Need an experts helps

balkieb2002

Ok i'm finally getting around to updating my graphics card (needed to after playing oblivion ) and have a budget of around 200-250 (poss up to 300 if worth it)

Was looking around at a few cards on komplett but in truth i seem a bit lost as i haven't been really keeping up with the latest cards (my current card is a 9700pro )

Current specs are:
Amd 64 3200+ @2.2ghz
1024mb ram (i think its ddr400)
ati 9700pro
350w psu

I am a bit limited as i currently have no pci-e so it'll have to be agp. My motherboard is nForce2SPP/MCP/Ultra 400,ATX,USB2.0,LAN (http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=118267) , but i noticed that the motherboard needs to be agp 2.0 compliant. How do i know if mine is?

My current picks from what i saw are:

POINT OF VIEW GeForce 6800GS 256MB GDDR3, AGP, 350Mhz/1GHz
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=317265

POINT OF VIEW GeForce 6800GX 128MB DDR AGP8X, Tv-Out, DVI, Retail
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=313321

Sapphire Radeon X800GTO 256MB GDDR3, AGP8X, Tv-Out, DVI-I, Lite-Retail
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=318812

I just wanted someone with a bit more knowledge to give me their view on these or recommend a new one as its a bit to spend so i want the card to last.

8T8

I'm assuming you have an AthlonXP 3200 not an Athlon64 as they were never on the nForce 2 platform.

AGP severly limits your options but the 6800GS is about the best one to go for also no point throwing money at anything higher like the 7800GS if this will be your last AGP graphics card.

The AGP card will work fine in your motherboard no need to worry about that.


If you wanted to push it you could upgrade the entire system Athlon 64 CPU, mobo, 7600GT PCI-E graphics for around €400 from OcUK but with AMD's new socket AM2 just around the corner I'd hold off till thats out before switching to give yourself a CPU upgrade path in the future.

balkieb2002

Thanks for the reply, yeah the 6800gs seems to be the one i'll go for.

And no my processor is an athlon 64 (see attached pic) and that is the correct motherboard I have.

8T8

Weird, do me a favour and run CPU-Z then take a screenshot of it and post it here I'd like to know what kind of CPU it detects.

(Also it would be a good idea to install Windows XP Service Pack 2)

balkieb2002

Actually no need to. When i trying to find my motherboard i was using my past orders on komplett, but the board i thought it was is in a different pc. Mine is actually a nforce 3 (http://www.dealtime.co.uk/xPF-MicroStar_K8N_Neo_Platinum) <-- this one i think as i remember it now being MSI not Abit. (cheers for cpu-z as it gave me all the info i needed (told me board was agp3.0 compliaint!))

(And i hate the new features that service pack 2 brings so i stick with 1)

8T8

Yeah was I wondering there for a moment as it was impossible to have an Athlon 64 on an nForce 2 as they don't even have the same socket.

Even though you have a S754 CPU you can still get PCI-E motherboards for it.

Just €69 euro for this nForce 4 with this €204 7600GT it will be just as fast as if you bought the €250 6800GS in fact a touch faster in some games. Plus your system will have more life left in it so you can put off a further upgrade at least for a good while.

The only features of note in SP2 are a pop-up blocker for IE and an enhanced firewall both can be disabled. The vast majority of whats in SP2 are bug fixes for the operating system and closing security holes some of which are very nasty which you leave yourself open to, but hey it's your call.

balkieb2002

Yeah that was something i was actually thinking about as lots of good cheap cards for pci-e compared to agp and would also be upgrading for the future. The card seems fine as does the board except for one bit. I might be mistaked but there doesn't seem to be any ide only sata (i have one sata harddrive and one ide) so i'd need both. Other that seems like the best option for a only a bit more cost.