Final video upgrade for my old system

T

The King of Pants

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jul 7, 2004
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I've got a 1.4 T-bird that sees some LAN action on the weekends sometimes; currently it has a Visiontek GF3 Ti500 in it.

With the 1.4 T-bird, 1 gig of pc2100, and a 4x AGP slot, what would be the best video card I could put in this thing without bottle-necking on the processor?
 
I like that 9600xt idea a Ti 4200,4400,4600,4800 would also be a good idea
 
Cool, i would have thought i'd be bottle-necked by my proc with a 9600xt, but if not, who's 9600 is the best bang for the buck?
 
9800se type2. Cheap, could be soft-modable. [/nuff said]

A ti4800 sounds good too. Depends on how much you want to spend.

~Adam
 
well, the better the vid card, the better the games will run. Its not like a 1.4GHz is choking it to death.
a 9800 will run faster and better than a 9600, it jus depends on how much you want to spend on a dead end system.

On another note, odds are quite well you could get a Tbred Athlon XP up and running on that board.
 
if i was you i would get the 9600XT and an athlon 2000 or sumthing. i believe they both run on the 266 FSB. ( 133 in BIOS)

EDIT: Athlon XP 2000+
 
Black Label said:
isnt 9600xt 8x agp, your board only supports 4x
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An 8X card will run on a 4X board...it just defaults down to the lower transfer rate.
 
Why not get a newer faster card like a 6800GT and be ready for your next system upgrade :)
 
I don't need a new system, i already have an A64 3200+ with a 6800GT and a gig of pc4000 ballistix, i just want to max out my old box. :) And this board actualy just about maxes out with the 1.4 T-Bird, even with the updated Bios, Which i flashed a while ago, the best you can put in here is a Pali 2100, which i never seem to see for sale.
 
Should I stick with the stock 9600xt or is there any real advantage to going with the 256Mb model? I know it's limited by the pipes but the price difference is negligible so I thought I’d ask.
 
The King of Pants said:
Should I stick with the stock 9600xt or is there any real advantage to going with the 256Mb model? I know it's limited by the pipes but the price difference is negligible so I thought I’d ask.
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Negligiable price difference may indicate inferior ram quality, defeating the point of having a lot of ram. I'd look more into the quality of the ram.
 
That's what i'd been able to gather from my reading but thanks for helping to confirm that for me. Got it down to a saphire or an Abit, ennie mennie minnie....
 
One last quick question and I’ll be out of your hair for now. Are there any major differences between the Sapphire and VisionTek 9600xt's? Been reading reviews and they seem very comparable, just haven't found any head to heads, so I thought I’d ask.
 
Why would you want to stop bottlenecking? At least your gpu could carry your cpu a bit in harsher games.

Besides SOMETHING is always a bottleneck, in this case it'd just be the cpu. If you get a gf 3 ti 200 your gpu would be a bottleneck.. I mean bottlenecking will happen regardless.

~Adam
 
CleanSlate said:
Why would you want to stop bottlenecking? At least your gpu could carry your cpu a bit in harsher games.

Besides SOMETHING is always a bottleneck, in this case it'd just be the cpu. If you get a gf 3 ti 200 your gpu would be a bottleneck.. I mean bottlenecking will happen regardless.

~Adam
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True, however the 6600GT is a very poor recommendation considering the PCI-E part hasn't even been released yet, let alone the AGP which will be out God only knows when.
 
diablo111 said:
True, however the 6600GT is a very poor recommendation considering the PCI-E part hasn't even been released yet, let alone the AGP which will be out God only knows when.
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I never recommended that, I recommended a 9800se -> 9800 mod

~Adam
 
CleanSlate said:
I never recommended that, I recommended a 9800se -> 9800 mod

~Adam
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Didn't say you did...my comment was about your comment on the 6600 gt comment (not made by you), while your comment defended the comment, my comment condemned the comment, so I quoted your comment (which defended) to contrast my comment (which condemned) on the comment of the 6600 gt being recommended in the previous comment. ;)
 
No I defended cpu bottlenecking, not the 6600gt ;) going from general to specific isn't how it works :D

~Adam
 
CleanSlate said:
No I defended cpu bottlenecking, not the 6600gt ;) going from general to specific isn't how it works :D

~Adam
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Touche...if anything this board keeps my sense of humor alive...

Anyway, to get back on topic...so what card have you decided on getting?
 
CleanSlate said:
Besides SOMETHING is always a bottleneck, in this case it'd just be the cpu.
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I agree

If he is gonna upgrade, might as well get something that can do DX9 like a 9600XT or a 9700/9800
 
diablo111 said:
Didn't say you did...my comment was about your comment on the 6600 gt comment (not made by you), while your comment defended the comment, my comment condemned the comment, so I quoted your comment (which defended) to contrast my comment (which condemned) on the comment of the 6600 gt being recommended in the previous comment. ;)
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no need to get so damned defensive. :p

I defend the comment of bottlenecking the system, and I refuse to say which side I defend!

Nah, I'm with Cleanslate, get a good card and don't worry about the bottleneck that much. The system will perform better with a 6800 Ultra than with a 9600 even if the 9600 is bottlenecked by the CPU.

Get what is in your price range, but don't get silly and actually get the $400 card. Anything under $250 would be a decent match, my preference is the $150-200 range. I'm a cheap bastard. Grab a 9800 or 5900 and have no worries at high res.
 
0ldman said:
no need to get so damned defensive. :p

I defend the comment of bottlenecking the system, and I refuse to say which side I defend!

Nah, I'm with Cleanslate, get a good card and don't worry about the bottleneck that much. The system will perform better with a 6800 Ultra than with a 9600 even if the 9600 is bottlenecked by the CPU.

Get what is in your price range, but don't get silly and actually get the $400 card. Anything under $250 would be a decent match, my preference is the $150-200 range. I'm a cheap bastard. Grab a 9800 or 5900 and have no worries at high res.
Click to expand...

<3 the oldman, habe mein babies?

This also matters if you want to upgrade or not later on (you will want to) so get the best you can so when you do upgrade you wont have to upgrade the GPU either...

~Adam
 
Back on Topic: How about a 9700Pro? It's better than a 9600XT but cheaper than the 9800Pro.
 
Hmm, aside from the performance boost are there any major advantages to going the 9700 route? Does it have the same DX9 features as the 9600xt? The price is right though.

also

Am I correct in thinking that aside form the orb-type cooler, the Sapphire 9800pro is pretty much a reference card?
 
if i were you id try finding a used 9800pro 128mb in the fs/ft section. i upgraded my old celeron [email protected] to a geforce fx 5600u and it gave me another year with that system
 
The King of Pants said:
Hmm, aside from the performance boost are there any major advantages to going the 9700 route? Does it have the same DX9 features as the 9600xt? The price is right though.

also

Am I correct in thinking that aside form the orb-type cooler, the Sapphire 9800pro is pretty much a reference card?
Click to expand...

For an average of 20-30 more than a 9600xt a 9700 pro is an excellent chioce. The performance is worth the extra money. Plus they can be had on ebay for about $140.
 
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