Sapphire X800XT PE VIVO AGP

albenza

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Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone would care to guide me a bit here...

I can buy this "Sapphire X800XT PE VIVO AGP" GPU for around 200$, it's been used of course but it works 100%. Is it worth it? I need to buy a GPU for my old computer here anyway so upgrading to pci-e is outta the question - I need a kick *** GPU for AGP but the "Sapphire X800XT PE VIVO AGP" is not at all mentioned in the "best buy" article here on tom's. what do you think guys?

Thankz,
albenza

EDIT: forgot to mention that if I settle with this card I will probobly have to buy a new PSU also, my current PSU is 200W MAX so I would need a new one, right?
 

cleeve

Illustrious
It's old, and about the same speed as the cheaper 7600 GT - which you can get brand new for less than $150.

That's why I didn't put it in the best-buy list.

The X800XT isn't a bad deal if you can pick up a used one from, say, ebay for under $100. But even then, the X800 doesn't support the newer Shader Model 3.0, which the 7600 GT does.

Your 200w PSU will need to be replaced with at least a 400w job for either card...
 

albenza

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I see, could you recommend anything if I give you some info please?

My specs are
AsRock K7NF2-Raid
2 x 512mb pc3200 cl2 HyperX (Dual RAM)
AMD Athlon XP2800+ 2.0GHZ
Geforce 3 Ti-200

I like to play games like GTA San Andreas and Counter Strike Source, right now my comp can just barely run them well enough to be playable.. CSS is actually not playable since I get around 30-40 FPS average and thats after tweaking cfg file.

I got around 200 - 250$ to spent on this upgrade and I don't mind buying used parts.
 

cleeve

Illustrious
Either way you need a better PSU. Under $50 should get you something you can run your rig with, at least 400 watts.

$130 more gets you a nice new 7600 GT AGP:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150233

Make sure it's a GDDR3 card, not a DDR2 card! Even though they might have more memory, the DDR2 cards are much slower!

That brings you to $180. CSS should be very smooth with that setup on your system. I haven't played San Andreas, but it should be fine, too.
 

Gravemind123

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Get yourself a better powersupply, like a lower wattage Antec Earthwatts, and then go for either a 6800GT/Ultra(probably would have to be used), 7600GT or X1650XT. I can't really recommend an X800/X850, even though they are quite powerful, because they lack Shader Model 3, so newer games like Bioshock and Rainbow 6: Vegas won't be able to run on them.
 

albenza

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I sure will..
I'm looking for a used GFX card atm. unfortunately I can't find any 7600GT or X1650XT for AGP right now, here where I live, (Denmark). Sadly they are way too expensive from new to be within my budget.

I did however find a 400W PSU for around 60$ (cheapest 400W I could find) there is a 580W a buck or two cheaper though.. maybe I should get that one instead? it makes a bit more noise and has a worse rating than the 400W, thats why I initially decided to stick with it.
 

cleeve

Illustrious
The 7600 GS isn't as good as the 7600 GT or X1650 XT.

However, Gainward's "golden sample" cards are a bit overclocked from the factory, and if it's the DDR3 version of the "golden sample" it will overclock well, maybe even to 7600 GT speeds.
 

albenza

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I think you read too fast there cleeve.. I'm talking 7800GS+ AGP, 512mb GDDR3 RAM. Not a 7600GS.. found it on an auction website, next bid is around 110$

Review from theinquirer.net. They claim that it has a 7800GT chip

quote: "This card's magic is that it actually has G71, Geforce 7800 GT PCIe core bridged down to AGP."
 

albenza

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I see... .oO(wondering how well 7600GT would overclock) :)

well.. I can't seem to find any 7600GT or X1650 XT on any auctions in denmark.. so far 7800GS+ is the best offer.
 

San Pedro

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Have you looked for a x1950 pro? You might be able to find one in your price range (no clue what electronics run in the EU). I think for San Andreas (great game, I'm playing through it again) would play smoother with the x1950 pro than the 7600GT. I know my 6800GT becomes much less smooth if I set the AA level to 3 at 1280x1024. It might be bottlenecked by your CPU considerably though. My Athlon 2400+ was a bottle neck to a x800xl I bought a couple years ago.
 

albenza

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hehe, gotta love that game! Looking forward to buying a new comp next year and play GTA 4 :)

x1950Pro is well within the price range over here. I didn't even consider the bottle neck probability before now. if the x1950 pro will be bottlenecked by my CPU, wouldn't it be the same with any of the other GPU discussed here?

I will need to make sure I can actually use the cards potential before throwing money after it, otherwise I might as well go with something cheaper. Anyone who has major insight in this?

My specs are
AsRock K7NF2-Raid
2 x 512mb pc3200 cl2 HyperX (Dual RAM)
AMD Athlon XP2800+ 2.0GHZ
Geforce 3 Ti-200
 

albenza

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Ok, good. Thanks.

So I have pretty much decided to go with the X1950 Pro, all though I must say the 7800GS+ is nagging the back of my mind since it's cheaper... please confirm that the X1950 Pro is faster or tell me now to get the 7800GS+ instead.


As we discussed earlier I need a new PSU.. I found this one, will it be sufficient? cheapest I could find. :)

I'll stop bugging you guys for now, but I'll be back to let you know how it runs once I received the new parts. Thanks for all your wise words, very much appreciated. ;)

albenza
 

bumster

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I would go with the x1950pro, I have one and can run BioShock just fine, although I have a PCIe version and a X2 4800+. But some games will take advantage of the GPU freeing up the CPU and will perform much better than the 7800GS+.

The power supply you listed in your last post looks OK as far as a large fan pulling in air from the bottom and should be very quiet that way. Unfortunately they do not list the 12v rail amperage but it should be enough for your system with that video card.
 

albenza

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Sticking with the X1950 Pro Then!

Regarding the PSU. I'm not happy with it "looking to be OK", what happends if it's not? I don't wish to risk that, so I found another one NorthQ 4001

my full specs are...

AMD Athlon XP2800+ 2.07GHZ
Asrock K7NF2-Raid
2 x 512 mb Kingston Hyper X Ram (pc3200)
Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS
Typhoon TV card (no idea what model)
Sony DRU-510a DVD Burner
3Com etherlink 10/100
5 x 80mm fans

HDD's
80GB Barracuda
30GB Maxtor
10GB Maxtor

Can it handle all this?
 

albenza

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Forgot the link for the NorthQ 4001

Sry. for dubbel post but for some reason it wouldn't let me edit the one above.

Btw. my current PSU is not a 200W as mentioned in an earlier post, it is in fact a 300W

DC output is:
+3.3v +5v +12v | -5v -12v -5VSB
20A 30A 10A | 0.5A 0.8A 2A
So do I still need a new PSU?
 

bumster

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10A on the +12v rail is too low with one of those video cards. You will need at least 17Amps when adding one of those cards to the system. It is possible that the current PSU will have enough to power everything on but when starting up a game the GPU will draw more power and possibly fail at that point. The Wattage doesn't matter as much as the Amps. I have a high quality 380Watt PSU that actually worked better than a cheap 400Watt PSU that came with a budget case. But generally you will find that most PSUs that have that many Amps on the +12v rails are 400Watts and up. You want more than the minimal amount power required so that you will not slowly kill the PSU or anything that is connected to it. That is why I recommend looking for at least 17Amps because less than 16Amps is not enough in my opinion.

Also, the number of hard drives you have connected will be a factor. The average 7200RPM desktop hard drive draws about 2.8Amps each. So if you have more than two hard drives you may want to go with a PSU that has 20Amps on the +12v rails.

Hope this helps.
 

albenza

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I see... this is seriously complicated.

I found two other power supply's, both amazingly cheap. From what I have been reading on forums they run perfect and are surprisingly low noise... I was gonna go with the 620W but I better get it confirmed before closing the deal.

Ace - Raw Deal 520W 44$
DC Output: +12VA +12VB +5V -5V -12V +3.3V +5VSB
Full Load: 15A 15A 11A 0.5A 0.5A 13A 2A
Ripple: 150mv 150mv 150mv 150mv 150mv 80mv 60mv

Ace - Raw Deal 620W 40$
DC Output: +12VA +12VB +5V -5V -12V +3.3V +5VSB
Full Load: 20A 20A 20A 0.5A 0.5A 16A 2A
Ripple: 150mv 150mv 150mv 150mv 150mv 80mv 60mv