What to get?

[El Gordo]

I've got a 9800pro 256 that's starting to show it's age a little. I can't afford to upgrade the whole system right now so I'm staying AGP for a while. I've a 3200XP on a DFI Lanparty A and 2Gb of Crucial Ballistix.

I'd like to keep the noise and heat down so a Arctic Cooling fan will be added to whatever I get. I've narrowed it down to:

A Radeon X800 XL or GeForce 6800 GT both are 256Mb and there seems to be very little between the 2.

The third option is a 6800 Ultra but that will mean really pushing my luck money wise. Is it really worth the extra over the other 2?

Like everyone else I'm looking for a card that will handle the usual games at a fair clip but also be able to do STALKER justice. So what would you choose?

[[DW]Cougho]

6800gt. Should clock to ultra and beyond very easily, should be slightly faster than the XL plus have the benefit of Shader Mark 3 (which is now starting to come into effect)

[herulach]

Whats your budget? Youll thank yourself for stretching to a 7800

[jackvdbuk]

its called shader model and yes the 6800gt will/should be better... tbh you should just do what me and atmoic have done, and get a mobo for your CPU that has a PCI-e slot...

[ExceededGoku]

argh soo many nvidia fanboys on this forum, X1800... cheaper...... faster...... etc... (BTW this is relating to herulach's post- 6800GT is better price/performance/feature compared to X800)

[jackvdbuk]

only reason if i was in his shoes going for a mid range card, the sm3 would benifit games more... but im on 9800 and pro and upgradin to x1800 so im still gona be on the ATi bandwagon

[El Gordo]

Thanks for the quick replies guys

Well I'd rather stick as near to the £100 mark as I can but the Ultra is a shade under £150.

It'll be a year until I can afford to completly overhall everything so it's going to have to do till then. And from what I've been reading there's not THAT much of a difference in performance from the Ultra/GT to the 7800 on AGP. Plus the 6800's are now in the sweet spot for me.

[ExceededGoku]

basically el gordo I would just wait a few more months to see how prices change, theres no real need to upgrade at this point to be disappointed with another mid range card, best to wait until you can get something like an X1900 or an X1800 (check e-tailers today only offers and find a good deal).

[[DW]Cougho]

i disagree, i think the 6800gt will be a superb upgrade from a 9800. Afterall this was where the biggest performance jump between generations was (in modern times).

In general the 6800gt will be twice as fast as the 9800, probably more in modern games.

[ExceededGoku]

:S.... yes performance will be better.. but not enough to power the SM3 that it supports.....

[sawyen]

:S.... yes performance will be better.. but not enough to power the SM3 that it supports.....

Not exactly true, perhaps most of the time ATI users have been pampered by AA and AF.. 6800GT handles HDR and SM3.0 fine really.. you'd just have to sacrifice some eye candy like AA... in contrast, X800s will handle AA better, but then you'll lose nice bits in Oblivion, obviously..

[rainbow]

if u look at custom pc this month they tell on how the 9800 pro can still play most games and how it actually is better than some of the lower range new cards, so yes i would wait till the gd cards come down in price, plus u got the 256 mb version its really not that bad of a card and i personally wouldnt be upgrading to anything less than a 7800 or mayb the x 850 xt pe

[herulach]

argh soo many nvidia fanboys on this forum, X1800... cheaper...... faster...... etc... (BTW this is relating to herulach's post- 6800GT is better price/performance/feature compared to X800)

I'm not a fan boy at all, if you can fit an X1800 in an agp slot then go ahead, i bet it wont work afterward Theres absolutely no debating the fact that the 7800 is the best agp card out at the moment, just edging out the X850XT.

[ExceededGoku]

okay fair enough... (i lost the battle but the war still goes on! )

[sawyen]

I'm not a fan boy at all, if you can fit an X1800 in an agp slot then go ahead, i bet it wont work afterward Theres absolutely no debating the fact that the 7800 is the best agp card out at the moment, just edging out the X850XT.

You'd be able to fit it somehow.. but it wont work..

*Im off dancing*