What Graphics card

spyder238

Want to upgrade my graphics card but i'm unsure which to get. Price isnt a big problem but i'd like an idea of some i should be looking at, thanks guys. Specs below..




Asus P4C800 E deluxe 800 Mhz FSB.Intel i875 Chipset
Intel 3.4 GHZ P4 Extreme Edition 800 MHZ FSB. 2MB l2 cache
4x512 Infineon PC3200 DDR-SDRAM 400 MHZ Ram.
2x250 GB ide Western Digital 7200 rpm HDs.
1x400 GB Hitachi Deskstar 7200 rpm Sata HD.
ATI Radeon 9800 XT 256 MB (AGP)
Creative XFI sound card.
Philips DVD /-RW Dual layer.
NEC DVD-RW-3500AG Dual Layer.
3 and a half inch floppy drive.
Q Tec 550 dual fan PSU.
Diablo Chassis with cold cathode tube and 5 led fans.

IgsTer

depends if ya got pci-e slot or just agp..and your price range..

if you cant get an 8800gts about 450-490 euros
then maybe a 7950gt for about 300 euros or a 1950xt
then if ya cant get them go down to a 7600gt or a 1950pro

Mountjoy Mugger

I've got a system fairly similar to yours, same mobo etc. Not sure about your Qtec Power Supply though..

Probably the best AGP card you can get at the moment is the Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI

It can be got from http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-137-SP for about €230 plus postage.

spyder238

yea i was actually looking at that one myself, its very reasonable, what card have you got in yours?

Mountjoy Mugger

At the minute it's an ATI X850 XT PE. Thinking about getting the X1950 Pro as well.

8T8

Best (new) AGP buy is the X1950 Pro.

OcUK have two models worth checking out this or this.

Edit: Sorry linked to PCI-e instead of AGP have now corrected link.

You wouldn't see much difference Mountjoy Mugger switching from an X850XT PE to an X1950 Pro (in fact maybe a downgrade). You are better off switching to PCI-e system and get something slightly higher in the performance charts if that's what your after.

Though the lazy developers not making SM3.0 paths so you cannot play certain games like Rainbow Six: Vegas and the new Splintercell games would be the only argument for the X1950 Pro as it supports SM3.0, the X850 is SM2.0 only.

Mountjoy Mugger

8T8 wrote:

Best (new) AGP buy is the X1950 Pro.

Dabs.ie have them for €188 at the moment.

Though the lazy developers not making SM3.0 paths so you cannot play certain games like Rainbow Six: Vegas and the new Splintercell games would be the only argument for the X1950 Pro as it supports SM3.0, the X850 is SM2.0 only.

That's exactly the reason I'm looking at the X1950 Pro - SM3.0. An upgrade that should keep me happy for another 2 years, I hope.



EDIT: Just noticed that the link is for a PCI-E card.

DemonOfTheFall

8T8 wrote:

You wouldn't see much difference Mountjoy Mugger switching from an X850XT PE to an X1950 Pro (in fact maybe a downgrade). You are better off switching to PCI-e system and get something slightly higher in the performance charts if that's what your after.

I would beg to differ. The X1950 Pro would annihilate the x850XT.

EDIT: I stand semi-corrected. Between 20-50% faster going by a quick scan of this review http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/powercolor_radeon_x1950_pro_agp_review/page13.asp

8T8

Interesting benches DemonOfTheFall, it is a bit weird to see the X850XT PE fall behind like that as it has more texture processing units and more ROP's than the X1950 Pro.

The only area where the X1950 Pro is better is in memory bandwidth (& not much) and shaders as it has twice the amount but that usually has had limited impact in most games.

Well I stand corrected so it looks like the X1950 Pro is definitely a step up over the X850 XT PE.

(I fixed the links to the two AGP X1950 Pro models on OcUK in my post above)