Author Topic: Video card upgrade (Read 603 times)

Mister Fork · « **on:** December 13, 2006, 01:50:09 PM »

Hey guys,

I'm currently running a AGP 9700 Pro video card. I'm getting ok framerates but when it gets buzy, they're down to 10-20fps.

A buddy has a X700 Pro (256mb) but wants ~$70US for it. First, is the X700 Pro a good upgrade? I often see X1300's go for around $90US. I also know that they sell on ebay for around $50US + shipping = ~$70US.

thoughts?

Other stuff I'm running:
AMD 2500+
FSB: 333Mhz
1Gb DDR 333Mhz ram
Audigy 2ZS PCI

airspro · « **Reply #1 on:** December 13, 2006, 04:05:17 PM »

here

Another helpfull person give this link out a few days ago , sorry I forgot his name but TY .

You can compare cards here very easeily .

Mister Fork · « **Reply #2 on:** December 13, 2006, 05:18:39 PM »

Thanks Airspro:
CARD Core SPEED / Fill Rate/Memory Bus/Type/Speed/Bandwidth
ATI 9700 Pro: 350MHz 2600M/Texels/s 256bit DDR 310MHz 19.84GB/s
ATI X700 Pro: 420Mhz 3360M/Texels/s 128bit N/A 410MHz 13.2GB/s

Hmm. it seems to handle texels 22% better and the core speed is 17% better. But the memory bus is half the size, and it handles memory speed 33% slower.

Guess the question is, what makes the biggest performance gain? Memory or the fill rate-core speed?

Krusty · « **Reply #3 on:** December 14, 2006, 01:43:21 AM »

The X700 is a budget card, if I recall.

That being said, the X series is way better than the 9000 series. Look at the stats for the X800. Also even though the MHz might be similar, the chipset is more advanced and performs better at the same given speed.

Look for the X800 or X1600, those seem to be the better performing ATI cards.

eagl · « **Reply #4 on:** December 14, 2006, 05:11:23 AM »

If you decide to try out nvidia, you want at least a 6800GT (or 6800GS) or a 7600 card. Anything lower than that just won't do much for you.

Krusty · « **Reply #5 on:** December 14, 2006, 10:58:57 AM »

7600GT is one of the BEST combinations for performance, and it's cheap (compared to the 7800 and above). Far better than a 6000 series card, the GT performs right along with the 7800GS but at half the price.

38ruk · « **Reply #6 on:** December 16, 2006, 11:03:08 AM »

I had to do some digging to find a comparision , this is the best i can do . Now the test systems on the pci-e card machine is a 4000+ amd , and on the agp side is a 3.2 p4 . You can look at the same card that are pci-e and agp and kinda get a rought estimation on the difference in the test machines them selfs Doom3 is a good bench cause it is more graphic card dependant than cpu .

Look for the X700 pro and 6600GT here
http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/12/22/vga_charts_v/page7.html

Same test, different machine , agp , but with a 9700 pro . The 9700 is old enought thats its hard to find a comparision , but look at he 6600GT and the difference between the Pci-e and AGP versions of the same card

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/07/05/vga_charts_vii/page9.html

I'm going to say that you might see a 5-10 fps increase with the X700 pro. The other question i have is when are you planning to do a system upgrade ?

I hope this helps you , i know its not the easiest way to show performance of the two cards but with the generation gap between them its about all you can do . 38

Krusty · « **Reply #7 on:** December 16, 2006, 02:43:02 PM »

The x700 is like the GeForce 7300, it's a new chip, but so bare-bones and stripped down that it's a POS card. It's meant for budget, for folks that need to put a card (any card) in their PC, but don't need it to run anything more complex than spreadsheets.

Go with X800 or Ge7600 (or 7800 if you got the $$$)

38ruk · « **Reply #8 on:** December 16, 2006, 10:10:20 PM »

There's no one saying that the X700 pro is a great card krusty , the question was if it was an upgrade from a 9700 pro . I would not recommend that anyone who plays AH buy this card due to the better selection that is out there . Should he buy the X700 for 70 bucks from a buddy for 5-10 fps? I cant say, depends on what kinda money he wants to throw into an older athlon XP 2500+ system.

Bino · « **Reply #9 on:** December 18, 2006, 08:09:07 PM »

I recently got an AGP-slot version of the BFG 7800GS and I'm very happy with it. Cost about US $200 on Newegg and AH now consistantly reports triple-digit frame rates.

Asus P4C-800E Deluxe mobo (socket 478, Intel 875P chipset)
3.2 GHz Pentium 4
2 GB Corsair XMS RAM
Win XP SP2 (and all latest from MS Update)

Mister Fork · « **Reply #10 on:** December 18, 2006, 08:29:45 PM »

Hey guys,

Thanks so much for the comparisons Krusty, Eagl, 38ruk, and Bino. I think you're right Krusty and 38ruk - going from a 9700 Pro and a X700 is like going from a 2003 Mustang GT 5 speed, to a 2005 Mustang GT 5 speed. Slightly faster, but not really an upgrade. The Nvidia 6600GT, X1600, and other are much faster.

SOOOO, the good news.... WIFEY comes by... 'when are we going to upgrade our computer?' - I recently gave upgrade advice to her sister and best friend on purchasing DELL's. I'm going to hold off and buy a complete new system this new year.... wooooohooooo!

38ruk · « **Reply #11 on:** December 24, 2006, 12:32:31 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Mister Fork

SOOOO, the good news.... WIFEY comes by... 'when are we going to upgrade our computer?' - I recently gave upgrade advice to her sister and best friend on purchasing DELL's. I'm going to hold off and buy a complete new system this new year.... wooooohooooo!

From a VC upgrade to new machine , Can my wife hang around with yours for awhile , lol maybe i'll go from a surge protector upgrade to a new core duo ! WTG and have fun picking out a new box .

doc1kelley · « **Reply #12 on:** December 25, 2006, 09:08:08 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Bino
I recently got an AGP-slot version of the BFG 7800GS and I'm very happy with it. Cost about US $200 on Newegg and AH now consistantly reports triple-digit frame rates.

Asus P4C-800E Deluxe mobo (socket 478, Intel 875P chipset)
3.2 GHz Pentium 4
2 GB Corsair XMS RAM
Win XP SP2 (and all latest from MS Update)

If you're getting triple digit frame rates, you must have Vsync off and that is not good.

All the Best...
Jay
awDoc1

38ruk · « **Reply #13 on:** December 25, 2006, 10:16:28 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by doc1kelley
If you're getting triple digit frame rates, you must have Vsync off and that is not good.

All the Best...
Jay
awDoc1

Not necessarily, that setup is capible of triple digit numbers depending on video settings and refresh rates of the monitor . My setup runs triple digits most times, and my refresh rate can go as high as 120 @1280X1024 . For the most part most people would crank up the quality settings and Anti Aliasing if they have triple digit fps , others dont. Dont assume vsync is off ,some of us still have high refresh rate CRT's . BUT...... ofcourse he could have vsync OFF LOL . 38