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AGP Graphic Choices

brianw2112

brianw2112

brianw2112

Associate
Joined
27 Dec 2005
Posts
8
I have a Radeon 128 Mb 9800se AIW agp that I would like to change for something a bit faster and with 256 Mb, I have narrowed it down to 2 or 3 cards. These are the HIS X800XL , Asus X850XT or the NVidia 6800GS. Any advice would be really appreciated in making the final choice. I know that the Nvidia supports SM3, but the ATI's don't. Does this mean I would not be able to play games that use SM3 using the ATI option, or that I will be able to play them but without all the bells and whistles?
 
Welcome to the forums. :)

Yes you will still be able to play those games, they will just not use SM3.0, why not wait for the 7800 GS AGP, much faster than the x850 XT PE as it will be between the 7800 GT, and the 7800 GTX in performance. :)

The 7800 GS is due in a few weeks if you can wait. :)
 
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Thanks for the advice. I might wait for the 7800GS, but price will come into it. The cards I looked at are all between £170-210 and I suspect that the 7800GS will be around the £300 mark (which is pushing it after Christmas!).
 
go for the asus x850xt out of the 3 you've narrowed it down to. I have and is a very good card, went from a 9800pro and is sooo much better. Got mine clocked to xt pe speeds with ease and goes further even on the stock cooler. xt pe's are almost £300 so can't see the 7800 being any cheaper but might be worth waiting to see if it drives some prices down but i wouldn't of thought so.
 
i would wait for the 7800gs or at least until u can find out how much they will cost.

in the mean time, why dont u try unlocking some pipelines on your 9800se AIW, if it works u might be able to get a free 9800pro AIW and get a little speed boost to tide u over :)
 
save your money, get a new motherboard etc then upgrade the graphics as I think the AGP cousins of our new PCI-E cards are more expensive
 
Mana said:
i would wait for the 7800gs or at least until u can find out how much they will cost.

in the mean time, why dont u try unlocking some pipelines on your 9800se AIW, if it works u might be able to get a free 9800pro AIW and get a little speed boost to tide u over :)
Click to expand...

Already unlocked the 4 pipes and then had to put it back the original 4 only due to problems with the PC sometime later (ie a few months with nothing untoward). Had varoius niggly problems later with occasional restarts and error messages with the ati2mtag and decided that maybe the card didn't like using the extra pipes. So I think I might go with the Asus X850XT and maybe some Arctic cooling.
 
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brianw2112 said:
So I think I might go with the Asus X850XT and maybe some Arctic cooling.
Click to expand...

Just a quick note, the fan on the Asus x850xt isn't too load, depending on other fans in system (water cooling and you'd hear it, lots of case fans and blends in) and can be adjusted in ati tool for spin up at different temps. If you did want to change the fan, then although the arctic cooler will mount on that card, the power connecters are different so you would have to mod the conneter to make it fit. Either that or you could go for a Zalman vga cooler instead.
Can't fault the card itself and for £209 it's your best bet.
 
dale1uk said:
Just a quick note, the fan on the Asus x850xt isn't too load, depending on other fans in system (water cooling and you'd hear it, lots of case fans and blends in) and can be adjusted in ati tool for spin up at different temps. If you did want to change the fan, then although the arctic cooler will mount on that card, the power connecters are different so you would have to mod the conneter to make it fit. Either that or you could go for a Zalman vga cooler instead.
Can't fault the card itself and for £209 it's your best bet.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice on the fan. I had read that the stock fan could be a bit loud and thought the Arctic would do, but the Zalman would be a good bet.
 
Only thing that puts me off the Zalman is that the stock cooler works in the same way as the arctic coolers by drawing the air in from inside the case and exhausting the hot air out of the case. Don't know how the Zalman would affect case temps as the air is just recirculated inside the case.
Best bet would be to just try the stock cooler and turn the speed down in ati tool. Mine is clocked to xt pe speeds and never goes over 63'c under load and thats with the fan spinning at 65% which isn't to loud and only happens when playing games so can't hear anything over my 5.1 anyways ;) at idle the fan spins at 35% and this keeps idle temps at 34'c and the fan nice and quite :D
 
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