Which Card to buy for my system?

[LcarsSystem]

Ok first off, I bought STALKER yesterday and was pretty disapointed in the video performance, and that was the final nail in the coffin for me. Now I got this system for free a couple months ago so I don't mind finally investing a few hundred into it.

SPECS:

JGE 550watt PSU
MSI k8 Neo3 250
Athlon 64 FX-53 @ 2400MHz
2GB RAM
Nvidia 6800Ultra
Two WDC 74GB Raptors

I run most games at moderate resolution, no higher than 1600x1200 with my viewsonic I currently have. Now my question is, will I be ok to be an X1950XT AGP or should I buy a 7950GT for my current power supply and CPU? I already know I'll see a definite improvement with my games, and I don't plan on getting a new system entirely too soon, so I feel whatever will last me the longest is for the best.

I browsed newegg and was not all that thrilled with the X1950XT user reviews, and I know from the benchmarks that it is slightly faster than the 7950GT (correct me if I'm wrong on this). I was also looking at the X1950 Pro with 512MB, now is my system too slow and the card itself too slow to utilize the extra 256MB advantage I would gain? Help me decided Anandtech!

Thanks.

 

[speckedhoncho]

PCI x16 cards draw alot more power and get less from the bus. With AGP, you should be OK. My current system attests to having an AGP,P4 system. With PSU of 470W which is made by a local brand, I need to power

Pentium 4 520 (Prescott) 2.8GHz
1GB PC3200 DDR400
i865PE MOBO
XfX 7800GS 256MB AGP
WiFI Card
Creative XFi Card
2x120mm case fans
1x92mm high-powered CPU fan
WD Raptor 150GB
Maxtor 7200RPM 80GB

Everything is A-OK. There have been power-drawing guides from the likes of Tom's Hardware et al. Search around and you'll notice that CPU, Mobo, & Mem will draw about 200W (really rough approx - it can get upto 300W).

Since you are overclocking and have more memory, 550W sounds ok. As an extra guide, look at online stores and find where SLi-Guaranteed PSU's start to crop up. That is your definitely your ceiling unless you are thinking about SLi instead of upgrading into the G80's, R600's or possibly next-gen cards.

 

[speckedhoncho]

<a href="http://www.firingsquad.com/har...nstream_3d_performance">
Firingsquad's performance analysis for "Stalker"
</a>

The X1950XT is not present, but most of the X19xxxx cards are as well as some of the GeForce 7xxx and 8800GTS 320MB. As you can see, the X19xxxx cards are ahead of the pack, but...

ATI cards draw more power in this generation as well as the last generation of cards.

My AGP experience has a silver lining.

I can play HL2 at 1366x768 High IQ without frame drops. Call of Juarez is a different story. At a resolution of 1024x768, low IQ works, but medium and high IQ causes frame drops. It seems like 2yr-old games work (at sub-1600x1200 resolutions mind you).

The Firingsquad benchmarks show that you can be satisfied, but not with any games coming out onward. Lost Planet benchmarks really show that.

Goodbye, AGP, Goodbye.

 

[LcarsSystem]

Just checked out Tigerdirect, and it's between the x1950XT and the 7950GT. I'm now leaning towards the 7950GT because this one comes with 512MB for the same price as newegg had there 256MB model. So hopefully it will also relieve video hiccups with that extra 256MB buffer.

 

[honestjohn]

What's a JGE power supply by the way?

 

[LcarsSystem]

Originally posted by: honestjohn

Originally posted by: LcarsSystem
Just checked out Tigerdirect, and it's between the x1950XT and the 7950GT. I'm now leaning towards the 7950GT because this one comes with 512MB for the same price as newegg had there 256MB model. So hopefully it will also relieve video hiccups with that extra 256MB buffer.

What's a JGE power supply by the way?

I really have no idea, I recieved this system for free so I can't complain, it's stable as a rock so as far as everything goes I'm happy. I think I'm going with the 7950GT. Thanks guys.