Nvidia or Ati?

[D@nny]

Hello there, I have a 9250 ati radeon sapphire 256 mb agp graphics card. I bought it maybe 2 years ago for battlefield 2. After some ati2dvag.ddl errors and such I managed to play battlefield 2 on agp 4x settings. Oblivion has just came out and my graphics card wasn't on the supported list. Anyway I go and play Battlefield 2 and got a system device failure crash error. That was the last straw I need a video card upgrade. Im not sure to stick with ati or move on to nvidia which I hear is much better. Most of the ati cards like the 9700{PCI} and theres not that much selection 9500 9600 9700 and 9800 which I can't afford not even on Ebay. And I don't kno much about nvidia.

Bottom Line is what are some graphics cards I can get for a price range between 125-200 dollars thats agp. Preferably 256 mb . I'v been looking at the nvidia 6600 or 6500 but don't kno how to compare them to ati. I want a major upgrade not to go from 9250 to 9500 if I stuck with ATI. Any suggestions on a mediocre up to par graphics card in that price range?

 

[D@nny]

Oh Yeah im running windows media center with 2.8ghz P4 with 1gig ram. I don't kno about my power supply but im pretty sure that won't be a problem with a video card

 

[Akifuddin]

CRACK you got AGP? Oh well. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130264

One of the best AGP cards available for AGP. Actually, I think it's the 2nd best after the 7800GS.

 

[Jimbo420]

I believe the comporable ATI card would be soemthing like the x1300 for the 6600 Nvidia. to help you get a perspective.

The power supply is very important because most of these new cards need a lot more power then that one that you have now. Also anything like a 6600 or x1300 will have a power plug on the card that has to be plugged in otherwise the card will not work right.

 

[D@nny]

about this power supply what do you mean? Plugged in where? That card looks good man thanks I guess I can afford an extra 25 dollars over my limit
Or I can go for the 6700 agp cheaper. Thanks for the info -

 

[CrossFire851]

I would defently go with the 6800gs, unless you can hold this off and geta pcie board and save money so it will be a little more future proof.


I would really consider that option becuse pcie cards are better perfromance to price ratio and are ocationaly cheaper



:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:


Best of Luck...

 

[Akifuddin]

D@nny: Don't consider CrossFire851's idea because if you stay with your system longer, you can save up more and get a new socket system when it comes out and that'll be very good. The Geforce 6800GS AGP should be able to run Oblivion well. It has a good price/performance ratio. Keep that card until Conroe comes out. Then wait for a month or two so the major bugs get fixed and then take the longshot and buy a super system like:

Thermaltake Armor Full-tower case
Intel Conroe CPU
2 or 4GB Corsair XMS High-performance memory
New generation video cards in SLi/CrossFire or single card setup

That will be amazing. For AGP, most people prefer NVIDIA because of the higher clock speeds at a lower price. For PCI-e, people still prefer NVIDIA but the X1900XT(X) 512MB cards are amazing cards. They have amazing graphics and amazing speeds. At a high price of course. So right now, the plan is to keep everything you have, upgrade to a 6800GS, upgrade to 1GB if you don't already have, and save up like hell for the next few months until Conroe comes out and then you build the ultimate gaming system.

 

[MrGaribaldi]

I have to say I agree with the people saying you should go for the 6800GS. It will run both games with good performance, and make the limiting factor the cpu.

Akifuddin> I understand you're psyched for the Conroe, but I considering what D@nny is saying about his current setup, and upgrade budget, I don't think the complete systems-upgrade is a viable solution. So maybe leave those suggestions to those asking for those type of suggestions?

 

[Dennis_84]

D@nny, I am not against ATI but don't go with ATI, stick with nvidia. Their support is so much better than ATI. You get lifetime warranty on most nvidia card. and support is available 24/7 while ATI support is available only mon to fri, 9 am to 5 pm. I still have AGP and I am using 7800 GS. Before that I bought 6800 Gs and it was really good but when 7800 GS came out I returned 6800 GS and bought that one. So go ahead and buy 6800 GS or if you can spend hundred more dollars you get the best card for AGP available today- 7800 GS

 

[D@nny]

Yeah thank you akifuddin and everyone else for helping me make my decision. I will go for the nvidia 6800 gs. Luckily I just made 30 dollars last night playing poker so with 330 dollars I can definatly buy that video card and selling my own video card in the 40-60 dollar price range to get Oblivion. I researched this card and it seems to be the best bang for your buck card out there
Video Cards: GeForce 6800 GS GeForce 6800 GT Radeon X800 XL

Estimate price: $249 $279-$299 $279-$299

Core clock speed: 425MHz 350MHz 400MHz

Memory clock speed: 1.0GHz (500MHz DDR) 1.0GHz (500MHz DDR) 1.0GHz (500MHz DDR)

Amount of RAM: 256MB GDDR3 256MB GDDR3 256MB GDDR3

Pixel shader processors: 12 16 16

Vertex shader processors: 5 6 6

thaks to http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1882193,00.asp

I already have one gig ram i purchased. I'll tell you how it goes I guess i'll get it from newegg since that seams to be the cheapest offer. Thanks Again

-PS reading http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1882199,00.asp site about reviewing this card the con was
Cons: No AGP version yet. So is the one you linked to me an agp version card? Does the 6800 GS have compatibility with the AGP or is that the GT Oh i guess that one is AGP but what about the power connector does that mean I have to plug a power connector into the card or something?

After doing some more research I realized that the card needs a "Minimum of a 350 Watt power supply An available 4-pin Molex hard drive power dongle " Looking at sony vaio site my system specs under power requirments it said 295 watts max 100/120 volts 50/60hz So I guess I have to start looking for a diffrent card maybe the 6600 GS?

 

[MrGaribaldi]

I'm afraid that you're going to need a 350W PSU for the more powerful cards on the market... Powerconsumption has only been growing the last generations, so there aren't that may ways around it. (Aside from settling for a slower card)

If you take a look at newegg, you'll find 3 sunbeam psu's with 450W, two of them with decent ratings. Either of these should be fine for your system, and should fit your case (being standard ATX supplies).
And the price is within what you'll get from selling your current card

But since you're using a Vaio, would you mind posting which model? Then we can check for compatibility..

 

[D@nny]

I emailed vaio asking them if ATX (spl?) PSU are compatible with my computer. I havn't gotten a responce since last time I checked my email. PCV-RZ44G I looked at the system specs and I didn't say anything just that my Power Supply was a 295.4 Max thing heres what I found inside the case looking at my PSU SU. +5V------28A max +12v-------17A max +3.3 ----- 13A max -12v-----.2A Max AUX +5vb 1.8max +5v +3.3v Total 165 W max
No where does it talk about being ATX psu compatible but it probaly is. Crossfire recommended this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104953

Heres another one like that one except 4 dollars cheaper http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104952 But how do I kno if my mobo has 24 pins and not 20 for the PSU to fit. I was reading something about that in the reviews.

I'v found the video card im going to buy http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121196 Now i just need to convince my dad a PSU is important

 

[Akifuddin]

Yes, there's an AGP version of the 6800GS.