AGP8x VS PCI Express
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Akashio
- Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2001 6:46 pm
AGP8x VS PCI Express
Should I make the jump to a PCI Express video card or buy a top-of-the-line AGP Card?
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Scintilla
- (for EXTREME)
- Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 8:47 pm
- Status: Quo
- Location: New Jersey
- Contact:
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NeoQuixotic
- Master Procrastinator
- Joined: Tue May 01, 2001 7:30 pm
- Status: Lurking in the Ether
- Location: Minnesota
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The X700 Pro is a PCI-E card (also availabe in AGP) that is nearly as fast as the Radeon 9800XT. The X700 has 256mb of ram, but it is only a 128-bit memory interface. It costs about $180. Nvidia's 6600GT is about the same price with 128mb of ram and a 128-bit memory interface too. However, the X700 Pro is going to be faster by a little. Don't bother with a 9800XT since they are difficult to find now and will run about $280 or more.
I'm running on a MSI Radeon 9800 Pro with 128mb of ram and a 256-bit memory interface that I purchased for $180 online. Mine had a R360 core (the one the 9800XT uses) instead of the standard R350. That allowed me to flash the bios to an XT version, thus upping the core and memory speed and supposedly enabling additional shaders. However, I removed the heatsink on the GPU, cleaned off the factory thermal compound, and applied some artic silver 5. I also placed copper ramsinks on each memory chip. I ended up with a card faster than a X700 Pro, but still just a bit slower than a real 9800XT. I wouldn't recommend going this route because you have to be lucky to get a 9800 Pro with the R360 core. Just adding additional cooling to a X700 Pro and overclocking will suffice.
The next step is the X800XL for about $300 or the 6800GT for about $380. They both perform about the same, however certain games lean towards one card or the other. Basically the X800XL is a better deal. Here's a link to some PCI-E cards benchmarked.
And if you are really crazy you can buy a X850XTPE for $1000 or create a 6800GT SLI setup for about $750 (with a SLI motherboard of course). I wouldn't recommend a 6800 Ultra SLI setup since benchmarks show little improvent over a 6800GT SLI setup.
I personally would go with a X800XL since it is a great deal. And by going with PCI-E you can upgrade to the newest cards later. Choosing an AGP motherboard and card will probably leave you with little or no options for an upgrade years down the road. I hope this helped, it took me some time to put this post together.
I'm running on a MSI Radeon 9800 Pro with 128mb of ram and a 256-bit memory interface that I purchased for $180 online. Mine had a R360 core (the one the 9800XT uses) instead of the standard R350. That allowed me to flash the bios to an XT version, thus upping the core and memory speed and supposedly enabling additional shaders. However, I removed the heatsink on the GPU, cleaned off the factory thermal compound, and applied some artic silver 5. I also placed copper ramsinks on each memory chip. I ended up with a card faster than a X700 Pro, but still just a bit slower than a real 9800XT. I wouldn't recommend going this route because you have to be lucky to get a 9800 Pro with the R360 core. Just adding additional cooling to a X700 Pro and overclocking will suffice.
The next step is the X800XL for about $300 or the 6800GT for about $380. They both perform about the same, however certain games lean towards one card or the other. Basically the X800XL is a better deal. Here's a link to some PCI-E cards benchmarked.
And if you are really crazy you can buy a X850XTPE for $1000 or create a 6800GT SLI setup for about $750 (with a SLI motherboard of course). I wouldn't recommend a 6800 Ultra SLI setup since benchmarks show little improvent over a 6800GT SLI setup.
I personally would go with a X800XL since it is a great deal. And by going with PCI-E you can upgrade to the newest cards later. Choosing an AGP motherboard and card will probably leave you with little or no options for an upgrade years down the road. I hope this helped, it took me some time to put this post together.
Insert clever text/image here.
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bum
- 17747114553
- Joined: Sat Nov 08, 2003 9:56 pm
True that. I doubt any new motherboards have an agp slot. The slot's prety much ran out of time, sos tick with PCI-E. However in terms of performance, with the exception of SLI, performance gain will be minimal between an agp and pcie version of any two identical cards.anubisx00 wrote:I personally would go with a X800XL since it is a great deal. And by going with PCI-E you can upgrade to the newest cards later. Choosing an AGP motherboard and card will probably leave you with little or no options for an upgrade years down the road. I hope this helped, it took me some time to put this post together.