New sys 1yr or new card now

[elfalot]

Hi Ive got an AGP based system and my question is

Should I wait not only for AMD's AM2 not only to be released and give it about 6-8 months to take hold (wont bother buying a new possibly flawed & expensive platform) to build a new system.

OR

Buy a Hightec x850 pro for $400 AU which I could buy tommorow.
(compared to $500 - $600 AU for x850XT or 6800Ulta/7800GS)

Main reason I'm leaning towards impatience is I have some games I havent even played yet (6 months since i got them) because I know they wont run well.

My current card is a Sapphire Radeon 9600XT (but its an Atlantis which I think is a cheaper version, which may be why it wont OC more than 2%).

The rest of my system is:
3200+ AMD (BARTON 32-bit)
1Gb low latency Corsair Ram
Audigy 2 Value
500watt X-connect PSU
LG DVD ROM
LG DVD burner
160Gb WD + 80Gb Maxtor

Opinions welcome.

 

[MarkG]

The X850 Pro should at least double your frame-rates in most games at 1280x1024 and above, or with AA: and probably a 5-10x improvement in 3DMark06, which is likely to more more indicative of future games.

I went from a 9500 Pro to 7800GS and most things that were previously graphics-limited run around three times faster: and some games like CoD2 went from a slideshow in DX9 mode at 1024x768 to perfectly playable at 1600x1200. From what I remember the X850 Pro is about 20% slower than the 7800GS and the 9600 XT is similar to the 9500 Pro (but a fair bit slower with AA enabled).

Monetarily you're almost always better to wait for the 'next big thing' in the PC world, but do you want to chug along in games for the next year or more until it comes along?

 

[cleeve]

Spend far less and get an X800 GTO or 6800 GS to hold you off until you can afford the new platform. It will still perform very well and run corcles around your 9600 XT, and it'll let you play the newest games easily.

The X850 costs way too much for an AGP system.

 

[elfalot]

Yeah I'm probably too impatient to wait a year.

Speaking of a 6800 GS is XFX a good brand?