Plz help with gfx for AthlonXP 3200+

[Solowing]

Hi .
I know that agp is dead etc but i don't want to upgrade to pcie yet with the emature core2 mobos and the pcie 2 at the door . So i need something to get me through the next 12 months but i don't want to spend money for something that will be bottlenecked by my cpu (athlon XP 2500+ @ 2200 mhz). My 2 favorites are the 7600gs and the 7600gt. Would the gt be bottlenecked ? Should i go for the gs instead? Bear in mind that although i do overclock, i don't intend to voltmod .
Thx

 

[Cyber-Mav]

go for the gt. you will be chuffed.

 

[Solowing]

Thanks for answering . Are u sure it wont be bottlenecked by my cpu to gs performance levels? I usually play at 1280 res. I will have to buy something very soon (probably tommorow) as my 9800xt is dead, so please ocuk posters, share your wisdom .

 

[Cyber-Mav]

7600gt will be fine on your xp3200.

the card will be the bottleneck in most new games. and if you play at 1280x1024 with 8xAA and 16xAF then the card will deffo be wounded in the game.

remember there is no such thing as bottleneck. you can always slap on more quality features to bring the card down to its knees.

 

[Solowing]

8xAA is out of the question , what i am really interested is playable framerates. For example i want to be able to play nwn2 with the minimum slowdown possible. AA and AF are secondary to me, playability comes first. So if the gt offers similar playable framerates on my pc with a gs, there is little reason to give the extra cash for it.

 

[melbourne720]

I'm on a 2800 with a 6800GT (slightly slower than a 7600GS) and HL2 flies with no AA or AF. A 7600GT with a 3200 would be a great combination - make sure you also have plenty of decent RAM. At least 1GB of dual channel DDR running at 400MHz with tight timings will make a difference.