7800GS vs 6800GS

[trenchtoaster]

Okay, so I planned on getting a:
eVGA 256-A8-N397-TX Geforce 6800GS 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail
For 225$, it has a 400mhz core clock, and a 1100mhz memory clock, and 400mhz RAMDAC

Now I stumbled upon a:
Verto GeForce 7800GS OC Video Card, 8x AGP, 256MB GDDR3
For 250$ after the instant rebates, the site doesn't give many pieces of detailed spec information, but the same card on tigerdirect.com shows it as having 1200mhz memory clock, 375mhz core memory, and dual 400mhz RAMDAC (I dont know what that is)

The 7800gs is a PNY brand, and I cant seem to find any benchmarks for it. Would it be in my best interest to buy the 7800 for an extra 25 bucks? I want the most bang for my money, and I want something to last for a year or more. Thanks in advance.

 

[dlantz]

That board you're seeing is a reference clocked one so you can find benchmarks for it all over. Is it worth $25 more? Probably but it depends how tight your budget is. Pretty decent performance bump, a newer feature set, etc. If your budget can handle a little more though I'd recommend holding out for a pci-e mobo and grabbing a 7900gt. Will last you a lot longer, be a lot more upgradeable when the time comes, and won't cost you too much more. Not costing much more is of course relative though. Upgrading an AGP at this point though isn't the best idea in the world.

 

[cleeve]

$250 is the highest amount of money I'd ever recommend spending on an AGP system. Any more and it's worth it to upgrade to PCI-express, because the PCIe videocards are so much better and cheaper.

...but at $250, a 7800 GS is better than a 6800 GS for sure. the 7800 GS is a 7800 GT stripped down from 20 to 16 pipelines, but a 6800 GS is a 6800 GT stripped down from 16 to 12 pipelines.

So the 7800 GS is much better. If you do want to save $$, get a 6800 GS, they have them as low as $175, so do more shopping.

 

[trenchtoaster]

Thanks guys, I looked around a bit and found a 6800GS for 179$.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1782292&Tab=2&NoMapp=0

It only has 350mhz core, and 1000mhz memory, compared to the 225$ eVGA which has 400mhz core, 1100mhz memory.


Can you guys recommend a cheapish motherboard? One problem is that my processory sort of sucks -CPU Type AMD Athlon XP, 1666 MHz (12.5 x 133) 2000+ (copied from Everest). Is that a socket A motherboard which means I cant upgrade to PCIe without a new processor? I really cant afford a new motherboard, a nice PCIe card, and a nice processor right now.

What do you think I should do?

 

[dlantz]

I think at that speed your CPU might be too much of a bottleneck for either GPU. I can't find any benchmarks with a CPU that slow for the cards though, so maybe someone else here can tell you.

 

[Guest]

What do you think I should do?

What is the current AGP card that you have and will be replacing?

If you're budget is $250 then it's $250 and get a new video card for that money. Regardless if your CPU is slow, a huge upgrade to a GFX card will make a huge difference in gaming, and the 7800GS is a kick a$$ card for AGP.

If you do have some more money to throw down, you could get an nForce 4 S939 board for less then $100, a low end S939 chip for $150, a midrange PCIe gfx card (say, a 7600GT) for $200, plus 1GB RAM (need the dual channel for S939!) for about $70 - that would mean tops a $550 investment.

Would it play games much better then just adding in a $250 gfx card? Probably...but can you spend $550 right now? If you got this AGP card now and used it for a year+, would you have the $$ then to put together a new machine? Probably a better option.

 

[Mach5Motorsport]

Thanks guys, I looked around a bit and found a 6800GS for 179$.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1782292&Tab=2&NoMapp=0

It only has 350mhz core, and 1000mhz memory, compared to the 225$ eVGA which has 400mhz core, 1100mhz memory.


Can you guys recommend a cheapish motherboard? One problem is that my processory sort of sucks -CPU Type AMD Athlon XP, 1666 MHz (12.5 x 133) 2000+ (copied from Everest). Is that a socket A motherboard which means I cant upgrade to PCIe without a new processor? I really cant afford a new motherboard, a nice PCIe card, and a nice processor right now.

What do you think I should do?

WOW! under $180 for a 6800GS AGP card and without the rebate gimmick! Yeah, the PNY is stock, but you can always tweak it later.

As for your CPU the news isn't great. Socket A is pretty much dead for upgrading to PCIe. I didn't see any current mobos for socket A listed. Since you have an older AMD chip, even the Semphrons will get you better performance and there are some cpu/mobo sales out there (754 socket and even some 939 semphrons). I don't know how much you woiuld plan to spend outside of a video card upgrade, but the board/chip upgrades can be done for $150.

 

[trenchtoaster]

Hmm, when I did finally upgrade my CPU I wanted to get something nice like a 4000+ dual core (I heard that dual core are the future, and if I dont get one now I would have to upgrade in a few months or a year anyway).
I'd rather pay 300 for something I wont have to upgrade soon than 150 on something that wont last.


I overclocked my FX5500, I tweaked some of the Oblivion ini files and now I can play at a steady 15fps, although it drops down to 8-10 in combat. I guess it is playable for now, so maybe I should just cancel the 6800GS and order a processor and new motherboard, and wait a few months until I can afford a nice video card.

Is an X2 processor dual core?

 

[trenchtoaster]

The 6800GS is 10$ more expensive tonight than it was last night. They change prices quick.