Gfx card died , need advice on replacement

[Tizz]

Hey all

Its a sad day, My 9800pro 128 card died this morning, using old gf2mx atm

In need of a card, going to build new pc next spring, so i dont need somin omg, just something to tie me over, and i dont have a pci-e mobo, so gota be agp.

SPEC::
cpu: P4 3.0
mobo: Abit Max3 IC7-G
ram: Corsair 1GB DDR XMS4000XL Platinum TwinX
sound: Creative soundblaster live 5.1

Budget:
£100 ish

Use pc for:
Gaming (play alot of games, mainly cs 1.6, but im liking the oblivion and hitman 4 atm - Photoshop work (im a designer) - 3D animation and rendering (not to much but i do some)

I've lookd at some, was thinkin 6800xt ? or X1600pro, there both around budget and seem faster than my 9800 but thats just on paper i guess . my pc is like 3 years old or somin scince i built it so i rly am out of the loop on the performance of each gfx card these days, so rly need your help.

Thanks for reading. Tizz

[scrandman]

6800GS if your budget will stretch, or an X800XL. Unfortunately your options are quite limited with AGP nowadays.

[Tizz]

Yeah so i've seen i had a look after i got over the shock of my pc not booting with it in, was soo shockd.

I no i got a overheating alarm yesterday during hitman4 playing, took the side of the case off and it was fine.. but today it booted then went blank screen.. monitor light went standbye, restarted and its just dead lol, rly guted cos i wanted it to last till i had enough money for full upgrade...

6800gs or x800xl u say hmm de hmm, me go have a lookski

Tizz

[Tizz]

hmm £160 odd, bit more than i want to spend considering im going to build a sli system next year, is there that much noticable difference between the 6800xt and the 6800gs, because the xt is only like £92 or somin?

[teachmech]

Big difference bewteen the two is the number of pipes GS 12, xt 8

ie for the same speed an xt is a third slower than a GS.

Memory speeds also differ GS 1000, xt 700

so again less performance.


For about £100 you could pick up a second hand 6800GT on ebay or a new 6600GT for about £110.

[Tizz]

Ahh didnt check the pipes , ta for pointing that out, same as my current dead (think its dead yet i refuse to beleave so yet) 9800

hmmm well this XT here has 1000mhz mem speed, same speeds as the GS, so just the damn drop in pipes.

LINK

hmm0r

[The Codfather]

You can pick up a 6800GT for about £50-£80 on eBay these days, that'd be a good choice I'd think.

[kalniel]

The 1600pro is really good value for money. It's not a top performer, but it's a good match for the rest of your system. Plays Oblivion ok (just not especially high settings). If you're looking for a tie-over card I'd recommend it.

[Tizz]

yeah thats what im thinkin , i rly dont wanna pay much more than £100 for one, i mean i plan on building a sli system next year that can handle stuff like a rat with gold and armor in its belly, but atm im just lookin for something that can run oblivion a little more smoother than my 9800 can.

I had no probs with the 9800, i'm a gameplay adict over looks, thats why i play cs over css; as cs is far beter gameplay...css dont even get me started. I've got no problem with toning down the looks of oblivion to get the game runing smooth as the gameplays cool anyway

So im thinkin about the 1600pro , 12 pipes, 512mb, fast core speed, not as fast memory is the only downside, i need to go find some reviews i think before i make a choice.

Tizz.

[Tizz]

i stretched and spent £150 including delivery for a Mr Radeon x850 Pro 256mb by sapphire.

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/105819/rb/20167087915

defo a big increase over my dead 9800pro 128, and i think worth the £50 more looking at various reviews etc, deffently last me untill 3/4 of 2007 when im ready to build a new system.

If anyones intrested i could post the sort of frame rate and image quality i get in oblivion, and other latest gfx hungry games, i should have the card by wed/thurs next week, but for now, thanks to the people who posted here, much love

Tizz.

[kalniel]

Well the pro is the ugly duckling of the 850 series, but it's still an improvement over your old card

[Tizz]

heh yeah would love a x850 xt, but never seen an AGP one, and the x850pro was the highest i could find, searched everywhere, Komplett, Ocuk, ,scan, ebuyer, Overclock, aria, Kustompcs , and some have a next to none AGP range now (sopose its to be expected)

The reason i made the decision was because i run games in 1024*768, and i dont mind turning things down if playability is improved, i never run more than 2AA due to distant things lookin a bit to blured and soft in the way that ur loosing detail, and prob run max of 8AF so, i dont rly need a beast, also couldnt aford to spend any more.

I was looking at the 7800Gs which i was lookin at is a whore for power as the last AGP cards from nividia all seemd to be, 2 power molex's :S craazzily hungry.

So yeah going on the review on hexus and other places, i decided to settle on it , at £150 its not to bad.. got ownd by the VAT again £30 or somin.. sigh

Tizz.

[kalniel]

All x850xt's are AGP - they don't exist in PCIe form. But yeah, they are old so stock is very limited.

VAT is painful, but not as painful as having a non-free health service

[Tizz]

ahh right didnt know they wasen't made in PCIe form , still had another look today as i got till tues to change my order before its sent, but even less AGP cards in stock lol.

Yeah you got a good point there, I watched a documentary on the US health service, was done by the guy who made "Supersize me", basicly lived of min wage (which was far lower than the current UK min wage but i dont know if food, bills etc are cheeper there as i've never been to the USA) for a month and then he injured his wrist and had this realy high bill just for seeing the doctor and having it bandaged, was quite shocking how much they charged him, something like $200 :S But the free clinics where just to busy and he needed to get it checkd over.

Nice thing was seeing the generosity from alot of people, like places set up that offer free furniture and house hold items and things like that.

[kalniel]

If you've got till tuesday then I can unleash my gag and say I think the 850pro is a pretty rubbish card, to be honest.

I think you'd be much better served with either the 1600pro or a 6800GS (AGP). The 6800GS is faster, and both can do SM3.0 which is very important for games like oblivion. The 850xt is faster than all of them (but can't do SM3.0). The 850pro is faster than the 1600 for HL2 type games, but not for more modern ones, and lack of SM3.0 is a pain, not to mention it's also slow for quake 4/doom 3 engined games.

[=TcQi=]

All x850xt's are AGP - they don't exist in PCIe form

Oh yes they do! - ATI 850XT PCIe

The Ati 850XT is indeed faster than the Pro (by some margin) but the 850 Pro still makes a big leap from the 9800pro and will provide you with more than enough grunt for 1024x.


I've had my x850 since this time last year - and I'm still thoroughly pleased with its performance!

You should check out these benchmarks Toms Hardware for more info.




=TcQi=