Another should I buy a X1800 XT thread

[2StepSteve]

Hi all,

I currently have a 6800GT, AMD64 +3400 754 socket.

Im wondering if its worth me buying a new mobo that has PCI E and get this Sapphire X1800 XT or not.

Would the difference justify the effort and money spent? Would my CPU bottleneck the card?

 

[2StepSteve]

it all depends........the 6800GT is no slouch......there will be a fair amount of cost involved.....and then comes the 'should I stretch to a 512MB version (or perhaps even a x1900xt)

what resolution are you likely to be gaming at ?

Thanks for the reply...

it will be at 1280 x 1024 id be playing at. My 6800GT fan is dieing at the mo and is overheating non stop. Was thinkin about gettin a new and better card but would need a new mobo for it aswell

 

[2StepSteve]

Depends what games you play if you play a lot of the older games like cs then the 1800xt won't show much difference as the game will be cpu limited if you planning on playing the newer games like oblivion then the 1800xt will make a bigger difference

Will be playin a mixture of old and new games.. UT2004, battlefield 2, oblivion, FS2004.. half life 2.. mostly FPS'ers

 

[2StepSteve]

Yeah somethings to think over... Thanks for input i'll sleep on it I think before rushing into it.

Think I have the upgrade bug

 

[2StepSteve]

It's not long since I was using almost the exact same setup.


It's definitely worth it for the moment. The Sapphire X1800XT is daylight robbery at £170 inc. VAT, and you can grab a Gigabyte GA-K8NE nForce4 motherboard for only £50. The performance increase would completely blow you away, take my word for it.


Don't worry about bottlenecking. The only thing that'll really be below optimal performance is benchmarks, games will run absolutely fine.

If you do think that your CPU is holding you back, though, it'll overclock to 2.6GHz (~3700+ equivalent) easily on stock air cooling.

Thats cool! Hmm im even more tempted now to go for it.. lol.. end up skint for the rest of the month though! But ah! If the jump in performance is what you say it is, think it might just be worth it. Just need to find a suitable mobo with SATA and RAID if possible as I have a lot of drives.. i'll get looking. I was gonna hold off and do a big upgrade nearer the end of this year, but I suppose theres still some life in my CPU yet to ditch it especially if I over clock it alittle.

Thats true Danny I could get an artic cooler and flog the 6800GT.

 

[2StepSteve]

Did u have a 6800GT Exsomnis? Lookin at some some benchs dunno.. the gain doesnt appear to be as much as i thought

 

[2StepSteve]

Well ive done it lol... gulp!

Went for the Abit NV8 Mobo and Sapphire X1800 XT.

I wasnt planning on going out much this month anyways lol. I'll sell my 6800GT make some ££ back.

Hope i'll like it!

Thanks for your help everyone

 

[2StepSteve]

haha did ya... I had to have a couple of drinks before pressing the authorise button

If anything this new mobo will let me overclock more so than this gigabyte board.

 

[2StepSteve]

Don't worry ive ordered the card! Hehe! I caved in last nite through peer pressure from this forum .

Just got an email saying it and the mobo have been shipped, yipee! Theres something magical about ordering PC parts and coming home from work to find a City Link box and bag

I think I should be ok with my CPU, gonna be OCing upto hopefully around +3700.