although i still might go for the 7800GS if it is much of an 'upgrade' [i can still return my x850]

 

[Farfle]

How can you return your X850XT? I thought Microcenter's RMA window was 10 days after purchase. Hmm, hopefully i'm wrong, as i'm in the same boat as you. If the 7800GS ends up driving the 6800GS price down, then i'll have to seriously consider returning my X850XT and getting one of those NVIDIAs.

*edit*

I was wrong, according to Microcenter's return policy:

"All other products [Which include video cards] not listed above may be returned or exchanged within 30 days of purchase, provided the merchandise is in "like-new" condition - the complete product in the original carton with all equipment, packaging, warranties, manuals and accessories."

Thankfully I didn't tear open any of the accessories.

 

[Farfle]

I have a P4c 2.8 running stably at 3.26Ghz (233Mhz system clock) on an MSI 865PE Neo2 MB. With the case open, it seemingly runs stable at 3.5GHz (250Mhz), but when I bundle everything up, it ends up crashing every now and then at that speed. I havn't compeltely ruled out the RAM or the MB, but considering the memory is DDR500, I do believe it's the CPU (or it's stock heatsink/fan). Strangly enough, increasing the CPU voltage doesn't seem to help any; in fact, my CPU seems to completely reject any change to the voltage!

I made a major mistake 2 years ago when I built this system. While i'm fairly satisfied with it's performance, I stupidly bought 4x256Mb of ram for a total of 1GB. At the time, I was able to get each DDR500 module for $45 from Newegg. Now, however, I'm finding myself wanting 2GB of memory. So, of course, in order to upgrade now, i'd have to buy an entire 2GB of memory, which would cost roughly $180-$200. Couple that with a $200 video card, and i'm looking at a pretty expensive AGP system upgrade, which nearly negates the whole cheapness argument against upgrading to PCI-E...

 

[1EZduzit]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit
apoppin,

Your system sounds close to my system. I have a 2.66 Northwood running at 3.2 with stock voltage in a IT7 Max2 Ver 2 mobo. I paid $115 for the cpu and $45 for the mobo about 2 years ago. LOL, as a matter of fact, the only thing that I purchased new was the CDRW, the DVD burner and the hard drives, I did get a $100 6600GT card to tide me over for a while and gave my old 59+00 to my son. Heck, even the case is an old Trademark AT case I converted to work with ATX and was a gimme from the neighbor when his old system died.

I just bought a used Dell 1905 LCD for $225 shipped and as far as I'm concerned that was a wiser use of the money as compared to a $300 graphics card.

Still very decent performance 2 years later . . . especially what we paid for it.

The only "weakness" is the videocards . . . i'd just like more features . . . i am pretty satisfied with the speed of my x850xt although i still might go for the 7800GS if it is much of an 'upgrade' [i can still return my x850]

I hope the prices of the 7800GS come down. Say to $200 if they can't be unlocked and $250 if they can. It'll take 6 months though.

I actually had purchased a used 6800GT for $200, but I had to return it because the vga port had some problems. It would get pinkish or bluish hues on that port and if you moved the VGA cable it would straighten out, so something was loose somewhere. I've only bought 3 used video cards and had problems with all of them, so that's when I bought the 6600GT. It will go to my son if and when I get a 7800GS.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Zebo

you are a bit of a HW elitist

You're right I don't mean to sound that way either - totally agree w/ you guys about buy what you need instead of just having to have it because it's there and new.

complete with my $200 x850xt and dropping in into the trash in the next 18 months

You had to go throw that in there huh:Absolutly great deal go for it but I'm mainly talking about these cards coming out like the GS which this thread concerns - people are holding out for. Limited production cards (e.g. newer AGPs) will have a price premium which does'nt make sence to invest in unless you can't buy a mobo for your CPU since you'll find mobo + CPU on PCIe being cheaper. Not to mention you could sell you old AG baord re-coup some cost (not as much now as earlier but still) of the faster newer setup.

Well. IF performance of the 7800GS is significantly better than myx850xt, i would consider spending an eXtra $100 to get those extra few FPS in FEAR and the features the new series has over the x800s . . .

. . . look at it this way . . . IF i keep my computer another 1-1/2 years, it's only about $200 [with a $350 AGP 7800GS] per year to keep me from spending $400 on an xBox360 until my big rig 'makeover' in 07/08. . . and i surely can sell my 7800GS to someone for $100 then [also]

no big deal compared to dropping ~$700 now [and STILL having to upgrade in 2 years]

IF i felt i were 'losing out' somehow, i'd make the upgrade now [but then i am satisfied to play at 10x7 as long as the details are Hi and Max and On and it's fluid gameplay]

we just have different - but each effective - ways of doing things. Just as you prefer nVidia and i prefer ATi.
:thumbsup:

 

[CKTurbo128]

Yep, it's been confirmed: the BFG 7800 GS OC is now available at CompUSA. I just picked one up at the CompUSA in Minnetonka, MN today. I believe there are two units left (for those MN people who want to get ahold of a 7800 GS OC now ).

Anyhow, I will install the card later and put up a mini-review of the card and how well it fares against a Radeon X850 XT.

 

[fliguy84]

great! looking forward to see it

 

[1EZduzit]

Let us know if it unlocks to 20 pipes

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: CKTurbo128
Yep, it's been confirmed: the BFG 7800 GS OC is now available at CompUSA. I just picked one up at the CompUSA in Minnetonka, MN today. I believe there are two units left (for those MN people who want to get ahold of a 7800 GS OC now ).

Anyhow, I will install the card later and put up a mini-review of the card and how well it fares against a Radeon X850 XT.

awesome . . .

don't bother with 3DMark06

 

[Rock Hydra]

Originally posted by: n7
Meh, it's not gonna be all that much better than the X850XT...even the 7800GT isn't all that much better.
To me, this is just marketing.

Now if they released an X1800XT or 7800GTX...that's another story.

I'm moving to PCI-e though...it's pretty obvious AGP is a dead end *shakes fists* :|

There really isnt' a card to compete directly with the x850 XT, I do not believe. the 6800 Ultra is on par with the x800XT, and since the x850 is prettymuch, on its own because it was released afterward, I think it's good that theres a direct competitor.

 

[Wolfshanze]

There really isnt' a card to compete directly with the x850 XT, I do not believe. the 6800 Ultra is on par with the x800XT, and since the x850 is prettymuch, on its own because it was released afterward, I think it's good that theres a direct competitor.

Well now there's just a card that is as fast (or faster) then the X850 that also has SM3.0... so the X850 had given up the graphic feature crowd some time ago (did it ever have it?), and now i'm sure it'll give up the speed crown too. Unless for some strange reason the 7800GS isn't as fast (but we need to see the comparisons).

 

[djnsmith7]

Even though I'm not personally interested in buying this product, I know a couple people who might be...Anyway, I just called my local CompUSA (San Jose, CA) & they'll have them on the shelves tomorrow...The guy wasn't able to tell me the price because they aren't loaded into their local system yet...Anyone know how much these are?

 

[gotsmack]

Originally posted by: CKTurbo128
Yep, it's been confirmed: the BFG 7800 GS OC is now available at CompUSA. I just picked one up at the CompUSA in Minnetonka, MN today. I believe there are two units left (for those MN people who want to get ahold of a 7800 GS OC now ).

Anyhow, I will install the card later and put up a mini-review of the card and how well it fares against a Radeon X850 XT.

how much? and does it have dual link dvi?

 

[0rcus]

I just picked one up at my local CompUSA (they had 3 in stock).

 

[garkon8]

Originally posted by: CKTurbo128
Yep, it's been confirmed: the BFG 7800 GS OC is now available at CompUSA. I just picked one up at the CompUSA in Minnetonka, MN today. I believe there are two units left (for those MN people who want to get ahold of a 7800 GS OC now ).

Anyhow, I will install the card later and put up a mini-review of the card and how well it fares against a Radeon X850 XT.

That will be one review many of us will be looking forward to!:thumbsup:

 

[CKTurbo128]

I'll post some benchmarks comparing the X850 XT & the 7800 GS tomorrow, but here are some tidbits I've found about the 7800 GS AGP so far:

1.) BFG GeForce 7800 GS OC AGP stock speeds are set at 400/1250.
2.) The 7800 GS AGP seems to have a very high headroom for OCing.

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit
Let us know if it unlocks to 20 pipes

I installed RivaTuner after putting in the card, but unfortunately, it cannot see the number of vertexes and pipelines for the card. I guess we'll have to wait for the next version of RivaTuner to support the 7800 GS AGP.

Originally posted by: gotsmack

Originally posted by: CKTurbo128
Yep, it's been confirmed: the BFG 7800 GS OC is now available at CompUSA. I just picked one up at the CompUSA in Minnetonka, MN today. I believe there are two units left (for those MN people who want to get ahold of a 7800 GS OC now ).

Anyhow, I will install the card later and put up a mini-review of the card and how well it fares against a Radeon X850 XT.

how much? and does it have dual link dvi?

It is currently going for $349.99 at CompUSA. It has a single DVI port and a single VGA port.

 

[Bucksnort]

What is the minimum psu listed as?

 

[imported_JamesDax]

Taken from another poster: the min. psu is 400watts with 20amps or better on the 12volt rail.

 

[redfoot12]

I went to CompUSA today to pick up one of the BFG 7800 GS's today. They had them on the shelf but when I went buy it they said they couldn't sell it to me until February 6. Oh well, I can wait a week.

 

[Piuc2020]

Wait wait wait, I don't think that 400wats/20A@12V rating is correct, the G70 uses considerably less power and runs cooler than NV40/NV42, if a 6800GT AGP with 350/1000 clockspeeds, 16 pipes and the NV40 core requires 350W minimum, I can't imagine a similarly spec-d card with a G70 core requiring any more than that, in fact, I would expect a 7800GS to be more forgiving on the PSU than a 6800GT or even 6800GS.

I really hope the 7800GS is priced 300$ tops, if its any more than that, I won't buy and go the 6800GS way instead, I really do hope the 7800GS is priced something like 250$ or so.