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Worth the upgrade??

StevieP

StevieP

StevieP

Soldato
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I currently have the following card on my Asrock 4CoreDual-VSTA motherboard:

Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (AGP) - Retail

My question is, is it worth "upgrading" to a similar card, only PCI-E as my board supports both AGP and PCI-E (albeit the PCI-E slot is only x4)??

At the moment the AGP cards are about £120 and the PCI-E ones are a bit cheaper!

Does anyone know how a PCI-E X1950 256MB card would compare to my current AGP one??

I'd like to do this while the AGP cards are a bit more sought after so I could possibly get a bit more for it and help future proof my set up for when I get a better mobo in the future!

Any opinions??

StevieP
 
I'd say probably the same, given that neither interface is maxed out by any technology currently available.

I'd think about selling your card and then putting a bit more with the money to get a 8800 GTS 320MB.
 
melbourne720 said:
I'd say probably the same, given that neither interface is maxed out by any technology currently available.

I'd think about selling your card and then putting a bit more with the money to get a 8800 GTS 320MB.
Click to expand...

Agreed completely.

One small issue is I have heard that the asrock doesn't work with the 8800 serues, I am not really sure on that though.
 
Apparently the x4 pci-e interface on the asrock 4coredual boards means that the equivalent cards are actually slower on the pci-e interface than on AGP !!

Unless you gonna make a big jump to x2900xt or 8800gts 340/640mb I really don't think it's worth it.

If you have spare agp/pci-e card you can use and not game for a few weeks, flog the x1950pro and see what happens when ati release their x2600xt (which will drive down prices of x1950's), and also nvidia are apparently going to make a price reduction on the 8800's very soon.

Sell.. make do with having a break from the PC for a while.. then buy a 8800 would be my best advice (wish I could take that advice as well lol)

Don't even consider the 8600 or 2600 though to replace the card you have. You will need at least an 8800gts 320 to make it worth while.

Matthew
 
StevieP said:
I'd like to do this while the AGP cards are a bit more sought after so I could possibly get a bit more for it and help future proof my set up for when I get a better mobo in the future!
Click to expand...
I can understand the sentiment. AGP is priced higher due to more limited stocks & people wanting to hold onto their AGP rigs by upgrading the GPU only. It may be that its not such a bad idea even if staying with the same card but going PCIE, especially if you will be changing to a PCIE only motherboard.
 
The bottom line is, I dont want to have to replace EVERYTHING next time I upgrade, so if I can get a PCI-E card with similar or better performance for not much money, on my next major upgrade I'll be able to get just a new mobo & memory and simply slot my PCI-E card in and away I go!
I'll get a nice boost from my 4300 C2D with a better overclocking board and the PCI-E jumping to x16!!

Question is, how much can I expect to get for my AGP X1950 Pro??
(also, is there much difference between the 512mb and 256mb PCI-E cards in relation to my 512mb AGP one??)

Thanks for all the feedback guys...

StevieP
 
there'll be little if any difference between 512MB and 256MB at low resolutions (under 1280x1024).
 
OK, but do we know how much,if at all, (gaming at either 1280x1024 or even 1024x768) performace will be impacted by my mobo PCI-E interface being x4 rather than x16??

StevieP
 
Apparently only by about 5% reduction in performance.

Flog the AGP version, and get the cheaper x1950xt :p only £105 now. That will go even better in your next motherboard as well :D

or.. as I said, sell the agp and wait a few weeks for the new releases and price cuts to nvidia stock, then check the best deals.

Matthew
 
I doubt I could do without for a few weeks!! :p

If I can get a decent price for my AGP card, is the PCI-E X1950 Pro/XT still the best card for around £100 or is there an Nvidia competitor??

StevieP
 
Your not gonna get a decent performing DX10 card for £100, so stick with the DX9 offering and get the x1950pro or the xt.

Personally I think the xt offers better value for money than the pro, although the cooler is said to be better on the pro (cooler and quieter).

In-game, the xt outperforms the pro by a significant margin it seems, meaning you can turn on more features and not loose as many frames :) Still for £90 the pro is sensational value for anything dx9.

I can't afford vista just yet (and I wouldn't want it until i get a better motherboard due to licensing), which means DX10 is completely pointless for me anyway lol.

EDIT: There is an Nvidia competitor... the 7900GS 512MB. But it only beats the x1950pro and xt in OpenGL games like Doom3. Anything Direct X based the pro/xt thrash it.

Matthew
 
Just a quick question.

Your only swapping to PCI-E so you can change to a better motherboard (PCI-E) later right?

If you weren't planning on doing that anytime soon, then I would say just stick with what you've got unless you get a decent price for the agp card, and can get the xt.

Matthew
 
Scougar said:
Just a quick question.

Your only swapping to PCI-E so you can change to a better motherboard (PCI-E) later right?

If you weren't planning on doing that anytime soon, then I would say just stick with what you've got unless you get a decent price for the agp card, and can get the xt.

Matthew
Click to expand...

Not sure when I'm gonna be able to afford the mobo upgrade but I thought I could try and take advantage of the high AGP prices now if I can get the same card on PCI-E!
If I wait, the AGP cards might dive in price and I'll end up HAVING to replace the card at the same time as the mobo & memory, making it a lot more expensive excercise!!!
 
Fair enough.. seems sensible to me :) Although a bit like the 939 socket, it may push the prices of AGP cards up with people trying to eek the last performance out of there systems (but then again dual 2600xt's on AGP will be out soon so perhaps your correct, and should sell now).

Matthew
 
Scougar said:
Flog the AGP version, and get the cheaper x1950xt :p only £105 now. That will go even better in your next motherboard as well :D
Click to expand...

Quoting myself here, but glad I ordered the x1950xt when I did. It's gone back up to £114 now, so that's a £24-25 difference in cost. If it had been that before I definately would have bought the £90 pro 512, but thankfully caught the deal at the right time :)

Matthew
 
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