Nvidia price drop/buying new vid. card

[Ashrym]

I was wondering if there was a set date or a general time when the Nvidia cards were going to drop in price due to the 7900 series being released. I'm asking because I've been waiting it out to get a new video card forever and a day now. I have a P4 2.66 ghz with an Asus P4C800 Deluxe Mobo, and (drum roll please) an FX 5200 64 mb. Now, you should be feeling my pain right about now.

I want to squeeze more life out of my computer, considering I only go the CPU and mobo about 2 1/2 years ago or so. I was considering an AGP 6600 GT, 6800 GS, 7800 GS (if price drops). Also, if you think there are better equivalants for Ati, let me know. I'm not a Nvidia fanboy, but all more of my knowledge lies in Nvidia, due to the fact that I've always had Nvidia cards.

The main thing I need to know is if I should go ahead and upgrade (if so, what card) or wait for a decent price drop (if there is one anytime soon). I was also wanting to know which range of cards my CPU would start to bottleneck with. I was considering possibly getting a cheap PCI mobo that'd be compatible with my P4 and getting a 7900 GT.

Let me know what you think. I'd greatly appreciate any and all the information I can get. Thanks.

[BUFF]

I don't think that the 7900 release is going to have an effect on AGP pricing ...

[mike_w]

As said, I don't think that AGP prices are really going to fall. Also, anything higher than a 6600GT is probably going to be bottlenecked.

[mofo's]

Yeh on some models like for like on AGP is actually more expensive

Best off trying to pick one up from members market

[YorkieBen]

As said, I don't think that AGP prices are really going to fall. Also, anything higher than a 6600GT is probably going to be bottlenecked.

I dont think it will


I have an x800pro with a athlon 3000+


overclocking the x800pro made a huge difference to my framerates for BF2 and allow me to increase the resolution and the AA settings.

[mike_w]

Well, a P4 2.6 is roughly the same as what I have now, and my 6600GT is definately limited by my CPU - in recent games, I can ramp up the resolution and anti aliasing without getting hit too hard in terms of framerates.

[Ashrym]

Can I get someone in here that's is really knowledgeable on CPU bottlenecking to tell my what range of GPUs my P4 2.66ghz will bottleneck out. Also, how does the X800 GTO/GTO2 compare to the 6800 GS and other cards. I definitely want to unlock pipes and OC if possible. I heard something about the R420 and R480 GTO's OC much better than the R430 GTO's . Which X800GTOs should I watch out for, so I can unlock and overclock them. I was thinking about getting this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102608

If you read in the comments, though, one guy says something about not getting the R480 one, so he couldn't unlock and OC. Does anyone know if the model will OC just as good as any other X800 GTO/GTO2. I was also wondering the differences between the GTO and GTO 2.

Lastly, does anyone know of a good place to find AGP based ATI cards, such as: X800 GTO/GTO2 and X850XT? They seem fairly rare, and Newegg doesn't have a good selection, surprisingly.

[mike_w]

So far as I know, X800GTO and GTO2 are both PCI Express only cards. I've certainly never seen AGP versions begin sold.

[aidanjt]

The main reason why AGP cards with newer chips are more expensive than their PCIe cousains is the chips are designed for the PCIe bus, so in order to get them to work on AGP bus the board makers need to add PCIe->AGP bridges, which are a bit more expensive.

Not much can be done about it I'm afraid.

[Ashrym]

So far as I know, X800GTO and GTO2 are both PCI Express only cards. I've certainly never seen AGP versions begin sold.

Yes, they are infact sold in AGP form. Newegg sells a Sapphire AGP X800GTO for $165.

The main reason why AGP cards with newer chips are more expensive than their PCIe cousains is the chips are designed for the PCIe bus, so in order to get them to work on AGP bus the board makers need to add PCIe->AGP bridges, which are a bit more expensive.

Not much can be done about it I'm afraid.

I already realize why AGP is more expensive. Please try and answer some of my questions posted above.