Graphics card upgrade ???

[jeggsy]

Bit of a question for you guys.....

Currently running an Asus 9999 Geforce 6800 256Mb AGP graphics card in a 3.00Ghz Athon XP system (Nforce2 chipset) with 1Gb RAM running Win XP sp2.

Had this graphics card for about a 1-1.5 years now and was wondering if it's worth upgrading it ???? I do play a few games like FS2004, TOCA 3 etc and use the PC for some Autocad and Inventor CAD drawings.

I have seen the ATI X1950 512Mb AGP and the Nvidia 7800 256Mb AGP cards about and it got me wondering.

One concern for me is that the newer cards need more power. I don't think my 350w power supply would be able enough for some of the newer cards.

Just to say I know that AGP is dead & PCIe is the way foward, but I want to give my system another 1-1.5 years before I get a whole new system for Vista once thats been about and sorted.

Many thanks for any help.
Jeggsy.

[hinch]

hi jeggsy,

you have a very simlar system to mine and indeed i have a 350w power supply also. i just upgraded from an Nvidia 5500 to a 7600gs (which i can overclock at the click of a button) and i am super happy with it, i can pump the settings on flight sim as high as i want and it won't let me down (providing the aircraft doesn't require processsing...that gets me, but graphics wise ; top notch. i play Il-2 a lot also and that looks pretty smooth (literally with 8x Anti-aliasing always set) and spellforce looks pretty neat too.

i don't know if getting a 512mb card will make much difference...apparently it's all about pixel pipelines. the more the merrior and a big clock speed to push them all through is what it's about.

i wouldn't know really, but that's my experience!

[Charlie Bravo]

Do you know what make your power supply is? If it's a cheap one then you will more than likely require a new PSU but if it's something like an Antec then you may well get away with it.

[TSR2]

I recently got a Tagan power supply from scan and its is one of the best things I have ever bought... more attachments than you could shake a stick at, velcrow cable ties, 3 6pin PCIe connectors, 11 sata power connectors, 3 standard power conectors (and 6 attachments to convert the SATA to standard) all the big cables (the PCie's and ATX's) are screened, really professional an quiet too. £58.00 plus vat for the 500W. Much cheaper than some of the other well known brands and the voltage tollerences are very tight. A very happy customer.

[Adrian Wainer]

Bit of a question for you guys.....

Currently running an Asus 9999 Geforce 6800 256Mb AGP graphics card in a 3.00Ghz Athon XP system (Nforce2 chipset) with 1Gb RAM running Win XP sp2.

Had this graphics card for about a 1-1.5 years now and was wondering if it's worth upgrading it ???? I do play a few games like FS2004, TOCA 3 etc and use the PC for some Autocad and Inventor CAD drawings.

I have seen the ATI X1950 512Mb AGP and the Nvidia 7800 256Mb AGP cards about and it got me wondering.

One concern for me is that the newer cards need more power. I don't think my 350w power supply would be able enough for some of the newer cards.

Just to say I know that AGP is dead & PCIe is the way foward, but I want to give my system another 1-1.5 years before I get a whole new system for Vista once thats been about and sorted.

Many thanks for any help.
Jeggsy.

Amongst other issues, you would have to checkout the combined power requirements of your installed components plus any additional load imposed by a more capable graphics card and your present PSU's ability to supply that load, NB many PSUs are incapable of supplying their quoted output. On the other hand if you can transfer your PSU to your future computer, I would go for a new large Wattage PSU, 650 to 700 Watts is a good figure to go for as that would provide you with a PSU that can support a future SLI or Crossfire dual graphics card instillation, above about 700 Watts the price climbs rapidly.

The ATI based X1950 is a better card than the Nvidia 7800

http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/Sap ... /index.php

As for AGP versus PCI Express. Whilst PCI Express has a higher bandwith 16 as opposed AGP's 8, I would have a feeling that untill one gets to the performance level of the new 8800 series that the extra bandwith of PCI Express is not actually utilized by the graphics card. Furthermore it might interest you to know that some motherboards that have a PCI Express slot 16x slot, can actually only communicate with the graphics card at 8x [ the same as AGP ], whilst numerous motherboards with two PCI Express 16x slots are restricted to operateing the two graphics cards at 8x each when they are combined in SLI. Furthmore SLI can not support multiple monitors. So with all those issues in mind, if one has an otherwise high quality computer system but with a low performance graphics card, acquireing a new AGP card is a very reasonable option.

Best and Warm Regards
Adrian Wainer

[jeggsy]

Thanks all... Plenty for me to chew on there !!!

I'm not desperate for an upgrade yet, just thinking about it because if I'm honest the 6800 card I got is still pretty descent and does everything I need it to do.

Think I may sit tight for another few months yet and see what happens price wise. Entry level Geforce 8 series will be out, not probably for AGP, but might bring the price level down for the older cards like I'm after.

[ianhind]

Been out of the upgrading scene for a while now, but I recall that just adding a faster graphics card was not always the answer.

If the CPU cannot deliver the info, a faster GPU is going to be waiting around.

And since the future is probably going to be PCI-E, is there any point in upgrading with an expensive AGP card?


Edit:

not probably for AGP, but might bring the price level down for the older cards like I'm after

And that's not going to happen - so few of the newer AGP cards around that they get higher proces than the equivalent PCI-E on Ebay :sad: