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6800 AGP to X1900XT PCI-E: Performance increase?

Draeger

Draeger

Draeger

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Picked up an ATI X1900XT PCI-E 512Mb card here in the MM.

About to perform a partial upgrade to my system.

It consists of a C2D E6300 which will be removed from my current Asrock mobo and dropped into something like an IP-35 ( Possibly one of the new "Value" IP-35's here for sale on OcUK ) or similar and overclocked to @3.0Ghz ( Running at 2.1Ghz at the mo because of mobo and memory limitations ).

Current graphics card is a 128Mb Leadtek A400TDH 6800 AGP.

Will also be adding 4Gb of DDR2 to it, was looking at this stuff:-

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-058-GL

So going by the above changes, am I likely to see a substantial increase in performance , particularly in games? I dont use high resolutions as I'm using a 19" widescreen TFT which maxes out at 1440x900.

Biggest change is going from the 128Mb 6800 AGP to 512Mb X1900XT PCI-E, a worthwhile upgrade?
Cheers.
 
Last edited:
Yes. :)

edit: a big increase, probably 2-3 times. Check out Toms comparison, as I don't think there are any reviews that would compare to very different cards.
 
willhub said:
It'll be an upgrade yea, but dont expect to be playing crysis on decent settings :p.
Click to expand...

Then again, who can play Crysis on decent settings?. :p

Depends what you mean by "decent".

The wee 6800 card played it pretty well at low-mid detail @1024x768, I was actually quite pleasantly surprised just how well ( albeit at that low res ) same went for BioShock.

Nah, just looking to play at lowish res but with detail ramped up a bit and extend the life of my system a bit further.
 
Draeger said:
Then again, who can play Crysis on decent settings?. :p

Depends what you mean by "decent".

The wee 6800 card played it pretty well at low-mid detail @1024x768, I was actually quite pleasantly surprised just how well ( albeit at that low res ) same went for BioShock.

Nah, just looking to play at lowish res but with detail ramped up a bit and extend the life of my system a bit further.
Click to expand...

I can play Crysis on decent settings at 1680x1050, like all high settings, or using a cfg that makes it look better than very high to me at least, Vista the cfg is abit choppy tho.

But as loadsa said your X1900 will destroy the 6800.
 
Good stuff!!!.

Guess I just want a bit of "reassurance" as the missus was moaning her head off at me buying more bits for the PC so soon after Xmas. :D

Got it at a good price in the MM so was hoping for an increase in power per buck.

Anyway, what sort of power am I looking at to keep it stable?.

I have a 550W Gold Q-Tec ( dont laugh!! ) unit in there just now and I havent checked the rails on it for ages as its just been dodging away working fine, will check the rails when I get home as I'm posting this from work.
 
More graphics memory and a much faster card, it'll be a very good performance increase, especially given that the CPU will be running much quicker.
Hardly a big deal that Crysis can't be maxed, given that it's a pretty average shooter. You'll still get medium-high details at 1440x900. :)

Edit: Please, for the love of God or Jesus, don't use that 550w Q-Tec with the X1900... :eek:
 
Don't even think about using that Q-Tec, get a new one, decent brand, your going to blow your whole rig with that death trap, it won't even power the x1900.
 
Yeah, been thinking about treating myself to a modular PSU for the upgrade anyway.

Will ditch the Q-Tec, don't want to risk frying anything.

So what do the X1900XT's need power wise then?.
 
A good brand 450w-550w would cut it, you just can't trust Q-tecs when they get close to the limits.
An overclocked CPU, 4gb memory and a decent GPU should not be trusted with a Q-tec.

With regards to the graphics boost, I wouldn't be surprised if it was 3 to 4 times the performance. Is your current 6800 a 12 pipeline model? The far better shader power, higher clock speed and more/faster memory would all add up. In modern games especially it will be a large boost.
 
It's unlocked to 16v6 pipelines via Riva Tuner, been running no problems like that for a while.

It's not overclocked though, never has been.
 
Well, I've already bought the X1900XT, but I'm glad at long last I'm making the switch over to PCI-E so at least that gives me more of an upgrade path than I have at the moment with AGP.

Now all I need to do is keep an eye on the MM for a decent C2D mobo to pop up on the horizon.
 
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