Author Topic: Old Chestnut. Graphics Card Upgrade (Read 255 times)

FOGOLD · « **on:** August 27, 2003, 12:01:23 PM »

I'm planning a card upgrade soon for no good reason. Here is my spec, what's the opinion? I am aware that I will be processor limited especially in Quake based games and possibly AH so a 9800pro or 5900 Ultra may be expensive overkill except as a punt into a potential new machine. However I am more interested in giving this one another year or two.

This machine was top stuff in Nov 2001 and it's too soon for a complete upgrade. What pisses me off is that the mobo won't accept a T-Bred processor. Never mind.

It runs all current games flawlessly at the moment. No AA or AF though.

1800XP (Palomino)
MSIK7T266 Pro2 RU
512DDR
Geforce3 Ti500 30.82 Drivers
Audigy Player
XP Home Sp1
Coolermaster ACT 210 Alu case

NOT overclocked. I'm not a big fan. Stability is far more important.

Modas · « **Reply #1 on:** August 27, 2003, 12:31:02 PM »

My recommendation...

EPOX 8RDA3+ $110 US @ newegg.com
AMD XP2500 Barton - $85 US @ newegg
GF4 Ti4600 or 4800 - $120-$150 US (depending on mfgr)

For what you are going to spend on the 9700 pro alone (if you were to buy that) you can upgrade everything and have a smoking machine for at least a couple of years....

bloom25 · « **Reply #2 on:** August 27, 2003, 02:35:04 PM »

This is kind of a tough one. An 1800+ is still plenty fast, and a Radeon 9800 Pro would certainly perform better than a GeForce 3 Ti 500. The 9700 Pro would definately be a little bit bottlenecked with an 1800+ however.

If it were me, I'd probably just do the video card and if you do a full system upgrade within a year or two, move the 9800 Pro over to the new system.

A second option would be to go with a Radeon 9600 Pro (about $160 - $200), which your system should be able to run to its limits.

FOGOLD · « **Reply #3 on:** August 27, 2003, 03:18:36 PM »

Thanks bloom. Yes I suspect a mid-range card would be ok on this setup. There is real danger at the moment of people thinking a new budget card will be better than an older card which was higher up at the time. It aint so! A Geforce FX5200 isn't much faster than a Geforce2 GTS.

Thanks for the chat. It's really like you say, spend modestly and upgrade everything later or spend lots and punt the great card into a new machine up the line. Only prob is, by the time I buy a new 5 or 6 gig machine I'll want the latest card available at that time as an 9800pro will be old