New Graphics Card

[Rondog]

Im looking at updating my video card. (LoL, ive had my computer for 2 months). I am not biased to either nVidia or ATi, im currently using a Radeon but, ive seen good things of nVidias, particularly 6600GT's. Bear in mind, im on a high-schools students budget.

Is a PCI-Express compatible with a AGP port and vice-versa?

Im using a Giga-Byte Socket754. So unless you know of a socket 754 with PCI-Express, I will be going with a AGP. Is it worth going to PCI-Express as yet?

Opinions and comments?

[sasrob]

not really u could go for the 9npa+ultra wich is a 939 socket with pci-e but it's really is no put in just buying a 754 socket with pci-e!!

[Rondog]

I already own a socket 754. Thats why I only want to update my motherboard if its absolutely necessary. OK then. AGP graphics cards?

[dsio]

stick with your existing mobo and go a 6600 or a 6200. the 6200 isnt the joke that the 5200 was, its more like the Geforce 4 TI4200 compared to a TI4600 rather than the 5200, which was like a MX440 compared to a TI4600.

Dont discount the 6200, its a full featured card with alot of grunt for a budget item. Highly recommended.

[Rondog]

Im happy with anything up to about $700. So what other thoughts do you have? Or are you strictly a nVidia man?

[dsio]

until the X800XL comes out i think Nvidia is the only way to go short of the X800XTs.

X300 is garbage compared the the 6200
X600 is garbage compared to the 6600
X700 is better but still cant compete with 6600s
X800 Pros are overpriced and slower than 6800GTs
X800XTs are good.
X850s are better.
X800XLs are awesome value high end cards. but until you can get an XL on the street, ATI isnt a good value buy.

9800Pro is still good of course, but current gen ATI is trash until you get to the 16 pipe area.

[sasrob]

go for the xfx 6800gt very good card plus u should have a 400w power supply to run the high graphics card the 6800gt needs a 3 pin and the 6800ultra needs 2x 3 pin but the pci-s use a black power thing. why not buy a 939 socket u can pick the amd64 3200 for around 100 in uk the 9npa-ultra was £95 here!

[GrahamGarside]

There are pci-e s754 boards, msi has one (K8N Neo3) but your better off sticking with agp for now and saving for an entire upgrade to 939 or whatever socket is out in the future than being stuck with socket 754

The agp version of the X800XL won't be as good a value as the pci-e version so with the 6800GT's coming down in price recently they are in my opinion the best option.

[sasrob]

you are not wrong there

[Rondog]

Or I could wait until the second quarter of this year and get a 512mb X950XT.

http://www.megagames.com/news/html/h...12mbcard.shtml

Im looking very seriously at a AGP 660GT OC Edition.

GrahamGarside: I dont really want to go to 939 just yet, as ive only had my 754 for 2 months. Im on a limited budget. So I only upgrade until my system wont run games at medium graphics. my 9600XT runs Doom3, most likely BF2 at medium graphics. And FarCry, KoTOR2, and BF1942 at maximum.

[GrahamGarside]

Exactly why I suggest not buying a newboard
you can always sell the 9600XT if you upgrade as well which should take some of the sting out of the cost

[dsio]

Originally Posted by Rondog

Or I could wait until the second quarter of this year and get a 512mb X950XT.

http://www.megagames.com/news/html/h...12mbcard.shtml

Im looking very seriously at a AGP 660GT OC Edition.

GrahamGarside: I dont really want to go to 939 just yet, as ive only had my 754 for 2 months. Im on a limited budget. So I only upgrade until my system wont run games at medium graphics. my 9600XT runs Doom3, most likely BF2 at medium graphics. And FarCry, KoTOR2, and BF1942 at maximum.

There is no X950XT and there is no reason to believe there ever will be. The card they released in texas was not an X950XT, it was an X850XTPE 512mb.

We saw what was claimed to be an X950 on an asian forum, which was a fake. Theres an thread about it here.

[Rondog]

Ohh, whoops. Yeah I may sell my 9600XT. But I wont be buying anything until I pay off my current system. It cost me $2016 and I still of $680, to my parents. That should take me about 5 months to pay off. Then i'll look at either a X850XT PE AGP version or, do 6800's have an AGP version?

[sasrob]

when i start to build my system i bye a part ever month start off with the high cost frist then works my way down to the cheapest!!!!!

[Pitch]

There will be a X850 AGP version. The 6800 is AGP anyway.

[mashakos]

I had a 9600XT as well, and upgraded to an XFX 6800GT. After a few months of owning it, I realised there were very few games being released that really needed a 6800GT and I wasn't dissatisfied with my older card's performance on current games. The result is I'm able to play recently released games like Doom 3 and half life at great quality but am not satisfied as that's not the reason I bought the card. Now I don't even have the energy to fix the driver quirks I keep running into on my PC!
I bought a 6800GT in anticipation of newer, better games. I would have been a lot more satisfied if I stuck wth my old 9600XT until it could not play any future releases even on the lowest quality, then went for a new card.

My advice would be to wait for some games you think would really need the latest gfx card like S.T.A.L.K.ER, save up in the meantime and see what happens with the hardware market while you wait. Prices are going haywire nowadays, getting what would be considered a bargain today might turn out to be a bad investment.

[sasrob]

if i was u look on ebay u can pick this up cheaper there some r new too......

[GrahamGarside]

Be careful on ebay though, it's very common for items to go for more than the retail price, especially once ostage is added on

[Rondog]

Pitch: X850 AGP has been released (Asus, I think). I will be going for an Asus or Giga-Byte regardless. Well, thank you all, you have given me plenty to think about. I will wait until my 9600XT stops running games, with respectable FPS. Then update, in the mean time, buy a phone and save for a new card. Thanks guys.

[GrahamGarside]

good choice, probably worth waiting until ATI support SM3