Better card or cheaper card and more ram

Callan

Im looking to replace my ti4200 64mb ram which Ive had for 2 years.
I have an xp2500+ @ 3200+ and 512mb(2 x256) ram.
Which would be the better option, another 512 mb ram and a 9800pro, or stay with 512mb ram and
a x800pro/6800.
Id like this to last me about another 2 years or so.
Im not mad into frame rates but Id like the likes of far cry to run @ 1024 * 768 at high detail
Im only willing to spend €400.

Thanks

OfflerCrocGod

X800 Pro/6800 the extra RAM wont really give such an extra boost while the new Gfx cards will let you play new games at those resolutions for maybe the full 2 years.

<edit>by the way I suggest waiting for two/three months and then building an all new rig with PCI-E everything</edit>

BKtje

I dunno about this. a 9800pro is a fairly decent card and the extra 512mb will be used more and more (ut2k4 already gobles it up and games in the future are sure to be ram hungry).

Personally id probably go with the gig o ram and the 9800pro (and overclock it a bit even if u use stock fan).

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Defo get the X800 pro thay rule. I got one and my 3dmark went from 4500 on an 9700pro to 9700 on the X800. Can run all my games at full detail, full temporal AA and full AF and still get 60+ FPS. The ram will make a big difference if you are spooling a big doc to your printer and in some games (farcry) but you will get way more bang for your buck from the x800. Enjoy

BKtje

Defo get the X800 pro thay rule. I got one and my 3dmark went from 4500 on an 9700pro to 9700 on the X800

Which 3dmark, from the looks of it u were using 2003 which only test your gfx card and doesnt give a good indication at all tbh.

Try 2001, imo a better gaming benchmark than 2003.

The difference in points betweeb my system and my friends system (he has a XP 2ghz 512mb ram and also a 9700pro tho not overclocked (my sys in sig))) was about 400 points.

Tell me, which rig is better for gaming. His or mine?

but you will get way more bang for your buck from the x800.

bang for buck ? errr your spending a huge amount on an object that will very quickly loose its value while ram and 9800 pro will be cheap/ loose value slower. More bang for buck in the 9800pro. Better performance in 3dmarks 2003 benchmark and some games with the x800. All depends how the game is rendered.

As i said i think an extar 512mb ra and a 9800pro will give you better performance over the long term than an x800 (which will probably give you better performance in the short term). Still both choices are faily good

(remember if u wait half year or so ull probably pick up the x800 for the price of a 9800pro now. Thats the problem with buying at the top end of the market tho )

Callan

Thanks for the replies
Would the 9800pro play the likes of far cry/doom 3 well? There isn't much of a difference in price between either option.
So im still not sure what to do.
Would the extra ram only give a noticeable boost in gaming?

Would it be worth my while trying to sell my current card, how much could I expect to get for it?

Shiny

Originally posted by Callan
There isn't much of a difference in price between either option.

Isn't there?

9800 PRO - 200 euro
512 Ram - 110 euro

Total - 310

X800 or 6800 will cost over 400 euro.

Wouldn't you be saving almost 100euro ?

BKtje

Would the 9800pro play the likes of far cry/doom 3 well?

It should perform well enough. My 9700pro is all im using tho im hoping my beefy system will compensate.

Would the extra ram only give a noticeable boost in gaming?

No, older games wouldnt get any boost really. Its mainly the newest top end (graphics wise) games that would benefit (ie ut2k4, farcry etc, which is why i believe more ram would be a smarter move in the long run as games will only get more demanding). Sure they say that for doom3 a gig of ram is important to play on the higher settings (tho having the best gfx card never hurts either but we cant have it all ).
Tbh i can't say for certain which would be the better option but as i have said, i believe the 9800pro/ memory is better value/performance in the long run.

A lot of applications may receive a performance boost. Depends on the aplication of course.

Would it be worth my while trying to sell my current card, how much could I expect to get for it?

Wouldnt get much for it. Graphics cards tend to fall in price very quickly (same with most pc hardware tho really).

You may want to wait for a few more replies tho before making up your mind one way or another. Some one may make a good argument yet

BadCharlie

Callan
I have almost the same rig as your self. Just that i dont overclock as high as your self but i have another half a gig of ram. Just 3 months back i got rid of my geforce 4ti4200 to my brother and got my self an ati9800 np. There was a big big differince in games i was well pleased. In far cry i played it at 1024*768 with all details up full except with lighting & shadow which i put on low. The game looked great and played great even with 2 of the settings on low and the rest up to max. But this game is the bigest draining game i have played to date.

I would not sell your computer its still very good, i think if i were you i would go get the ati9800pro and a half a gig of ram.

On www.overclockers.co.uk they have an ati9800pro on special and its a 256bit chip with 128mb of ram "good card". Shipping from there site i think is about 25euro and the card is £141 pounds so thats about 220euro "not sure".

Anyways good luck in your choice.

Callan

Thanks for the advice
I think I'll go down the extra ram + 9800 pro road.
Is it important to get the same ram ie. manufacturer, model etc?
At the momenent I have 2 x OCZ 256MB PC3200 Performance Series EL-DDR CAS2

Should I try and get a 512mb stick of that, or would a similar type of ram be ok.

Woden

a similiar piece of ram will probably be ok but for safety i'd stick with the same manufacturer. the main thing for compatiblility will be that the memory has the same chips

check out the ocz stuff at www.shop4memory.com

saying that though i'm mixing a gig of mushkin CH5 stuff at the moment with half a gig of BH5 with no ill effects but i haven't tested stability yet other then gaming

Jammer

I just ordered a Saphire 9800 Pro. I chose saphire because ive seen that 9 out of 10 of them soft mod to XT. Komplett are giving them them away for 210 euro. Its lite-retail so you wont get any games with it. Just the cables & drivers! The Powercolor one is on special at 212euro.

They are both 128mb, 256bit! Avoid 128bit, its a'crippled' card apparently.

Calibos

Like Jammer I have a Sapphire 9800pro128mb(256bit) that I just got from Komplett for €210. 90% of Sapphire 9800pro's now have the R360 GPU core of the XT. It looks like most Sapphires are even on the XT PCB, just with 128mb instead of 256mb. I lucked out with mine as its an R360 on XT PCB. So I flashed my card bios to XT bios. While the stock cooling can probably handle the XT default clock of 412/365(pro stock is 378/338), I bought an Arctic VGA cooler from Peats (cheaper than importing believe it or not!!) and replaced my stock cooling. My game overclock now is 435/380 and I leave it at its 'new xt bios default' clocks of 412/365 for general use. Idles at 45c and under load its 54c. How do I know?? Cause temp monitoring is enabled after the flash if you have an R360 and XT PCB 9800pro!!

I run Farcry @ 1024x768 with no AA and 1xAF(min) but everything maxed out except textures at high instead of very high(thats where the 256mb of a real pro would come in handy) lights and shadows at medium. The rest of my system is a DellDim8200(I know, I know!) P4 2.8 400FSB 512mb RDRam800. I get about 40-60av FPS but on the odd occasion it'll drop to 20 for a sec, very rarely though. The game runs and looks beautiful for the most part. Pity about no AA though.

By all acounts HL2 while it would have been absolutely ground breaking if it had of been released last year like it was supposed to doesn't actually look as good or tax the system as much as Farcry. So I am pretty confident my PC should run it ok. Not so sure about Doom3 but we shall see come August. I just couldn't justify getting an x800 agp now for €500 when I will probably buy a new PC in a year anyway with PCI-E, new mobos, new cpu's etc

3dm03 - P4 1.8, 256mb, 9800 'pro 378/338' - 5250
3dm03 - P4 2.8, 512mb, 9800 'XT 412/365' - 6250
3dm03 - P4 2.8, 512mb, 9800 'XT 435/380' - 6506

Callan

Ive decided to buy this card and a stick of 512Mb DDR RAM PC3200 OCZ Rev. 2 from www.shop4memory.com.

Are these good choices or are there better options for my money?