Help me decide on ati x850xt

[Slimline]

Ok my system is as follows

Asus p4p800-e deluxe
1 gig of kingston ddr 400 ram
sapphire ati radeon 9800 pro (flased to xt and OC to 432/370 iirc)
120 gig sata
pentium 3.0e (northwood core i think)
yada yada yada


Now on sale right now 300 dollars off at futureshop is a ati radeon x850 xt for 299.99 (Canadian). first off, will i see a good/amazing gain over current oc'd to shyte 9800 pro? Secondly, will my processor bottle neck it badly? I know it is older, but it is still 3g.

Next, will i be kicking myself when i decide to upgrade because it is old standard AGP?

Please help...xbox 360 is not avail. and I love my computer games still I am noticing many newer games i have to run at mediocre settings to get good frame rates.

 

[Slimline]

Or, should I wait and maybe next year go pci-e and get like a 7800 gtx and new processor? although that will be awful expensive as i will need new ram too (have 4 256 sticks running dual channel)

 

[Malladine]

You will see very impressive gains going to the x850xt from the 9800pro. I am considering the same upgrade

The cpu I'm not sure on, but the cpu in the rig i'll be upgrading has a 1700+ @ 1.5ghz

 

[Hyperlite]

I would wait until you have enough money to revamp your whole system...A64, 7800GTX, 2GB ram, etc

or a 7800GS or something, you could do CPU+mobo+RAM+7800GS/GT for less than $600 in a few months.

 

[Malladine]

According to gpureview.com the 7800GS will not be available to the public. It was a developer card only, or something.

text

 

[Slimline]

Originally posted by: Hyperlite
I would wait until you have enough money to revamp your whole system...A64, 7800GTX, 2GB ram, etc

or a 7800GS or something, you could do CPU+mobo+RAM+7800GS/GT for less than $600 in a few months.

That sounds pretty sweet, although that is 600 americam, so like 750-800 canadian. That is a fair amount of upgrading. Do you think if i got the new card I wuld be somewhat futureproofed last 2 years? At most needing to upgrade ram?

 

[Eureka]

Hmm, probably not 2 years, maybe 1.5... 1. I'd say wait out, save your money, and buy a PCI-e + the new AMD processor + whatever new card is out then.

Norm

 

[OvErHeAtInG]

will i see a good/amazing gain over current oc'd to shyte 9800 pro?

Yes.

Secondly, will my processor bottle neck it badly?

No. And with newer games, the less your proc will be holding you back since newer games tend to be heavier on the graphics than anything else.

That said, if you are still happy with your 9800 pro for now, take Hyperlite's advice, which will save you $$ in the long run as well as get you a faster system.

If that's a 3.0"e" then I think it's a Prescott no? I was in exactly your position except with an even older system - 2.8 northwood, single channel ram, 4x AGP. I went from a 9800pro to a X800XT PE and didn't regret a minute of it. Of course, a few months later I put the card in a new A64 rig. And the fact that I got the card for USD249, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten it. CAN299 is still a fairly good deal even now...

 

[moonboy403]

processor will definitely bottleneck you......i had my intel 3.2e oced to 3.9 and it still bottlenecked my 6800 gt

 

[Slimline]

Originally posted by: moonboy403
processor will definitely bottleneck you......i had my intel 3.2e oced to 3.9 and it still bottlenecked my 6800 gt

I would not think that would card would bottleneck a 3.2 oc'd to 3.9...how did you test it?

 

[JBT]

id go for it. Waiting a year or so just to save a couple bucks? I'd perfer to have good frame rates for that time and just sell the X850Xt then when you plan to upgrade the rest of the system to PCI Express.

 

[Dman877]

The X850Pro at BB for 229 is soft-moddable to X850XT IIRC. I can't really see paying 300 for a X850XT when 7800GT's cost that and outperform it. Do they make pci-e socket 478 boards?

 

[NoStateofMind]

Originally posted by: Dman877
The X850Pro at BB for 229 is soft-moddable to X850XT IIRC. I can't really see paying 300 for a X850XT when 7800GT's cost that and outperform it. Do they make pci-e socket 478 boards?

YES! ASUS EVEN!!!!!!!! but its not out yet

Zipzoomfly has it "backordered" which means it just hasnt come out yet (for this anyway), I've been checking the site for a while now, and running searches....to no avail (other then overseas). If anyone finds this board for sale (in the states that is) please let me know! thanks. here's the link:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=247048

Good Luck!

The Surgeon

 

[v8envy]

I'm with cevilgenius. The 850 XT is adequate for current games. There's not a snowball's chance in hell it'll last you 2 years. 1 year, maybe. 1.5 if you have a tremendous pain tolerance.

It's slightly more than twice as fast as your 9800 in processing power. And yeah, a 3G Intel cpu is going to be your next bottleneck.

Suck it up, play at 640x480 until you can't take it any more, and then get a PCIe/amd64/whatever is a good bang for buck system late spring next year.

 

[OvErHeAtInG]

Originally posted by: Slimline

Originally posted by: moonboy403
processor will definitely bottleneck you......i had my intel 3.2e oced to 3.9 and it still bottlenecked my 6800 gt

I would not think that would card would bottleneck a 3.2 oc'd to 3.9...how did you test it?

Exactly. In order for your proc to bottleneck you must be running pretty low res. Or running Quake 3 and getting 400 FPS.

The X850Pro at BB for 229 is soft-moddable to X850XT IIRC. I can't really see paying 300 for a X850XT when 7800GT's cost that and outperform it. Do they make pci-e socket 478 boards?

CAN299 is not the same as USD299. I'd take a stock X850XT over a possibly-moddable X850 Pro for about the same price.

id go for it. Waiting a year or so just to save a couple bucks? I'd perfer to have good frame rates for that time and just sell the X850Xt then when you plan to upgrade the rest of the system to PCI Express.

^^ That's how I'm thinking. Jump on a good deal when you see it.

 

[imported_Oderus]

I'm in the same boat as you Slimline.

I have an AMD 2800+ Barton with 1 gig of OCZ platinum Dual-DDR 400 ram and a Gigabyte 7NNXP board which is AGP. (this board is awesome).. however my video is a Radeon 8500.

I'm looking at getting the X800XT AIW from ATIC (www.atic.ca) at 375$ CDN which to me seems like a good deal. Futureshop sells the X850Pro (slower than the X800XT) for only 300$ but for 75$ it's worth having the AIW features. Futureshop also sells the X800XL AIW version for 350$ and the 25$ difference for an increase of 100mhz on the core is worth it.

If I'm going to replace my board, I would have to replace my processor and potentially my ram as well. That's a lot of money considering I would still need to buy a video card and an ATI X1800XL is still 500$ and the 7800GT PCi-E is 600$. Not worth it in my opinion.

If I can hold out for 1-2 years more (shoudn't be that bad, I still have an 8500 for ****** sake) and then when I'm ready.. I'll go dual-core and SLI cards will be cheaper by then.

 

[Slimline]

Originally posted by: OvErHeAtInG

Originally posted by: Slimline

Originally posted by: moonboy403
processor will definitely bottleneck you......i had my intel 3.2e oced to 3.9 and it still bottlenecked my 6800 gt

I would not think that would card would bottleneck a 3.2 oc'd to 3.9...how did you test it?

Exactly. In order for your proc to bottleneck you must be running pretty low res. Or running Quake 3 and getting 400 FPS.

The X850Pro at BB for 229 is soft-moddable to X850XT IIRC. I can't really see paying 300 for a X850XT when 7800GT's cost that and outperform it. Do they make pci-e socket 478 boards?

CAN299 is not the same as USD299. I'd take a stock X850XT over a possibly-moddable X850 Pro for about the same price.

id go for it. Waiting a year or so just to save a couple bucks? I'd perfer to have good frame rates for that time and just sell the X850Xt then when you plan to upgrade the rest of the system to PCI Express.

^^ That's how I'm thinking. Jump on a good deal when you see it.

I am thinking about it more and more. Considering my current card is how many generations and can STILL play the majority of games with descent frame rates, and some with eye candy...this should be great. To the guy who says play everything 640x480...you apparently have no knowledge of graphics cards :roll:. My old stock 9600 can play half life 2 at 1024x768 with options set to medium low

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Originally posted by: Slimline
Ok my system is as follows

Asus p4p800-e deluxe
1 gig of kingston ddr 400 ram
sapphire ati radeon 9800 pro (flased to xt and OC to 432/370 iirc)
120 gig sata
pentium 3.0e (northwood core i think)
yada yada yada


Now on sale right now 300 dollars off at futureshop is a ati radeon x850 xt for 299.99 (Canadian). first off, will i see a good/amazing gain over current oc'd to shyte 9800 pro? Secondly, will my processor bottle neck it badly? I know it is older, but it is still 3g.

Next, will i be kicking myself when i decide to upgrade because it is old standard AGP?

Please help...xbox 360 is not avail. and I love my computer games still I am noticing many newer games i have to run at mediocre settings to get good frame rates.

Hey Chief,

If you are running HL2 then i would up the CPU to AMD and no < 3500+

 

[Slimline]

Originally posted by: Oderus
I'm in the same boat as you Slimline.

I have an AMD 2800+ Barton with 1 gig of OCZ platinum Dual-DDR 400 ram and a Gigabyte 7NNXP board which is AGP. (this board is awesome).. however my video is a Radeon 8500.

I'm looking at getting the X800XT AIW from ATIC (www.atic.ca) at 375$ CDN which to me seems like a good deal. Futureshop sells the X850Pro (slower than the X800XT) for only 300$ but for 75$ it's worth having the AIW features. Futureshop also sells the X800XL AIW version for 350$ and the 25$ difference for an increase of 100mhz on the core is worth it.

If I'm going to replace my board, I would have to replace my processor and potentially my ram as well. That's a lot of money considering I would still need to buy a video card and an ATI X1800XL is still 500$ and the 7800GT PCi-E is 600$. Not worth it in my opinion.

If I can hold out for 1-2 years more (shoudn't be that bad, I still have an 8500 for ****** sake) and then when I'm ready.. I'll go dual-core and SLI cards will be cheaper by then.

Well happy first post lol! HERE is what I am looking at. I think it is the best deal for me, it is considerable better than an 800 pro, and I do not need the tv in features of an all in wonder.

 

[Slimline]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN

Originally posted by: Slimline
Ok my system is as follows

Asus p4p800-e deluxe
1 gig of kingston ddr 400 ram
sapphire ati radeon 9800 pro (flased to xt and OC to 432/370 iirc)
120 gig sata
pentium 3.0e (northwood core i think)
yada yada yada


Now on sale right now 300 dollars off at futureshop is a ati radeon x850 xt for 299.99 (Canadian). first off, will i see a good/amazing gain over current oc'd to shyte 9800 pro? Secondly, will my processor bottle neck it badly? I know it is older, but it is still 3g.

Next, will i be kicking myself when i decide to upgrade because it is old standard AGP?

Please help...xbox 360 is not avail. and I love my computer games still I am noticing many newer games i have to run at mediocre settings to get good frame rates.

Hey Chief,

If you are running HL2 then i would up the CPU to AMD and no < 3500+

Hmm, I appreciate the imput, but even the setup I have right now runs HL2 flawlessly, and if I am going to upgrade my proc, I would hardly consider a 3500+. An upgrade for me to find it viable processor wise would be 4000+ or greater.

 

[JBT]

Originally posted by: Dman877
The X850Pro at BB for 229 is soft-moddable to X850XT IIRC. I can't really see paying 300 for a X850XT when 7800GT's cost that and outperform it. Do they make pci-e socket 478 boards?

He said it was 300 canadian so it costs less than a 7800 GT.

 

[flexy]

Originally posted by: Dman877
The X850Pro at BB for 229 is soft-moddable to X850XT IIRC. I can't really see paying 300 for a X850XT when 7800GT's cost that and outperform it. Do they make pci-e socket 478 boards?

we could debate for HOURS now whether a 7800GT is really so muchy better than a X850XT.

The truth is (to be honest) if i had a low-end card and need to upgrade i would PROBABLY get a 7800GT (assuming the X850XT has NOT really better quality in AA/AF). Otherwise, if someone already has a X850XT the performance of those both cards in D3D and in some theoretical tests is almost on par. A 7800GT is NOT a big update from a X850XT - but then the GT is a better deal because its cheaper, has SM 3.0 and better OpenGL performance.
Otherwise a debate 7800GT <> X850XT could go on for hours and i dont think with any significant results at the end

 

[n7]

D00d, that's a sweet deal :Q!

$300 Cdn. for basically the best AGP card (excepting XT PE) out there is great.

I was pretty surprised when i saw that deal, since it's insanely good

 

[Eureka]

And considering that I can't find a PCI-e 478 motherboard.

Norm

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: moonboy403
processor will definitely bottleneck you......i had my intel 3.2e oced to 3.9 and it still bottlenecked my 6800 gt

Not true at all. I think you have to really look at what bottlenecking means. It doesnt mean that because you dont have FX57, you wont utilize full potential of your graphics card. It means which will limit your performance in games more. P4 3.0ghz or 6800GT? The clear answer is 6800GT will limit your performance more in every single modern game; and a lot more than P4 3.0ghz. This means 6800GT is the bottleneck.

Proof:

P4 630 (3.0ghz) doesn't even bottleneck 7800GT

You have to realize, any 1 component will always be the bottleneck. But stepping up to $250 X850XT AGP (microcenter) might be a very wise investment. $250 to hold him over until dual core is TRULY beneficial and when DDR2 latencies come down, as well as, when we see a more valuable upgrade such as Geforce 8 and so on. Like Oderus stated, A64 might be groovy, but getting a new processor $150 (A64 3200+), mobo $100, ram - $100, 7800GT = $300 will cost $650.

Now look here:
X850XT PE (5% faster than X850xt) still holds its own
Even if you got 80% of X850xt's performance due to cpu bottlenecking (I believe you'll get 90% since you'll basically crank AA/AF all the way until the gpu is fully bottlenecked), you'll only pay $250-300 for it. Now the above A64 setup will be faster, sure, but cost a lot more. Will the performance increase 2x+? NO.

I'd get the videocard today, and then upgrade my full system. Going with a new A64 system, new ram, new mobo and 7800GT will maybe give you 30% performance increase for a lot more $$$. Not a good return on investment at this point for you imo.