Upgrade from 9700Pro

  • Thread starter Thread starter SlicK
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SlicK

Hi

I currently have: -
9700Pro - 128mb
Amd 2400XP
512mb
4x AGP Mobo

Rather than move to a 9800pro, what would be the best card to upgrade to for
reasonable money?
I want to squeeze just a bit more from my current system before a full
rebuild.

thanks
 
" Rather than move to a 9800pro, what would be the best card to upgrade to
for reasonable money? I want to squeeze just a bit more from my current
system before a full rebuild. "


What motherboard and RAM do you have? Jumping from a 9700 Pro to a 9800 Pro
isn't worth it. You'd be better off getting a better CPU, before jumping to
one of the newer range of cards.
 
SlicK said:
Hi

I currently have: -
9700Pro - 128mb
Amd 2400XP
512mb
4x AGP Mobo

Rather than move to a 9800pro, what would be the best card to upgrade to
for
reasonable money?
I want to squeeze just a bit more from my current system before a full
rebuild.

thanks
Click to expand...

If you have a RAM slot free I'd upgrade another 512mb - games are getting
real memory hogs and it'd help to play Doom3, Far Cry and Half-Life2
smoother by reducing the disc access.
 
SlicK said:
Hi

I currently have: -
9700Pro - 128mb
Amd 2400XP
512mb
4x AGP Mobo

Rather than move to a 9800pro, what would be the best card to upgrade to
for
reasonable money?
I want to squeeze just a bit more from my current system before a full
rebuild.
Click to expand...

A 9800 Pro will yield only another 5-7% in terms of performance. The 9700
Pro is still an excellent card. Bumping up the RAM to 1024Kb is worthwhile
and will reduce game lag and slightly up performance. If your m/b can accept
the XP3200+ this would be the best upgrade. You can also overclock the
XP2400 to this level as well.
 
Thanks all

My mobo only takes upto a 2800.
I think I will up the add some more memory and change the processor.
 
Rather than move to a 9800pro, what would be the best card
to upgrade to for reasonable money?
Click to expand...

This year I splashed out for the first time in my life on a leading edge
card, an X800 Pro VIVO (successfully flashed to XT). The 9700Pro it
replaced was an excellent card (especially as I bought it for a good price
second hand) and to be honest "all" the X800Pro gives me is x4fsaa,
x8aniso at 1600x1200 in just about everything.

Which is worth every penny IMO, especially for flight sims. However the
9700Pro managed pretty well at 1280x1024, and was superb at 1024x768. In
many ways this upgrade was all about treating myself after working too
hard for a few years and certainly not about necessity.

Anyway, just thought I'd throw that in there. HL2 at 1600x1200 max detail
is gorgeous. But there's not a lot wrong with it 9700Pro, even now. That
generation of cards really seemed to cross a boundary in terms of
performance, and the only thing that brings it or the x800Pro to their
knees is the latest version of 3DMark... which is stunning, but hardly
applicable to today's games.

As someone else suggested, the first thing I'd do in your shoes is upgrade
to 1Gb RAM. It won't exactly help frame rates (though it will smooth
things nicely in some circumstances), but it will give your system a lot
more elbow room to work in. Things like reloading when you die happen much
quicker, and there's generally far less disk thrashing to contend with in
all circumstances.

Andrew McP
 
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