Is a 6800GT worth upgrading to a 7800GT?

[Stumps]

I'm currently using a good ole 6800GT AGP on my A64 3000+@2.87Ghz rig and now I'm looking for an upgrade to PCI-E

I already have the mobo I want to use, an EPOX 8NPA SLI but I need to get a video card.

I can get hold of a Leadtek 7800GT extreme for AU$330, (rrp au$450)

Is the 7800GT a big enougth jump in performance over the 6800GT to justify spending AU$330.

I have a few over options as well.

I could spend a bit more (it would really stretch the budget though) and get a Leadtek 7950GT for AU$390 (rrp au$500)

OR

A Asus 7600GT for AU$220 and then upgrade my ram to 2GB.

the PSU I'll be using is a Antec 550w Truepower Trio.

any suggestions?

 

[Stumps]

anybody?

 

[Cookie Monster]

Buy the 7600GT and wait til the mid range DX10 cards hit. No point going to 7950GT althought it would be a siginificant leap in GPU performance.

A 7600GT is faster than the 6800 ultra.

 

[hmorphone]

All 3 would be an improvement. The 7600GT looks like it'll only be a marginal one though, and the faster gpu will probably make a bigger difference than the ram at this point. I would say, for games anyway, the 7800GT would be your best bet without busting your budget. If you're going to upgrade to Vista real quick, however, maybe it would be better to get the extra ram and the 7600GT and get a DX10 card later.

 

[Stumps]

I plan to keep using WinXP for a least a year or so(if it ain't broke don't fix it, I say)

I mainly play at 1024x768 or 1280x1024(maximum my monitor will do).

 

[CKXP]

what are the prices/availabilty for a 7900GS?, i would spring for that instead of a 7800gt or 7600gt.

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: CKXP
what are the prices/availabilty for a 7900GS?, i would spring for that instead of a 7800gt or 7600gt.

I can get the Leadtek 7900GS for AU$350

 

[hmorphone]

Originally posted by: Stumps
I plan to keep using WinXP for a least a year or so(if it ain't broke don't fix it, I say)

I mainly play at 1024x768 or 1280x1024(maximum my monitor will do).

Sounds like you need to follow your first instincts.

 

[hmorphone]

Originally posted by: Stumps

Originally posted by: CKXP
what are the prices/availabilty for a 7900GS?, i would spring for that instead of a 7800gt or 7600gt.

I can get the Leadtek 7900GS for AU$350

So the question is, is 5 to 10% better performance worth another $20? Of course, you could play that question all the way up to the 8800GTX

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: hmorphone

Originally posted by: Stumps

Originally posted by: CKXP
what are the prices/availabilty for a 7900GS?, i would spring for that instead of a 7800gt or 7600gt.

I can get the Leadtek 7900GS for AU$350

So the question is, is 5 to 10% better performance worth another $20? Of course, you could play that question all the way up to the 8800GTX

not for around AU$1100 I couldn't play that high, Actually If i was really nice to the missus she would probably let me get one but I would probably feel quilty afterwards for breaking into the piggy bank.

 

[CKXP]

Originally posted by: Stumps

Originally posted by: CKXP
what are the prices/availabilty for a 7900GS?, i would spring for that instead of a 7800gt or 7600gt.

I can get the Leadtek 7900GS for AU$350

wow...kinda surprised me that the 7900gs would cost more than the 7800gt and not much less than the 7950gt...i would save some money and go with the 7600gt.

 

[Stumps]

I can't get any discount on the 7900GS so I have to pay full retail for it...the 7800GT an 7950GT i can get a discount on because they are excess stock and the boss want's to get rid of them before christmas...which is why in brackets I posted the RRP as well.

 

[Captante]

The 7900GS & the 7800GT are very close in performance, the biggest advantage the GS has is that it'll most likely overclock better & I'd say its worth another $20 also both of them will be faster then a 6800GT. A 7600GT on the other hand will be a little faster but if for example if you already had a PCIe 6800GT it wouldn't be worth the upgrade, so unless you really just want to switch platforms I'd skip it.

Some other possible options would be the 7800GTX or 7900GT, both of which should nicely outperform the first two cards you mentioned & are actually very close to the 7950GT in performance ... whats the price/availability on those ?

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: Captante
The 7900GS & the 7800GT are very close in performance, the biggest advantage the GS has is that it'll most likely overclock better & I'd say its worth another $20 also both of them will be faster then a 6800GT. A 7600GT on the other hand will be a little faster but if for example if you already had a PCIe 6800GT it wouldn't be worth the upgrade, so unless you really just want to switch platforms I'd skip it.

Some other possible options would be the 7800GTX or 7900GT, both of which should nicely outperform the first two cards you mentioned & are actually very close to the 7950GT in performance ... whats the price/availability on those ?

unfortunately my idiot communist boss refuses to update the prices on those
so they are priced way beyond what I can budget for.

the Leadtek 7800GTX is priced at a whoppingAU$970 (which is why they stay on the shelves) and the 7900GT is EOL (according to the suppliers).


I would really like to go for the 7950GT but it does stretch my upgrade budget to almost breaking point.

But now that I think about it the 7900GS does seem to be a nice buy....I might see what sort of discount I can get for that one.

 

[Captante]

Based on that information I agree with you about the 7900GS being the best choice, too bad your boss won't budge on those GTX prices... I'll bet he's basing his attitude on what he paid for them originally & its really going to hurt him when they're only worth about $100 6 months from now!

 

[Conky]

Why waste all that money?

Get an ASRock 775Dual-VSTA, an E6300/E6400 and start transitioning to a modern PCI-E and DDR2 system. In the mean time, the cheap upgrade to the ASRock mobo and the C2D will simply blow your mind. (Best under $300US upgrade I have ever made, bar none)

Think about it.

P.S. The 7900GS smokes with a C2D system. I don't plan to do SLI with it when I upgrade to a 680i SLI board but it's nice to have the option.

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: Beachboy
Why waste all that money?

Get an ASRock 775Dual-VSTA, an E6300/E6400 and start transitioning to a modern PCI-E and DDR2 system. In the mean time, the cheap upgrade to the ASRock mobo and the C2D will simply blow your mind. (Best under $300US upgrade I have ever made, bar none)

Think about it.

P.S. The 7900GS smokes with a C2D system. I don't plan to do SLI with it when I upgrade to a 680i SLI board but it's nice to have the option.

I don't want to build another Intel system just yet.

I have a brand new Epox mobo with SLI on it so I want to give it a go...and besides I'm happy with the cpu performance of my A64...a C2D won't do me any good if I'm still stuck with my old 6800GT...I have the motherboard so I might as well use it.

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: Stumps

Originally posted by: Beachboy
Why waste all that money?

Get an ASRock 775Dual-VSTA, an E6300/E6400 and start transitioning to a modern PCI-E and DDR2 system. In the mean time, the cheap upgrade to the ASRock mobo and the C2D will simply blow your mind. (Best under $300US upgrade I have ever made, bar none)

Think about it.

P.S. The 7900GS smokes with a C2D system. I don't plan to do SLI with it when I upgrade to a 680i SLI board but it's nice to have the option.

I don't want to build another Intel system just yet.

I have a brand new Epox mobo with SLI on it so I want to give it a go...and besides I'm happy with the cpu performance of my A64...a C2D won't do me any good if I'm still stuck with my old 6800GT...I have the motherboard so I might as well use it.

Actually it would do you a lot of good. Game speeds will rocket upwards(I had an X850xt AGP when I did this ASRock + C2D upgrade). Encoding speeds will go through the roof as well as any other cpu intensive app.

Or you can just hope a new faster AGP videocard will make any difference. For what it's worth my FPS's at least doubled moving to the C2D even with an AGP card. The card was no longer the bottleneck.

I didn't want another Nvidia card either but it's faster than my old ATI and I've always said that brand loyalty in the computer game is simply dumb. But stick to your old AMD system... that C2D stuff is just hype.

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: Beachboy

Originally posted by: Stumps

Originally posted by: Beachboy
Why waste all that money?

Get an ASRock 775Dual-VSTA, an E6300/E6400 and start transitioning to a modern PCI-E and DDR2 system. In the mean time, the cheap upgrade to the ASRock mobo and the C2D will simply blow your mind. (Best under $300US upgrade I have ever made, bar none)

Think about it.

P.S. The 7900GS smokes with a C2D system. I don't plan to do SLI with it when I upgrade to a 680i SLI board but it's nice to have the option.

I don't want to build another Intel system just yet.

I have a brand new Epox mobo with SLI on it so I want to give it a go...and besides I'm happy with the cpu performance of my A64...a C2D won't do me any good if I'm still stuck with my old 6800GT...I have the motherboard so I might as well use it.

Actually it would do you a lot of good. Game speeds will rocket upwards(I had an X850xt AGP when I did this ASRock + C2D upgrade). Encoding speeds will go through the roof as well as any other cpu intensive app.

Or you can just hope a new faster AGP videocard will make any difference. For what it's worth my FPS's at least doubled moving to the C2D even with an AGP card. The card was no longer the bottleneck.

I didn't want another Nvidia card either but it's faster than my old ATI and I've always said that brand loyalty in the computer game is simply dumb. But stick to your old AMD system... that C2D stuff is just hype.

The Epox 8NPA SLI is a PCI-E only motherboard so any videocard I purchase will need to be PCI-E.

I currently running my A64 on a Gigabyte GA-K8NS PRO....which will be put into another PC..along with the old 6800GT....I'm just looking for a Videocard that will go well with my Epox board and A64 that I have.

 

[markymoo]

wait till early next year dx9 cards will crash in price.

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: Stumps

Originally posted by: Beachboy

Originally posted by: Stumps

Originally posted by: Beachboy
Why waste all that money?

Get an ASRock 775Dual-VSTA, an E6300/E6400 and start transitioning to a modern PCI-E and DDR2 system. In the mean time, the cheap upgrade to the ASRock mobo and the C2D will simply blow your mind. (Best under $300US upgrade I have ever made, bar none)

Think about it.

P.S. The 7900GS smokes with a C2D system. I don't plan to do SLI with it when I upgrade to a 680i SLI board but it's nice to have the option.

I don't want to build another Intel system just yet.

I have a brand new Epox mobo with SLI on it so I want to give it a go...and besides I'm happy with the cpu performance of my A64...a C2D won't do me any good if I'm still stuck with my old 6800GT...I have the motherboard so I might as well use it.

Actually it would do you a lot of good. Game speeds will rocket upwards(I had an X850xt AGP when I did this ASRock + C2D upgrade). Encoding speeds will go through the roof as well as any other cpu intensive app.

Or you can just hope a new faster AGP videocard will make any difference. For what it's worth my FPS's at least doubled moving to the C2D even with an AGP card. The card was no longer the bottleneck.

I didn't want another Nvidia card either but it's faster than my old ATI and I've always said that brand loyalty in the computer game is simply dumb. But stick to your old AMD system... that C2D stuff is just hype.

The Epox 8NPA SLI is a PCI-E only motherboard so any videocard I purchase will need to be PCI-E.

I currently running my A64 on a Gigabyte GA-K8NS PRO....which will be put into another PC..along with the old 6800GT....I'm just looking for a Videocard that will go well with my Epox board and A64 that I have.

That's cool. I've had good luck with my PCI-E 7900GS and these are priced to be cheap. Hopefully you can grab one of these cheap on your side of the planet too.

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: Beachboy

Originally posted by: Stumps

Originally posted by: Beachboy

Originally posted by: Stumps

Originally posted by: Beachboy
Why waste all that money?

Get an ASRock 775Dual-VSTA, an E6300/E6400 and start transitioning to a modern PCI-E and DDR2 system. In the mean time, the cheap upgrade to the ASRock mobo and the C2D will simply blow your mind. (Best under $300US upgrade I have ever made, bar none)

Think about it.

P.S. The 7900GS smokes with a C2D system. I don't plan to do SLI with it when I upgrade to a 680i SLI board but it's nice to have the option.

I don't want to build another Intel system just yet.

I have a brand new Epox mobo with SLI on it so I want to give it a go...and besides I'm happy with the cpu performance of my A64...a C2D won't do me any good if I'm still stuck with my old 6800GT...I have the motherboard so I might as well use it.

Actually it would do you a lot of good. Game speeds will rocket upwards(I had an X850xt AGP when I did this ASRock + C2D upgrade). Encoding speeds will go through the roof as well as any other cpu intensive app.

Or you can just hope a new faster AGP videocard will make any difference. For what it's worth my FPS's at least doubled moving to the C2D even with an AGP card. The card was no longer the bottleneck.

I didn't want another Nvidia card either but it's faster than my old ATI and I've always said that brand loyalty in the computer game is simply dumb. But stick to your old AMD system... that C2D stuff is just hype.

The Epox 8NPA SLI is a PCI-E only motherboard so any videocard I purchase will need to be PCI-E.

I currently running my A64 on a Gigabyte GA-K8NS PRO....which will be put into another PC..along with the old 6800GT....I'm just looking for a Videocard that will go well with my Epox board and A64 that I have.

That's cool. I've had good luck with my PCI-E 7900GS and these are priced to be cheap. Hopefully you can grab one of these cheap on your side of the planet too.

yeah I can...only AU$350 here at work for a Leadtek model...I'm leaning towards that because it's an extreme model and has a slightly higher clock speed than standard.

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: Stumps

Originally posted by: Beachboy

Originally posted by: Stumps

Originally posted by: Beachboy

Originally posted by: Stumps

Originally posted by: Beachboy
Why waste all that money?

Get an ASRock 775Dual-VSTA, an E6300/E6400 and start transitioning to a modern PCI-E and DDR2 system. In the mean time, the cheap upgrade to the ASRock mobo and the C2D will simply blow your mind. (Best under $300US upgrade I have ever made, bar none)

Think about it.

P.S. The 7900GS smokes with a C2D system. I don't plan to do SLI with it when I upgrade to a 680i SLI board but it's nice to have the option.

I don't want to build another Intel system just yet.

I have a brand new Epox mobo with SLI on it so I want to give it a go...and besides I'm happy with the cpu performance of my A64...a C2D won't do me any good if I'm still stuck with my old 6800GT...I have the motherboard so I might as well use it.

Actually it would do you a lot of good. Game speeds will rocket upwards(I had an X850xt AGP when I did this ASRock + C2D upgrade). Encoding speeds will go through the roof as well as any other cpu intensive app.

Or you can just hope a new faster AGP videocard will make any difference. For what it's worth my FPS's at least doubled moving to the C2D even with an AGP card. The card was no longer the bottleneck.

I didn't want another Nvidia card either but it's faster than my old ATI and I've always said that brand loyalty in the computer game is simply dumb. But stick to your old AMD system... that C2D stuff is just hype.

The Epox 8NPA SLI is a PCI-E only motherboard so any videocard I purchase will need to be PCI-E.

I currently running my A64 on a Gigabyte GA-K8NS PRO....which will be put into another PC..along with the old 6800GT....I'm just looking for a Videocard that will go well with my Epox board and A64 that I have.

That's cool. I've had good luck with my PCI-E 7900GS and these are priced to be cheap. Hopefully you can grab one of these cheap on your side of the planet too.

yeah I can...only AU$350 here at work for a Leadtek model...I'm leaning towards that because it's an extreme model and has a slightly higher clock speed than standard.

This will be the last time I mention it but you really should consider the C2D/ASRock775-VSTA upgrade, at least for your personal system. I just ripped and burned a DVD between rounds of my other apps. (playing COD2 online)

I would downgrade to a 5700 Ultra and the C2D in your situation before would consider alternatives to that AMD system. The new Intel is that good.

 

[Effect]

Do you have to buy the video card from this specific place? I got my Palit 7900GS delivered (next day delivery) for $300AU, and that was before the small ($20-$40) price cut. They can be had for as low as $256AU, or $259AU for the Palit (same place i ordered from).

If you can't (or would prefer not to) buy from elsewhere, i'd pony up the extra $20 for the 7900GS (especially if you're considering overclocking).