Best AGP card out at the moment.

[Nick F]

I currently have a 9800pro and was wondering if their are any AGP cards out that are significantly better and worth the money to upgrade my machine. I will be building another machine in about 6 months so I will be getting all the latest technologies then.

[Dooms]

Im not sure if the x850xt pe's are out for AGP yet.. if they arnt then the best cards are the x800xt pe and the 6800 Ultra. The x800xt pe beat the 6800 ultra in all benchmarks other than doom3. As you can see from the sig i went for the 800xt pe and couldnt be happier

[Nick F]

and how much did that you set you back?

[Grey M@a]

Get a XFX6800GT card, they are cheap and they clock far higher than what the Ultra's can achieve, I am running mine and its the best card I have had in a while, takes everything I throw at it with a 1600x1200 res, full aa and as and full details. I was supprised at how well the GeForce six series is.

[Allen]

I too have the 6800GT and for power/price you can't go wrong! They also clock very well and "can" outperform a 6800U, so I've heard.

[Nick F]

which version the 128MB or the 256MB?

There is quite a difference in price between the two.

[Grey M@a]

i have the 256MB DDR3 version, trust me the extra cash is worth it in the performance you get out of it at stock. Start clocking the things and you get even more out of them. They are essentially the Ultra chips downclocked.

[Allen]

Yeah, defo the 256MB version, the added memory can make all the difference with textures and such nowadays. Forgot to add, mine is also the XFX card. Great it is.

[Nick F]

at slighly under £300 I think I might as well wait and put the money into a new machine, cheers for your helps lads anyway.

[Zak33]

X800 Pro is a noticeable improvement on Rad9800 Pro in my PC, and in 6 months whoknows WHAT'LL be out there?

[Nox]

I *had* (its still sat in the box waiting to be sent!) a bfg 6800 ultra - bloomin amazing card, factory overclocked and lifetime warranty - WAY better than the 9700 pro it replaced.

Nox

[Mesce]

I would recommend a 6800ultra or 6800gt. The ATi cards are very good but they won't be able to play games based on the UE3. UE3 utilises 32bit fpp and the ATi cards are only 24bitfpp with every nVidia card since fx series are 32bitfpp also.

The ATi cards also lack the following features HDR lighting, ultra shadowII and the famous SM3. The 6800 ultra performs more or less the same to a x800xtpe in all games apart from Doom3 and HL2. The x800xtpe gets beaten even by the 6800gt in doom3 but the 6800gt holds its ground against the ATi equivalent in HL2.

[Nick F]

Is there any point in upgrading now though when those games wont be out for quite a while and the new graphics technologies will continue to develop.

[Mesce]

Games use Ultrashadow II, HDR, SM3. Far cry can use both sm3 and hdr. Doom3 uses ultra shadow II so imagine all of the games that will use the doom3 engine (call of duty2, quake4 etc.) That isn't a problem beacuse the ATi card will still run games that have these features but without the features being enabled so more of a performance hit and less eye candy.
The problem is with Unreal Engine 3. Because it is a hardware requirement the ATi cards won't be able to play the ue3. Its like trying to run a 64bit OS on a 32bit processor.
Apparently they tested it on the ATi cards and it was artifacting like crazy.

[StormPC]

I currently have a 9800pro and was wondering if their are any AGP cards out that are significantly better and worth the money to upgrade my machine. I will be building another machine in about 6 months so I will be getting all the latest technologies then.

The 6600GT and 6800GT were the best bang for the buck until recently. Now the X800XL is the top performer in the midrange. Pricewise the X800XL is in the middle, but closer to the 6600GT in price which makes it an incredible buy. The fastest APG card is the X850 XT PE. It is very difficult to find however. Also, in your current system the X850 XT PE is overkill and you will not realize it's power unless you are running a very powerful CPU (FX-53, FX-55 or P4EE 3.4-3.73GHz) or are running a very well-overclocked A64 or highend P4.

[bouncin]

If mesce is correct about the unreal 3 engine dont let it put u off as they would have to be stupid to release it like that with ati,s current market share.

both are great cards and u wouldnt go wrong with either tbh