From 9700 Pro to Nvidia AGP card advice needed

[yy01]

Recently my 4+ years old Sapphire AIW 9700 Pro has shown sign of wear out and I have to replace the card. I don't want to spend too much on this as I plan to rebuilt my whole system 8-12 months later. Nevertheles I still hope that the new card will have at least some improvement over my 9700 Pro. I can do away with the TV viewing so that would not be a problem for my new card. Below is some details of my system and my requirements, I would appreciate any advice and recommendations.

PC Spec:
CPU - Intel Northwood P4 2.6C
Motherboard - Asus P4P800 SE
memory - 1 GB DDR Ram
PSU - Herolchi (Total output 407W, Peak output 475W, DC output +12V 15A average 18A peak)
OS - Windows XP Pro SP2

My gaming habit:
Not a frequent gamer but I do like graphics intensive 3D FPS, would hope to have a card that can play Farcry at 1280*1024 at everything max out at a decent frame rate(~30 FPS) (OK, may be I can do without AA and Aniso if that prove to be impossible with my budget)

My requirements:
Card type - Strictly AGP only. (up to AGP8X)
Card - Preferably Nvidia card as I have already tired of the Control centre in the new ATi driver, I still open to Ati suggestion though.
Heat - I don't want to spend time and money investing in a 3rd party cooling system just for the card so I would hope that the new card would not dissipate much more heat compare to my AIW 9700Pro.
Budget - I stay in Siagapore so I don't think any figure given here would make much sense to most of the readers here. But I have shop around and found some cards and I hope that you can comment on and give suggestion on other cards that should fit in the similar price range.

Cards that I have in minds(Price listed is in singapore dollar):
1) Nvidia FX5500 256mb Geforce 4. -- S$59
2) Nvidia FX6200 256mb Geforce 4. -- S$67
3) Nvidia XFX Geforce 6600GT/DDR3 (don't know about the ram size). -- S$99
4) Nvidia NX6600 128mb Geforce 4. -- S$125
5) Nvidia NX7300GT 256mb Geforce 4. -- S$135

Would the cards listed above perform better compare to 9700Pro?

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

The 7300GT is your best choice if it's GDDR3. The 6600GT will offer a slight performance improvement over the 9700PRO. Either will easily be able to play Far Cry at that resolution with all settings on maximum, provided you patch it up to the latest version.

 

[yy01]

Thanks a lot for your answer.
Can someone tell me what's the difference between the postfix of GT, GTX and GTS card in Nvidia naming convention? And postfix aside, is it true that the higher the numbering is, the more powerful the card?

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Numbering-wise, yes, it works that way i.e. an 8800GT is more powerful than an 8600GT. As far as the suffix is concerned, well that's still sketchy, because while an 8600GTS is more powerful than an 8600GT, the 8800GT is more powerful as the 8800GTS and almost rivals the more-powerful 8800GTX in performance. So it really boils down to the individual card you're considering.

 

[yy01]

Thanks again for your reply. After some thought, I decided to get a 6600GT. Will go get it this weekend and see how it fare against 9700 Pro.

 

[Viceroy]

u can get ur graphic card at the IT show which is held on singapore expo hall at hall 6 from 29/11 to 2/12..its much more cheaper dere..

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

The 6600GT is a good choice. However, Be sure to use the latest drivers and to patch Far Cry up to version 1.4, or else you'll get graphics corruptions.