Gainward bring you a 512MB 7800 GT for AGP!!!!

[sOLId sPOnGe]

I'm hoping to upgrade soon to PCI-E, should be around August/September time. Is it worth upgrading to this from a Galaxy 6800 GT whilst I wait for my upgrade or not? I've got it running at 6800 Ultra speed.

 

[Bennah]

Do you do a lot of gaming? Also what res do you game at?

 

[pastymuncher]

There is actually a motherboard on skt 940 that has 2xPci-e x16 lanes. See here . Upgrading to Pci-e and getting something like that cheap XFX 7800gt would be a much better move or if anyone is thinking of building a newer system waiting for AM2 would be an even better move.

When i upgraded to pci-e, well Sli actually, on skt 754 it was an excellent move and i now have a sytem that hopefully will last me at least another 18 months hopefully a bit longer. Moving to Pci-e is a better bet with a much larger range of cards to choose from and you don't have to pay a premium for an agp card. Also don't forget that a Pci-e bridge that lets it run on agp will also sap some performance.

 

[sOLId sPOnGe]

Do you do a lot of gaming? Also what res do you game at?

Yeh I do a lot of gaming. 1280 x 1024 Max resolution my 17" TFT will go to
My PC contains A64 3000 with 1GB Corsair RAM. Doom 3, Quake 4, HL2 etc etc seem to run ok at this res. Can't remember the AA and AF settings though
I've also got FEAR but not actually played it yet so not sure how my card would handle that? Just wondering if it's worth upgrading to this or just wait and upgrade everything! Got a wedding to save for so can't afford to build a new PC yet. I'm very impatient though, feel like I need to upgrade something now

 

[sOLId sPOnGe]

There is actually a motherboard on skt 940 that has 2xPci-e x16 lanes. See here . Upgrading to Pci-e and getting something like that cheap XFX 7800gt would be a much better move or if anyone is thinking of building a newer system waiting for AM2 would be an even better move.

When i upgraded to pci-e, well Sli actually, on skt 754 it was an excellent move and i now have a sytem that hopefully will last me at least another 18 months hopefully a bit longer. Moving to Pci-e is a better bet with a much larger range of cards to choose from and you don't have to pay a premium for an agp card. Also don't forget that a Pci-e bridge that lets it run on agp will also sap some performance.

Yeh I was actually considering buying the Epox EP-8NPA-SLI (skt754). Then I could keep my CPU, sell my AGP card and get a 7800GT. Hmm not sure? It's more tempting to just wait and go Skt 939 so then I have the option to go dual core.

 

[Mr Paul]

Well to be honest I'd rather get a DFI NF4 SLI and a BFG 7900GT for £360, only £70 more and a damn site faster.

Its just not worth spendsing £282 on an AGP card now IMHO.

If it was around the £200 mark then maybe, but £280 not a chance in hell.

 

[ajgoodfellow]

There is actually a motherboard on skt 940 that has 2xPci-e x16 lanes. See here . Upgrading to Pci-e and getting something like that cheap XFX 7800gt would be a much better move or if anyone is thinking of building a newer system waiting for AM2 would be an even better move.

When i upgraded to pci-e, well Sli actually, on skt 754 it was an excellent move and i now have a sytem that hopefully will last me at least another 18 months hopefully a bit longer. Moving to Pci-e is a better bet with a much larger range of cards to choose from and you don't have to pay a premium for an agp card. Also don't forget that a Pci-e bridge that lets it run on agp will also sap some performance.

Yeah - I've looked at that previously. Thanks for looking it up though

Unfortunately it's really hard to get hold of and very expensive - only one or two places list it at £180 with no due date

 

[Cyber-Mav]

how much would it cost for a new cpu, a new board, new ram and a pci-e 7800gt 512mb card?

 

[easyrider]

how much would it cost for a new cpu, a new board, new ram and a pci-e 7800gt 512mb card?

It depends on:

what cpu?
what mobo
what ram
and what gfx card

why would you need new ram ?
if you already had a s939 chip or s754 chip

all that would be needed would be mobo and gfx which you could get for less than the card or only slightly more.

 

[Cyber-Mav]

thats the thing. for people who already have a socket 939 or 754 cpu this agp card makes no sense since the asrock dual sata board can be had for 45 quid.

since im a socket A user its gonna have to be an entire overhall. so wondering if for £280 if this card is the best option i have currently.

 

[ajgoodfellow]

how much would it cost for a new cpu, a new board, new ram and a pci-e 7800gt 512mb card?

To get something similar to mine:

Opteron 146 £150
Ram £100
Motherboard £100

GPU £250 (512MB 7800GT)

Total: £600

The 512MB 7800GT is expensive on PCI-E, only being £30 more so I'd probably get the 256MB XFX EE for £150+VAT if I were to go down this route

 

[Dave2150]

There is a PCI-E 7800GT for £149+vat, would offer the same performance (or more due to the AGP bridge), but without 512MB (which makes no difference currently)

512mb makes no difference?

Umm yes it does - many new games use 512mb if your running high resolutions - and newer games will obviously eat up more and more graphics card memory.

 

[Cyber-Mav]

yea i want 512mb ram on my new gfx card as a minimum.

looks like the pci-e route with a full overhaul is going to be expensive at over 600 quid for a decent spec.

guess 280 on this card would let my system hold out for about 2 years till quad core cpus are around.

still a little wobbly on this though.

if the card was priced at 250 inc vat then it would make the decision even more easier and i would snap it up in an instant.

guess i will wait and see if it ends up on the this week only specials.

 

[easyrider]

yea i want 512mb ram on my new gfx card as a minimum.

looks like the pci-e route with a full overhaul is going to be expensive at over 600 quid for a decent spec.

guess 280 on this card would let my system hold out for about 2 years till quad core cpus are around.

still a little wobbly on this though.

if the card was priced at 250 inc vat then it would make the decision even more easier and i would snap it up in an instant.

guess i will wait and see if it ends up on the this week only specials.

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) £83.95 £83.95
MB-120-AS Asus A8N5X nForce4 (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard
£49.95 £49.95
GX-026-GW Gainward BLISS GeForce 7800 GT "Goes Like Hell" 512MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GWGFFX7647) (GX-026-GW) 1
£209.95 £209.95
Subtotal £343.85
VAT £61.62
Total £413.72


128 quid more over the agp 7800 gt gets you this
You could use your existing ram and you have a mobo that will accomadate the next gen cards


after selling your socket a stuff the upgrade would cost you nothing

 

[Energize]

No games use up more than 256mb unless your running ultra settings which do nothing for graphics at all anyway.

 

[Cyber-Mav]

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) £83.95 £83.95
MB-120-AS Asus A8N5X nForce4 (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard
£49.95 £49.95
GX-026-GW Gainward BLISS GeForce 7800 GT "Goes Like Hell" 512MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GWGFFX7647) (GX-026-GW) 1
£209.95 £209.95
Subtotal £343.85
VAT £61.62
Total £413.72


128 quid more over the agp 7800 gt gets you this
You could use your existing ram and you have a mobo that will accomadate the next gen cards


after selling your socket a stuff the upgrade would cost you nothing

hmm i like your style of thinking. i guess i can wait a while and see how things turn out.

 

[Lanz]

guess 280 on this card would let my system hold out for about 2 years till quad core cpus are around.
.

You wont be happy with this card two years, DX10 comes out at the end of this year, chances are you'll want one of those for future games and Vista.

Your best bet is to keep what you have now, save up and get a new A64 on the new socket and a DX10 card.

But another option is a cheap S939 board, cheap CPU and cheapish (7600GT) graphics card that you can keep about 8 months and then get a dx10 card.

 

[easyrider]

You wont be happy with this card two years, DX10 comes out at the end of this year, chances are you'll want one of those for future games and Vista.

Your best bet is to keep what you have now, save up and get a new A64 on the new socket and a DX10 card.

But another option is a cheap S939 board, cheap CPU and cheapish (7600GT) graphics card that you can keep about 8 months and then get a dx10 card.

It will be ages before any games will support dx10 even if there are dx 10 cards about.This dx 10 is not a concern for people tbh.

why wait a full year maybe longer for an upgrade?
Its never a good time to upgrade.

A years quality gaming wasted to wait for a new technology? AM2 offers tiny performance increases over s939 and it will be pricey on release.

he can upgrade now and enjoy gaming rather than sticking with a sluggish system.This is the route to take IMO.

 

[Cyber-Mav]

ahh, thing is im gonna be pulling out of the pc gaming area and move to console gaming, only reason im after a new gfx card is because my 2nd pc is still running a ti4200 and its not that good for games like command and conquer generals etc. so was either thinking of getting a cheap card to replace the ti4200 or getting a better card than the one i have in my main pc and shifting my 6800nu over to the second pc.

one of the main reasons for an upgrade would be HD video content. currently my pc stutters in some hd video clips due to insufficient cpu power. and my nu has the crippled video processor. if i got the 7800 then it would have purevideo hardware acceleration and i would be in the clear.

just a tricky situation i guess.

 

[egt]

Oh dear, feel a bit sorry for all those who splashed out on the GS, if only they had known they could have had a GT for few quid more.

Why feel sorry for them? It's hardly a few quid more, is it? and they still got the best AGP card at the time too.

Do you feel a bit sorry for the x1800 buyers, also? seeing that the superior x1900 was released so shortly after , plus the great price offer here at OCUK