• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

6800GT To X1950 Pro - Is It Worth It?

Big Kev

Big Kev

Big Kev

Soldato
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
17,713
Location
Ashburton Grove
My pc is getting pretty old now, an Abit NF7-S, with a Barton 3000 at 2.2G and I've recently moved to 2G Geil Value.

The problem is with choppy performance in some games, so I'm wondering if it's worth bunging £125 on a Sapphire X1950 pro, will I see much of an upgrade from my XFX 6800GT or will my old components hold me back a fair bit, especially the cpu.

The problem is that I can't really afford £1000 to build a decent computer at the moment.

Cheers folks.
 
waso_dude said:
If you cna afford it throw in a x2 cpu and the 1950 and your sorted ;)
Click to expand...

I'd like to see you shoehorn an X2 into a socket A motherboard. ;)

Kev, I know the below option costs a bit more but it gives a lot more performance and upgradability for the cash plus you can use your existing Ram etc or even use your existing graphics card and upgrade to an X1950pro a little later if it is the graphics card holding you back. :)

Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £47.99
(£56.39) £47.99
(£56.39)
OcUK ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £61.99
(£72.84) £61.99
(£72.84)
Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA (Socket 775) PCI-Express/AGP DDR2 Motherboard £36.99
(£43.46) £36.99
(£43.46)
Sub Total : £146.97
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.25
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £27.16
Total : £182.38
 
i used t have a barton 2600 and thet bottlenecked my x800xl a bit that i had, so i think you coud see anm improvemnt but more than likely there will be some bottle necking going on.

dont think he can throw in an X2 cpu as he has barton core wich is socket a if memory serves me correctly.

i realy think it would be worth saving up a bit more and going c2dyou can build them pretty cheaply if you avoid the top end cpus and gfx cards.


i like the system above thrown in 2 gigs of pc 6400 ram at about £65 at the mo and you laughing.
 
If I got that rig, then I could keep PC3200, I've been out of the loop too long I think, I didn't realise those mobo's existed.

I'd also have to get a Vista X64 as well, which will push things up by another £65.

I was thinking that I might as well wait a few more months and then buy a better set up, just stick with what I've got for now.

Decisions, decisions.
 
You don't really need to get Vista x64 just because it is a 64bit compatible CPU, it will work perfectly well with XP although I don't know what sort of licence you have for your OS and if that is the reason you would change it. :)
 
Not to hijack but I have a 6800 Ultra, 2Gb RAM, 3800+ in a S939 AGP Mobo in my 2nd PC.

Will a X1950 Pro give me much of a boost, what about plugging in a X2 ?
 
semi-pro waster said:
You don't really need to get Vista x64 just because it is a 64bit compatible CPU, it will work perfectly well with XP although I don't know what sort of licence you have for your OS and if that is the reason you would change it. :)
Click to expand...

I only have Vista HP x32 OEM, serves me right for scrimping I suppose.:(
 
Chris C said:
Not to hijack but I have a 6800 Ultra, 2Gb RAM, 3800+ in a S939 AGP Mobo in my 2nd PC.

Will a X1950 Pro give me much of a boost, what about plugging in a X2 ?
Click to expand...

The X1950Pro is a huge improvement over a 6800Ultra & with a 3800+, the X1950Pro is a great choice. I would heartily recommend the upgrade.
 
Big Kev said:
My pc is getting pretty old now, an Abit NF7-S, with a Barton 3000 at 2.2G and I've recently moved to 2G Geil Value.

The problem is with choppy performance in some games, so I'm wondering if it's worth bunging £125 on a Sapphire X1950 pro, will I see much of an upgrade from my XFX 6800GT or will my old components hold me back a fair bit, especially the cpu.

The problem is that I can't really afford £1000 to build a decent computer at the moment.

Cheers folks.
Click to expand...

I actually think the X1950Pro would be a wise upgrade choice.
It is a far better GPU than the 6800GT & with the Barton 3000 i think you will have a good setup.

Have a look in this thread to help explain my reasoning....
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17772922

This chap was using a [email protected] - very similar performance to your stock processor. And went from a 7600gs overclocked to 480core and 900ram - roughly the same as your 6800GT & was well impressed with the increased performance he recieved, by simply upgrading to the X1950Pro.
 
I ordered one of these early this morning and it's in the post to me now. Very excited if im honest as it'll be replacing my X800GTO and I don't really have the money to upgrade my aging AGP based motherboard.

I also have 4gb of PC5300 RAM on it's way to replace my 1GB of PC2700. Should see an impressive change in performance in games :D......I hope.
 
Im amazed the AGP card is 80% more then the same card for PCI-e

Thats got to be a good enough reason to go with a cheap asrock board and conroe chip isnt it and get the pci-e one.

But to answer the question, I did a similar upgrade recently and the x1950pro is definetly noticably better. I dont think it'd be bottlenecked but like I said you should be upgrading to pci-e anyway
 
one word of warning, if getting an agp x1950pro make sure you get one with 521mb ram. it reduces the amount of times the agp bus is used virtual vram which makes a good difference.
 
silversurfer said:
Im amazed the AGP card is 80% more then the same card for PCI-e

Thats got to be a good enough reason to go with a cheap asrock board and conroe chip isnt it and get the pci-e one.

But to answer the question, I did a similar upgrade recently and the x1950pro is definetly noticably better. I dont think it'd be bottlenecked but like I said you should be upgrading to pci-e anyway
Click to expand...

The only problem with getting the Asrock is that I would still want to upgrade to a better mobo, graphics card and cpu in 6 months or so and would also have to fork out for another Vista OEM as well, so all in all, it makes more sense financially to get the X1950 pro 512mb now and probably lose £40 or 6 months time.
 
its now time to sell up your agp sorry but with pci stuff so cheap why pay a premium for inferior stuff.i had a similar type situ a year ago.
 
Not sure but the pro might consume less power.

Big Kev said:
it makes more sense financially to get the X1950 pro 512mb now and probably lose £40 or 6 months time.
Click to expand...


Ironically you might not be so badly off. If this card is one of the best available for AGP it might retain its price ok or even appreciate in value if production stops like whats happened with 3200xp cpus like :D
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom