Should I upgrade my video card or build a new system?

[Kwijibo]

Overclock the heck out of ur 9700, that should hold you over till am2 and dx10.

 

[INeedCache]

Go for the video card. Upgrade your system in about 2 years. I'm not comfortable with so many people in these forums advocating that everyone should "wait for Conroe or AM2" before doing almost anything to their system. These chips aren't even out yet, and as such, are still unproven. They will also initially come at a premium price. Your system is still good for at least another 1-2 years with a better video card. If you "wait for Conroe" and then upgrade immediately, 6-12 months down the road when things are cheaper and any bugs are worked out, you'll be sorry you upgraded so fast.

 

[Jebazor]

This person does have an older computer but it is good enough to "wait for Conroe and AM2".

The X800gto might give them some extra $ to be ready for the AM2 and Conroe :mrgreen:.

 

[Hicks121]

😛 I have an older AGP system & was ready to upgrade to a s939. Did a whole lot of research on my own & ended up buying the agp 6800gs & unlocked the extra pixl &shdr units with the riva tuner. i could be happier with this set up right now. i play Fear, Doom, & COD2 with everything turned on. this is paired with a barton 3000+. for a mere $200, I am good for 6-9 months til i go into a full upgrade.

 

[mezlo]

I want to thank everyone for their input. I've decided to upgrade my video card and hold off on upgrading my system. Now I just have to decide what card to get.

Looking at the Interactive VGA Charts here on tomshardware.com, even the lowest X800 card outperforms the 7800GS AGP. I realize these are probably PCI-E versions, but still this really doesn't make much sense.

Thanks again,
Mezlo

 

[mezlo]

Despite the VGA tests on tomshardware, every other review I read said the 7800GS was superior to the X800 and X850 series cards. Because of this, I decided to get the best card I could find, which ended up being the EVGA e-GeForce 7800 GS CO SUPERCLOCKED (256-A8-N509-AX). The best price I found was from Directron for $314.99 and free shipping.

Thanks again for all the advice and opinions,
Mezlo

 

[wun911]

Yeah its better not to waste 1.2k on a new system that will just depreciate faster than your old system (if you know what I mean).

It just goes to prove that AGP isnt quite dead yet....