Mid-Range Graphics cards...

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Out of interest, what's ATI's equivalent of the GeForce 6800 "AGP" series?

Are they the X800s?

Which one would be the better buy? Is it true that the X800s can unlock or something?

 

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some X800's can unlock to an X850 (ie 16 pipes) but this generally voids your warranty.

Will these be a huge step-up to the AGP FX5700 LE? The FX were pretty shockingly bad cards in my opinion.

 

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For AGP, what would be a worthy upgrade from an FX5700LE with a budge of say £100 in mind.... ?

 

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Yep AGp is a bit poo im afraid, cant say anythink apart from that sorry

OK.. ignoring the budget, what's the cheapest AGP card available on the market that's a worthy buy?

Glad to say that it's not me who's looking to upgrade an AGP.

 

[kbc]

to be honest, if your upgrading AGP, buying new is a bad idea as AGP cards cost a lot more and are bad value for money. picking up a good second hand AGP card from MM is your better option. i.e. X800GTO X850 PRO both have been seen for £80 to £120 on MM

Just checked it out, all snapped up it seems, would be a bargain to get one for £80! I think he may as well stick with his FX5700LE... it's rubbish I know... and I've suggested the only card worth upgrading to would be the X800s and the 6800s. But that's too much for him.

 

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yup, ive got an XFX 7600GT too. running at 650/1700 and scoring 7202 in 3d mark '05
great card

Are we talking about AGP here?

 

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Isn't this pci-e only though?

Don't the agp x800 gto's unlock, if not im sure that you can find a x800 or x850 on ebay for around your budget, cant fault them i'm using a x800xt pe and i get 7256 in 3dmark 05, not bad for a card that a year and quarter old.

sunlitsix, he has the "top-of-the-range" Socket A Sempron 3000+ running at 2GHz!!

Would be nice to get hold of those X800s, but they are snapped up so fast on auction, it's very difficult to get hold of!

Regarding the 9800 Pro... just looking at the graph below, he has a 17" TFT and plays at 1280x1024.... and wishes to play Source...

The Radeon 9800 Pro doesn't do too badly, but after checking their test setup we soon know why.... It's an AMD 64 4000+.

Will it be badly bottlenecked by the CPU, as it's a Barton chip. And from that graph, the bottom is the FX5700... the LE must be even worst!

 

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what about AGP 6800LE (i think its LE) i heard there unlockable and you can get AGP version as well i think

My 128MB Leadtek GeForce 6800LE went on auction recently and was sold, he wanted it cheaper! But the offer I received from someone else was far better than his. And he missed the opportunity to buy it from me. Now his FX5700LE is struggling.

So I'm kinda wondering would it improve things if the Sempron was overclocked to 2.2-2.4GHz from the 2GHz stock...?

 

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i think overclocking it would proberbly make a decent difference, but the performance is down to the other componants in the system, my athlon is clocked to FX-55 speeds (1040 hyper-transport frequency, 4X multiplier) and ever since getting 7600GT is seems monsterously faster, i think it was held back by X1600

His current system is the following:

Sempron 3000+ (2GHz) Socket A
ASRock K7VT4A PRO
1GB OCZ PC3200 RAM @ DDR333 Speeds
Palit GeForce FX5700 LE @ 290/440

Now if he can get a decent overclock on his Sempron, a better graphics card might provide for better gaming. I think it's down to the mainboard now.