yet another graphics card help request ...

forbairt

I'm looking to upgrade my system ..

p4 2.8ghz
1.5gb ram
AGP - ATI 9800 pro

and I'm looking to spend as little as possible as I'll probably be buying a highish end laptop ... and can't justify to myself (yes to myself .. not to the gf )the cost purely for games ...

Initially I was thinking about getting this little package
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=317483
POINT OF VIEW 6800GS AGP & Crucial 1024 MB Kit
Which would seem like a nice upgrade for my current system

But I've been reading a few threads on here and so now I'm thinking about getting one of these puppys
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/7800AGP_Series.html
The one at the end.

but I guess what I'm really wondering is .. how much of a difference am I going to notice with this kinda upgrade ...

I've checked the statistics on some hardware sites like tom's hardware ...

and I know the GS's aren't the top of the line .. in graphics but basically I'd like to get away with spending around 400€ max ... and getting the best bang for my buck ...

namely 1gb of ram and a newish graphics card ...

upgrading mother board isn't really an option as I'd guess the next upgrade I'll do will be in a year or two when this machine starts to feel dated ... as it is .. its grand for everything I do ...

Thanks for any help advice
James

edit: changed "and I know the GS's are the top of the line" to "aren't"

jones

i'm in kinda the same position as yourself with maybe a bit more lifetime left on my pc.
P 4 - 3.4GHz with HT
1 gig RAM
9800XT 256mb.

mines a dell 8300 so a total move to pci-express is out of the question for the moment but i was thinking about getting the 7800 GS jsut to give a little boost in the graphics department!

8T8

The AGP 7800GS is the fastest you can get simply put. Compared to a AGP 6800GS the difference is not too great in performance but the 7800 has a few advantages;

Better image quality enhancements with Transparency AA.
Faster at dealing with HDR so takes less of a performance hit.
Slightly more horse power so you could run games at an increased resolution over the 6800GS or with more AA/AF.

As for the 6800GS bundle well the 1GB of RAM wont make that big of a difference in *most* games though obviously the more the merrier. However if you stick to 1024x768 in resolution for games then you probably wouldn't notice too much of a difference between the 7800GS & 6800GS.

You can see some benchmarks with all AGP cards at this link.

The overclocked out of the box 7800GS will add roughly 2-5% on top of the existing performance, though that XFX part is clocked rather aggressivly so it could be 6-7% a review of the XFX card is at the same site.

forbairt

Thanks for the link and the info 8T8 ... the 6800GS bundle is looking like the one for me .. from those specs at any rate ... I'll never be running at resolutions higher than 1280x1024 ... and more than likely I'll only run games at 1024x768 unless I upgrade to a 20inch + LCD ..

*debates ordering today or waiting till monday* that way Oblivion and it could arrive at the same time .. ARGH!!

The upgrade of 1Gb RAM would put my system at 2gbs so that'd be nice for running virual machines as well

jones

i was thinking of getting the 7800GS aswell but i'm starting to think maybe i'll wait for the next round of graphics cards i.e. direct x 10 and do a massive upgrade then (pci express, 64-bit, etc) maybe even get a PS3 in the meantime depending when it actually comes out!!