Recommended upgrade for a Radeon 9600TX?

Takeshi_Kovacs

Basically i would just like to know what card i should upgrade from Radeon 9600TX, so that i can play newer games such as BF2 and such.
I actually have been doing a bit of reading here and elsewhere of similar threads, and most seem to advise PCI express cards, which i am fairly sure my current gfx card is not. This is my current setup http://www.knietzsch.com/computer/pc_index_md8008.htm , with the exception that i have upgraded the RAM to 1 gig.
Any help or advice would be great, thanks

<edit> after doing a bit more researching, i found out that my current card is AGP 8x. So i am just wondering what would be the best card i could get for a budget of 250 euro?

8T8

Your computer uses the AGP slot for graphics cards so PCI Express cards are out of the equation I'm afraid.

The options for AGP are also fairly limited as well so these are probably what I would recommend over the 9600XT.

budget (should be slightly faster):
ATI X1600 Pro €125

Better (should be a good deal faster)
NVIDIA 6800GS €235

A 7600GS in AGP form should be coming out very soon that will be faster than the X1600 Pro and be around the same price if the cost of the 6800GS is too high.

K.O.Kiki

You can buy AGP 7600GS's from the US; try Newegg or similar

Takeshi_Kovacs

Thanks for the heads up on the 6800 gs, I read a review on it and it looks very good, but on the same page was a link to a 7800gs (http://www.guru3d.com/article/content/319), which looks better again.. although i must check the prices and i might have to get a new psu..

OK i looked up prices for the 7800GS, and i am getting prices differences of around 50 euro, between the XFX branded 7800GS and the Point of View branded card. The only difference i see between the two is that the XFX card is overclocked higher than the Point of View card. So could i save myself 50 euro (and put it towards a new psu if need be..) and get something like rivatuner to overclock the card to the same level as the XFX. Or is there other differences such as better cooler?

8T8

Well you have to take a few factors into account with the 7800GS;

1) Generally the performance difference between the 7800GS and 6800GS isn't that great. In other words if you had a 6800GS it wouldn't be worth getting a 7800GS with your CPU (a 533Mhz FSB P4 clocked at 2.6Ghz) I doubt there is any difference in performance between the two.

2) The the 7800GS handles HDR lighting in games better than the 6800GS.

3) The 7800GS supports TrSS-AA which is transparency anti aliasing of alpha textures, it is an image quality enhancement think AA for chain link fences in games or floor gratings etc.

It's up to you whether you think those features are worth the extra 50 bucks.


That said I think you may be better off with a 7600GS when it comes out, your P4 2.6 isn't all that great of a CPU so may not make the most of the 7800GS. With the money you save you could get a 1GB RAM upgrade and that in combo with the 7600GS should net a nice improvement.

Anything better will require a new CPU and motherboard that supports PCI-Express.

TerrorFirmer

Takeshi_Kovacs wrote:

Basically i would just like to know what card i should upgrade from Radeon 9600TX, so that i can play newer games such as BF2 and such.

Primarly, you do know BF2 works quite well on the 9600Xt?

Are you an avid gamer or just casual? For about 180 in total you'd get an Ati X1600 and another 512mb ram - which in combination to your current setup would run any current game on high (ish) settings. Sure, its not really future proof but with dx10 around the corner, even if it is months away, I don't see a huge point in shelling out money for certain cards especially given your weak cpu already, if you're a big gamer you'll be forced to upgrade the mobo and cpu in awhile anyway for the next gen of games...that's when you can start thinking about true high end cards

TomCo

Off topic but, Im still not convinced that DX10 will bring such wide sweeping changes overnight. DX9 hardware still isn't a requirment for most games.

8T8

TomCo wrote:

Off topic but, Im still not convinced that DX10 will bring such wide sweeping changes overnight. DX9 hardware still isn't a requirment for most games.

Well the situation is a bit more complicated than that. At the moment it would be in a transition phase whereby you still have games like Star Wars: Empire At War that can switch off the shaders and run well enough on older hardware, same goes for some games based on ID's Software's Open GL engine.

On the other hand you have games built entirely on Direct-3D 9 like Oblivion where SM2.0 is the minimum and increasingly SM 3.0 is the preferred choice (like the forth coming Crysis or the current Age of Empire's III), this will only accelerate as both the Xbox 360 and PS3 are basically PC equivalent SM 3.0 renders and developers aren't going to waste time on older hardware after they become widespread.

Direct-X 10 (which contains Direct-3D 10 using shader model 4.0) basically makes life easier for the developers to extract more raw performance out of the GPU but DX9 SM 2/3.0 will still be an important platform for some time to come especially as all the major middle-ware licensed engines will be focusing heavily on Direct-3D 9 as the minimum required.

Direct-X 10's "popularity" certainly isn't something that will spread like wild fire but more a gradual adoption, plus the fact Intel's GMA X3000 is DX10 compliant will certainly help things along assuming it has the performance to back it up. But other factors come into play ATI and NVIDIA will need time to polish there drivers on this new API and it will take developers time to come to terms with it & make games even if it is easier on them so it will still be a fair while before DX10 becomes common place.

TerrorFirmer

TomCo wrote:

Off topic but, Im still not convinced that DX10 will bring such wide sweeping changes overnight. DX9 hardware still isn't a requirment for most games.

I agree, but what I was really saying is with a 2.6ghz cpu, hes pretty future limited anyway, so might as well buy a cheap enough card now, because with that cpu if, he's a gamer, he'll need a new computer soon enough, not to mention a 2.6 p4 would limit the use you could make of a high end series 7/x1800+ card...

I'm sure dx10 won't be an actual necessity for absolutely ages, but with the newest games probably needing 2.6ghz - if not more - as as absolute minimum, crysis for example, another upgrade won't be too far away...

Takeshi_Kovacs

Thanks for the replys lads...

Primarly, you do know BF2 works quite well on the 9600Xt?

Actually there is a small bit of confusion.. The card i have is a Medion branded 9600 TX not the 9600 XT that you are thinking about. I read somewhere that my card is more or less a 9500 with increased memory freq and such...

Are you an avid gamer or just casual? For about 180 in total you'd get an Ati X1600 and another 512mb ram - which in combination to your current setup would run any current game on high (ish) settings.

I wouldn't consider myself a hardcore gamer or anything like that.. i don't have enough time to be one .. But i do like games, and do like quality hardware to play them on. The game i play the most at the moment is Americas Army, and while it runs ok most of the time, it does struggle to get above 30 fps, and sometimes dips to 15 fps region... And to get FEAR playing, i pretty much had to lower all settings, and it still ran like a slideshow the odd time!. I don't think i'll be playing anything like Oblivion on this setup. I checked the psu just a while ago and its a Fortron 250 watt, so i'd say there would be serious stuttering and smoking if i plugged a 7800GS in to it...

I agree, but what I was really saying is with a 2.6ghz cpu, hes pretty future limited anyway, so might as well buy a cheap enough card now, because with that cpu if, he's a gamer, he'll need a new computer soon enough, not to mention a 2.6 p4 would limit the use you could make of a high end series 7/x1800+ card..

In the meantime since posting my original question, i've been looking into the idea of building my own pc, especially looking at sites such as http://tomshardware.co.uk/2006/06/12/your_diy_gaming_rig_for_720_uk/ . The idea of using a cheap enough processor such as the Pentium D805 and overclocking it to 4GHz with watercooling is very interesting (and a nice little project to keep me occupied..) And it seems to be a lot cheaper than buying from one of the major pc makers. I just wonder how much i could make from selling my current rig (maybe i could just make enough to get a high end like the ATi X1900 XT )

Does anyone have a good sites where i can look into self build pc more thoroughly?
Anyways, thanks agaoin for the sound advice...

K.O.Kiki

Takeshi_Kovacs wrote:

Does anyone have a good sites where i can look into self build pc more thoroughly?

No need - just post your requirements (i.e, monitor or not) & budget in Comp/Tech, and you'll get a dozen replies
Just remember it's basically like Lego.
Expensive Lego that you have to take care not to kill with ESD, but basically Lego

Takeshi_Kovacs

K.O.Kiki wrote:

No need - just post your requirements (i.e, monitor or not) & budget in Comp/Tech, and you'll get a dozen replies
Just remember it's basically like Lego.
Expensive Lego that you have to take care not to kill with ESD, but basically Lego

Thanks, i have been just reading through the tweaking/modding section of boards.ie, and there is a lot of reading there, so i will be lingering around there for a while