video card upgrade (agp)
 

Current PC specs: 3200+ 64 bit, 1GB PC3200, Geforce 6600GT AGP, xp
sp2. Playing Battlefield 2 is not a good experience as you can imagine
(I can play at 1024x768 but at low avg frame rates), and when Unreal
Tournament 3 comes out in Q3/4 I will need to upgrade anyway. I would
like to play BF2 and UT3 at reasonable resolution/framerate without
replacing my entire computer. Here is my plan..

Replace 6600GT with eVGA 256-A8-N506-AX Geforce 7800GS 256MB 256-bit
GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X.
Add 1GB PC3200.

Will this give me what I want?

With such a slow cpu, should I look into a passive cooled 7600? I feel
a 7800 may be better paired with a faster cpu (according to a few
benchmarks at least); thanks for your help.

video card upgrade (agp)
 

Tizano wrote:
Current PC specs: 3200+ 64 bit, 1GB PC3200, Geforce 6600GT AGP, xp
sp2. Playing Battlefield 2 is not a good experience as you can imagine
(I can play at 1024x768 but at low avg frame rates), and when Unreal
Tournament 3 comes out in Q3/4 I will need to upgrade anyway. I would
like to play BF2 and UT3 at reasonable resolution/framerate without
replacing my entire computer. Here is my plan..

Replace 6600GT with eVGA 256-A8-N506-AX Geforce 7800GS 256MB 256-bit
GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X.
Add 1GB PC3200.

Will this give me what I want?

With such a slow cpu, should I look into a passive cooled 7600? I feel
a 7800 may be better paired with a faster cpu (according to a few
benchmarks at least); thanks for your help.


You can get an S939 4000+ OEM for $66. There are also
dual core S939 processors still available. But you
can try your video upgrade first, and see if that is
sufficient or not.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103037

There are a couple new Nvidia offerings for AGP, 7950GT and
7900GS for AGP. The other two here, have been around for a while.
The 7800GS is probably less of a card than the X1950Pro AGP.

7950GT AGP
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150223

7900GS AGP
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150174

7800GS AGP (been out for a while)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143046

X1950Pro AGP (actually several flavors, been out for a while)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161070

If you are going to spend money on a video card upgrade, why
not get a good one ? Your 6600GT should not have been a slouch,
so to get a significant improvement, you should move upscale
a bit.

Here is another one. There is mention here of the card not
offering much speedup over a 6800GT, and the author of the
review used a 3.2GHz P4. So you could be right, that a 3200+
may not be enough to get all the possible benefit from
cards like this.

GECUBE HX195XTGA3-D3 Radeon X1950XT 256MB AGP8X
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814241049

That X1950XT has a Thermoelectric cooler (Peltier cooler),
which is really kinda overkill. Suggesting the X1950XT might
be just too much for the job.

http://www.gecube.com/products-detai...rod_id= 65116

The problem is, there aren't any large benchmark efforts, that
include both processor speed and video card types at the same
time. Video card benchmarks are usually done with the fastest
processor they can find. Which makes it hard to judge how much
of an improvement to expect with a lesser processor.

HTH,
Paul

video card upgrade (agp)
 

"Paul" wrote in message ...
Tizano wrote:
Current PC specs: 3200+ 64 bit, 1GB PC3200, Geforce 6600GT AGP, xp
sp2. Playing Battlefield 2 is not a good experience as you can imagine
(I can play at 1024x768 but at low avg frame rates), and when Unreal
Tournament 3 comes out in Q3/4 I will need to upgrade anyway. I would
like to play BF2 and UT3 at reasonable resolution/framerate without
replacing my entire computer. Here is my plan..

Replace 6600GT with eVGA 256-A8-N506-AX Geforce 7800GS 256MB 256-bit
GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X.
Add 1GB PC3200.

Will this give me what I want?

With such a slow cpu, should I look into a passive cooled 7600? I feel
a 7800 may be better paired with a faster cpu (according to a few
benchmarks at least); thanks for your help.


You can get an S939 4000+ OEM for $66. There are also
dual core S939 processors still available. But you
can try your video upgrade first, and see if that is
sufficient or not.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103037

There are a couple new Nvidia offerings for AGP, 7950GT and
7900GS for AGP. The other two here, have been around for a while.
The 7800GS is probably less of a card than the X1950Pro AGP.

7950GT AGP
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150223

7900GS AGP
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150174

7800GS AGP (been out for a while)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143046

X1950Pro AGP (actually several flavors, been out for a while)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161070

If you are going to spend money on a video card upgrade, why
not get a good one ? Your 6600GT should not have been a slouch,
so to get a significant improvement, you should move upscale
a bit.

Here is another one. There is mention here of the card not
offering much speedup over a 6800GT, and the author of the
review used a 3.2GHz P4. So you could be right, that a 3200+
may not be enough to get all the possible benefit from
cards like this.

GECUBE HX195XTGA3-D3 Radeon X1950XT 256MB AGP8X
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814241049

That X1950XT has a Thermoelectric cooler (Peltier cooler),
which is really kinda overkill. Suggesting the X1950XT might
be just too much for the job.

http://www.gecube.com/products-detai...rod_id= 65116

The problem is, there aren't any large benchmark efforts, that
include both processor speed and video card types at the same
time. Video card benchmarks are usually done with the fastest
processor they can find. Which makes it hard to judge how much
of an improvement to expect with a lesser processor.

HTH,
Paul

Speaking to the Unreal series in particular, you would do wise to get the
best processor you can. Historically the unreal engine responds much more
positively to upgrading your processor (and RAM) versus your video card. Not
to say a newer card won't help but the engine is quite good at creating a
bottleneck at the processor.
You really should consider the jump to a PCIe board and a dual core chip. I
used to run a setup very close to yours. I caught a nice dual core tower on
sale at Wal-Mart, paired it with a 7900GS and life is really good for under
$1000. The difference is really amazing.