Upgrade from 9600 XT

[Mutley]

Hi All,

I realise I posted a similar question a few months ago, but I didn't do anything about upgrading back then, and prices have dropped, so....

I have a Sapphire 9600XT (256Mb RAM version). Not a bad card in general. Its plugged into an MSI motherboard, supporting AGP x4, with a 2.5Ghz P4, and 1Gb of PC2700 RAM.
The PSU is an Enermax 350W job.

Some games, such as Battlefield 2, are making the machine struggle a little, so I'd like to give it some help, by upgrading the graphics card.

I was thinking about going to a Geforce 660GT. Read lots of good reviews. According to the comparison charts on Toms Hardware, in many cases it has double the performance. However, thats on a much more powerful machine, where such things as RAM, CPU, and HDD are not bottlenecks.

What, my esteemed forum colleagues, are you opinions on this?

And if going to the 6600GT is a good idea, any opinions of which one, especially from this list:

MSI, XFX, Leadtek.

Thanks for your time!

Mutley.

[Mutley]

No one got any thoughts?

Mut.

[[DW]Cougho]

great card the 6600gt, in many ways ideally suited to your setup.

Ive heard good things about the X800GTO too, so you might want to look at that.

But otherwise 6600GT = win.

[schmunk]

Possibly a 6800 (or LE or GT)?

Similar sort of performance to 6600GT stock, with the possibility of unlocking pipes...

[Applecrusher]

Ive heard good things about the X800GTO too, so you might want to look at that.

Hes on an AGP system no GT/GTO for us

but yeah, the 6600GT is a great upgrade from the 9600 I just did it myself!!

[Mutley]

Yeah I read about the X800GTO and I was all over that....until I saw it was PCI-E only! Ah well.

So, my setup wouldn't be too much of a bottleneck for the card then?

Thanks for the feedback peeps.

Anyone wanna buy a 9600XT, with a Arctic Cooler on top...?

Mut.

[Ady168uk]

Hey Mut, how much for 9600xt?

[menthel]

Take this elsewhere! For example, the for sale forum.

[Mutley]

Good point. It was a (partly) flippant remark!

[[DW]Cougho]

doh didnt know the X800GTO was pci-e only. Serves me right for not checking.

/slaps myself.

[Mutley]

I'm getting really confused about the number of different Geforce cards there are around.

Can anyone explain to me the difference between the 6800, 6800GT, 6800XT (and even the 6800NU)?

And where do they sit in relation to the 6600s? Some of the 6800s are cheaper than the 6600s - are they worth getting?

[andrewuk]

doh didnt know the X800GTO was pci-e only. Serves me right for not checking.

/slaps myself.

It isn't, the AGP versions are just very hard to find that's all! I believe Sapphire and GeCube are the only manufacturers making AGP versions of these cards. Beware they are physically enormous due to the AGP bridge chip so it may be a problem if you have an SFF machine

http://www.lowestonweb.com/products/...5-27A1D4222D9E

[Mutley]

I just ordered the LeadTek 6600GT. Thanks for everyone's feedback.

Mut.

[Mutley]

I just ordered the LeadTek 6600GT from Scan. Hopefully arrive early next week..!

Thanks for everyone's feedback.