budget DX9 AGP card ??

  • Thread starter Thread starter JonMaC
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JonMaC

OK apologies for cross-post - just need opinions & value all replies from
all groups...........

current spec : AMD 2500 Barton (o/c to 2210 Mhz), MSI KT6V mobo, 512Mb
PC2700 RAM, Geforec 4 Ti 4800

need DX9 AGP card for Battlefield2. Current runs fine for me HL2, Farcry,
CSSource etc @ 800x600 or 1024x768 - just need DX9 support now.
Don't want to spend a lot as now my setup will need upgrade soon (either to
P4 or Athlon 64 & prob PCiExpress & prob 6600/6800/X800 or equivalent PCIe).
Have heard 9800 Pro does'nt like KT600 mobo ?????

So have found :
Radeon 9700 Pro - UKP 79
Radeon 9800 Pro - UKP 90
mates 9600XT 256Mb - UKP 30-40

Mates card can be borrowed & trialled first no problem - your
thoughts/advice please.

thanks in advance JonMaC
 
It might be worth while just getting a 6600GT now, and find a an old Nforce
3 939 board later on, to save a little cash when proper ungrade time comes
along.

6200 AGP's look like good value for money, best entry level graphics
around(only have review experience) personally i have a 9600 pro OC'd along
with my 2600 sempron, also OC'd i downloaded the battlefield demo to test it
out, but i think the files corrupted, but i don't think my card will handle
it that well
 
JonMaC said:
OK apologies for cross-post - just need opinions & value all replies
from all groups...........

current spec : AMD 2500 Barton (o/c to 2210 Mhz), MSI KT6V mobo, 512Mb
PC2700 RAM, Geforec 4 Ti 4800

need DX9 AGP card for Battlefield2. Current runs fine for me HL2,
Farcry, CSSource etc @ 800x600 or 1024x768 - just need DX9 support
now. Don't want to spend a lot as now my setup will need upgrade soon
(either to P4 or Athlon 64 & prob PCiExpress & prob 6600/6800/X800 or
equivalent PCIe). Have heard 9800 Pro does'nt like KT600 mobo ?????

So have found :
Radeon 9700 Pro - UKP 79
Radeon 9800 Pro - UKP 90
Click to expand...

That one ^ and get the Hightech model with the arctic cooler (ICEQ) from
ebuyer for £82 + shipping. But do make sure your mobo supports "Universal
AGP 3.0" and not just 2.0, or you'll have to upgrade the rest of your
system earlier than planned, like I just did. ;-)


higgy.
 
Veritech said:
It might be worth while just getting a 6600GT now, and find a an old
Nforce 3 939 board later on, to save a little cash when proper ungrade
time comes along.

6200 AGP's look like good value for money, best entry level graphics
around(only have review experience) personally i have a 9600 pro OC'd
along with my 2600 sempron, also OC'd i downloaded the battlefield
demo to test it out, but i think the files corrupted, but i don't
think my card will handle it that well
Click to expand...

It actually runs quite well on an 8500LE at 800x600 - it's one of those
games that does actually seem to scale quite well (except for its shader
needs).


higgy.
 
Is AGP 3, 8x AGP?

higgy said:
That one ^ and get the Hightech model with the arctic cooler (ICEQ) from
ebuyer for £82 + shipping. But do make sure your mobo supports "Universal
AGP 3.0" and not just 2.0, or you'll have to upgrade the rest of your
system earlier than planned, like I just did. ;-)


higgy.
Click to expand...
 
JonMaC said:
OK apologies for cross-post - just need opinions & value all replies from
all groups........... So have found :
Radeon 9700 Pro - UKP 79
Radeon 9800 Pro - UKP 90
mates 9600XT 256Mb - UKP 30-40
Click to expand...

The 9800 Pro is the best performance wise. The 9700 Pro is a very close
second. The 9600XT is third, by about 30-35% lower 3D performance. At stock
speeds, the 9700 Pro is within 5-10% of the 9800 Pro. With modest clock/mem
upping it's basically the same. Of course, the 9800 Pro can usually be
tweaked to 9800XT clocks with no issues. But a 35 quid 9600XT is a good
deal, and isn't a bad performer. It's basically in the 5700 Ultra league. So
given that you will be doing a major upgrade soon, that's probably what I'd
go for under the circumstances.
 
JonMaC said:
OK apologies for cross-post - just need opinions & value all replies from
all groups...........

current spec : AMD 2500 Barton (o/c to 2210 Mhz), MSI KT6V mobo, 512Mb
PC2700 RAM, Geforec 4 Ti 4800

need DX9 AGP card for Battlefield2. Current runs fine for me HL2, Farcry,
CSSource etc @ 800x600 or 1024x768 - just need DX9 support now.
Don't want to spend a lot as now my setup will need upgrade soon (either to
P4 or Athlon 64 & prob PCiExpress & prob 6600/6800/X800 or equivalent PCIe).
Have heard 9800 Pro does'nt like KT600 mobo ?????

So have found :
Radeon 9700 Pro - UKP 79
Radeon 9800 Pro - UKP 90
mates 9600XT 256Mb - UKP 30-40

Mates card can be borrowed & trialled first no problem - your
thoughts/advice please.

thanks in advance JonMaC
Click to expand...

As others have said - for sub £100 the 9800 Pro cannot be beaten.
Between £100-£150 the 6600GT takes over.
 
JonMaC said:
OK apologies for cross-post - just need opinions & value all replies from
all groups...........

current spec : AMD 2500 Barton (o/c to 2210 Mhz), MSI KT6V mobo, 512Mb
PC2700 RAM, Geforec 4 Ti 4800

need DX9 AGP card for Battlefield2. Current runs fine for me HL2, Farcry,
CSSource etc @ 800x600 or 1024x768 - just need DX9 support now.
Don't want to spend a lot as now my setup will need upgrade soon (either
to P4 or Athlon 64 & prob PCiExpress & prob 6600/6800/X800 or equivalent
PCIe). Have heard 9800 Pro does'nt like KT600 mobo ?????

So have found :
Radeon 9700 Pro - UKP 79
Radeon 9800 Pro - UKP 90
mates 9600XT 256Mb - UKP 30-40

Mates card can be borrowed & trialled first no problem - your
thoughts/advice please.

thanks in advance JonMaC
Click to expand...
Thanks for advice all - confirmed what I thought really.
Will try the 9600XT tonight at a LAN event - if OK and cheap that should do
for the time being, if not ebuyer.co.uk it is for 9800 Pro.
cheers JonMaC
 
JonMaC said:
Thanks for advice all - confirmed what I thought really.
Will try the 9600XT tonight at a LAN event - if OK and cheap that should do
for the time being, if not ebuyer.co.uk it is for 9800 Pro.
cheers JonMaC
Click to expand...

A 9800 Pro is about 40% faster than a 9600XT - I strongly recommend the
9800 Pro as I had a 9600XT and it really isn't upto the latest games
whereas the 9800 Pro can do them fine all details on high at 1024x768
 
As others have said - for sub £100 the 9800 Pro cannot be beaten.
Between £100-£150 the 6600GT takes over.
Click to expand...

I thought the 9800 pro cost about £150. If I can get it for less than £100
I might as well buy one myself. Is it the proper version though, and where
do they sell them for that price?
 
Interesting Ian said:
I thought the 9800 pro cost about £150. If I can get it for less than
£100 I might as well buy one myself. Is it the proper version though,
and where do they sell them for that price?
Click to expand...

ebuyer.com have the Hightech IceQ version (has a powerful cooler for
overclocking or surviving heatwaves) for £82 + shipping. And yes, it's
the full specs. Sapphire & Connect3d versions can also be found for
similar prices.


higgy.
 
My advice save up for complete system upgrade. As few newer boards don't use
agp it's going pcie instead. An get on the pcie band wagon if you're gonna
game if not stay agp.
 
ebuyer.com have the Hightech IceQ version (has a powerful cooler for
overclocking or surviving heatwaves) for £82 + shipping. And yes, it's
the full specs. Sapphire & Connect3d versions can also be found for
similar prices.
Click to expand...

Plus, most new 9800pro's are R360 cores and as such can be flash
upgraded to 9800XT - which gave me about 25-30% performance increase
from the card(!!). Check it can run at XT speeds using ATITool before
you attempt a flash though...

Rich.
 
An get on the pcie band wagon if you're gonna
game if not stay agp.
Click to expand...

There's *plenty* of life left in AGP if you ask me, because most of the
graphics hard work is done between vid card memory and vid card processor
rather than vid card and system RAM/CPU. I cite the bollox talked about
the differences between AGP x2/4/8 as evidence for the defence.

Andrew McP
 
Interesting Ian said:
I thought the 9800 pro cost about £150.
Click to expand...

Yeah like a year ago.
If I can get it for less than £100
I might as well buy one myself. Is it the proper version though, and where
do they sell them for that price?
Click to expand...
Scan and Aria..around £85+VAT.
 
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