best upgrade from 9800 pro 128

[deadlois]

I was looking into upgrading my vid card if there was going to be a decent improvement. I have seen other posts regarding the 6600gt, but would this be a good upgrade from my current card? I play BF2, various other FPS and want to get FEAR and I want to improve my current performance. I would like to keep it close to $150, but I would go up to the $200 price range if it would be leaps and bounds better. Also I was leaning toward SM3.0 support and noticed that a lot of the older to later model radeon dont support that. Thanks for the help.

 

[Sharkfood]

Actually, in most games- the upgrade from a 9800 Pro to a 6600GT would be minor... in fact somethings may perform a little worse. They are both 8-pipeline cards.. with the 6600GT supporting SM 3.0 in case you play Far Cry with the patch.

Tom's has some pretty good VGA benchmarks you can find at:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/07/05/vga_charts_vii/page4.html

These may prove helpful for considering your upgrade path. Be sure to check all the benchmarks though as you'll see both ATI and Nvidia have their own strengths and weaknesses.

 

[deadlois]

How about for bf2 I didnt see a benchmark for that, but I see what you mean on how certain games are better for one card or the other. My main concern was to replace my other computer's geforce 4 with the 9800 pro and put in an upgrade in my current comp with something that will be better than the 9800pro. In particular BF2 is what I mostly play, and games like FEAR(correct me if I am wrong) that use ID's Doom 3 engine benefit from geforce cards? I would like to keep it as close to $150 as possible due to wanting to upgrade later in the year to pci express.

 

[Federelli]

There's no upgrade you can do from a 9800 pro that would cost 150 bucks. For an upgrade you are looking at around 450 bucks for a true upgrade, such as an X1800, or a Geforce 7800 GT

 

[mailpup]

It appears to me that $150 gets you about the same performance you have already. It doesn't seem worth doing to me.

BTW, the end of the year is coming pretty fast. Did you mean 2006?

 

[deadlois]

so you are saying I might as well buy another 9800 pro used instead of getting a 6600 GT or x800gt if there is not an improvement by much? I thought there was something in the newer cards that was worth getting. I will probaly be getting a 7800gt when I upgrade to pciexpress though. And looking at benchmarks what is a good increase then, 20-30 fps or higher than that? I seen on some benches on Toms that were almost double my 9800 pro framrate(albeit in certain games) on the 6600gt and x800 pro.

oh yeah I meant '06

 

[mailpup]

Can't speak for anyone else but what I'm saying is for marginal or no improvement, why bother? The problem is the $150. Yes, there are better cards out there to get but not for $150. It might be better to save it and apply it towards your new mobo and graphics card.

Now, maybe you need another card to upgrade that older computer you mentioned. That's okay but $150 won't improve your other PC much (the one with the 9800 pro now). You'll have two PCs with similar performing graphics cards, that's all.

 

[deadlois]

thanx I'll probaly just get something to improve the other computer such as a 9600xt, (seen those for well under $100), btw I was looking in that price range cause I bought my 9800 on ebay a year ago for about $160.

 

[deadlois]

how about the vanilla 6800? or is that still not a big enough improvement

 

[swker98]

how about the vanilla 6800? or is that still not a big enough improvement

i think a very good upgrade would be a 6800gt or x800

 

[Sharkfood]

Some of the cheaper upgrades you could consider:
12-pipeline X800 GTO - $193
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102608

16-pipeline AIW X800 XT - $269 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102492

As you can see, upgrading from an 8-pipeline card up to something with noticeable improvement will be a bit over your price range.

I'd also say avoid 4-pipeline upgrades for your secondary system if you go that route. A 6600GT, X800GT or X700 (8 pipeline cards) would be the barebones minimum I'd recommend for gaming.