Wondering if I should get a 9800 pro and XP2800

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

Hi,

I plan to play quite a few of the games coming out in the next few months
such as Half Life 2 and Doom 3 etc. I'm playing "Far Cry" at the moment, but
my system is struggling and I can only put the settings on medium. I like to
play at 1600 by 1200 but have to settle for 1078 by 768 (or whatever it is)
So I was contemplating an upgrade.


At the moment I have an AMD XP1800 processor and an MSI G4 Ti 4200 (64Mb
memory) graphics card. I have 768Mb DDR-SDRAM memory. I have an asus A7V333
(rev 2.0) motherboard

My MoBo will apparently take up to an XP3000 processor.

Now I was thinking about purchasing an ati 9800 pro graphics card. They have
now come down in price to £140, and maybe if I wait a couple of months it
might dip below £120 what with new graphic cards coming out. But would my
XP1800 act as a bottleneck? (it is 1.54GHz but equivalent to a P4 1.8GHz).

Alternatively I could get a XP2800 (cos the extra expense for a XP3000 isn't
worth it) in addition to a 9800 pro. I should probably be able to get both
for £200 if I wait a couple of months.

Is that the best plan, and would there be a significant performance increase
in games? Or would it be best to purchase a 9800 pro by itself?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

Interesting Ian wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I plan to play quite a few of the games coming out in the next few months
> such as Half Life 2 and Doom 3 etc. I'm playing "Far Cry" at the moment, but
> my system is struggling and I can only put the settings on medium. I like to
> play at 1600 by 1200 but have to settle for 1078 by 768 (or whatever it is)
> So I was contemplating an upgrade.
>
>
> At the moment I have an AMD XP1800 processor and an MSI G4 Ti 4200 (64Mb
> memory) graphics card. I have 768Mb DDR-SDRAM memory. I have an asus A7V333
> (rev 2.0) motherboard
>
> My MoBo will apparently take up to an XP3000 processor.
>
> Now I was thinking about purchasing an ati 9800 pro graphics card. They have
> now come down in price to £140, and maybe if I wait a couple of months it
> might dip below £120 what with new graphic cards coming out. But would my
> XP1800 act as a bottleneck? (it is 1.54GHz but equivalent to a P4 1.8GHz).
>
> Alternatively I could get a XP2800 (cos the extra expense for a XP3000 isn't
> worth it) in addition to a 9800 pro. I should probably be able to get both
> for £200 if I wait a couple of months.
>
> Is that the best plan, and would there be a significant performance increase
> in games? Or would it be best to purchase a 9800 pro by itself?
>
> Thanks for any advice.
>
>

I would say that right now, your video card is the bottleneck (or will
be, for most upcoming games.) Upgrading your CPU right now (and keeping
your Ti4200) would do nothing for you, but just upgrading to a Radeon
9800 Pro (and keeping your XP1800) would. The 9800 should satisfy all
current games and most upcoming ones for a while, even with your current
CPU. If, after 4-6 months or so, new games seem to be slowing down
again, you can *then* upgrade your CPU (which has now become your
bottleneck) to a XP 2800/3000/3200 to max out your 9800 Pro.

--
cK

 

[Xeon]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

You'd see a great increase with just the 9800 pro itself, but, a faster cpu
will also speed your system up somewhat, "IF" you've got the extra $$
burning a hole in your pocket. But if you want to save a little, get the
card, 2x the memory, bigger bus, and, the fastest gpu available!!

"Interesting Ian" <spam@doubtthouthestarsartfire.com> wrote in message
news:6uSjc.227$g_1.127@newsfe1-win...
> Hi,
>
> I plan to play quite a few of the games coming out in the next few months
> such as Half Life 2 and Doom 3 etc. I'm playing "Far Cry" at the moment,
but
> my system is struggling and I can only put the settings on medium. I like
to
> play at 1600 by 1200 but have to settle for 1078 by 768 (or whatever it
is)
> So I was contemplating an upgrade.
>
>
> At the moment I have an AMD XP1800 processor and an MSI G4 Ti 4200 (64Mb
> memory) graphics card. I have 768Mb DDR-SDRAM memory. I have an asus
A7V333
> (rev 2.0) motherboard
>
> My MoBo will apparently take up to an XP3000 processor.
>
> Now I was thinking about purchasing an ati 9800 pro graphics card. They
have
> now come down in price to £140, and maybe if I wait a couple of months it
> might dip below £120 what with new graphic cards coming out. But would my
> XP1800 act as a bottleneck? (it is 1.54GHz but equivalent to a P4 1.8GHz).
>
> Alternatively I could get a XP2800 (cos the extra expense for a XP3000
isn't
> worth it) in addition to a 9800 pro. I should probably be able to get both
> for £200 if I wait a couple of months.
>
> Is that the best plan, and would there be a significant performance
increase
> in games? Or would it be best to purchase a 9800 pro by itself?
>
> Thanks for any advice.
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

Interesting Ian wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I plan to play quite a few of the games coming out in the next few
> months such as Half Life 2 and Doom 3 etc. I'm playing "Far Cry" at
> the moment, but my system is struggling and I can only put the
> settings on medium. I like to play at 1600 by 1200 but have to settle
> for 1078 by 768 (or whatever it is) So I was contemplating an upgrade.
>
>
> At the moment I have an AMD XP1800 processor and an MSI G4 Ti 4200
> (64Mb memory) graphics card. I have 768Mb DDR-SDRAM memory. I have an
> asus A7V333 (rev 2.0) motherboard
>
> My MoBo will apparently take up to an XP3000 processor.
>
> Now I was thinking about purchasing an ati 9800 pro graphics card.
> They have now come down in price to £140, and maybe if I wait a
> couple of months it might dip below £120 what with new graphic cards
> coming out. But would my XP1800 act as a bottleneck? (it is 1.54GHz
> but equivalent to a P4 1.8GHz).
>
> Alternatively I could get a XP2800 (cos the extra expense for a
> XP3000 isn't worth it) in addition to a 9800 pro. I should probably
> be able to get both for £200 if I wait a couple of months.
>
> Is that the best plan, and would there be a significant performance
> increase in games? Or would it be best to purchase a 9800 pro by
> itself?
>
> Thanks for any advice.

For what it's worth. I have a 9800PRO on a XP2100 on a Nforce2 board
running dual channel ram. It plays all of the above just fine. Better than
fine actually. But if I overclock the 9800PRO (I have had it up to 400/750)
there is no difference at all in 3dmark03 which sits at 5500. This is
telling me the XP2100 is slowing the 9800pro down but in saying that it is
fast "enough". So if I were you I would get the 9800pro (won't be any
disappointment there) and see how it plays your games. If your not happy
(which I doubt it) then upgrade CPU and possibly motherboard and ram. As
long as you "future proof" (in quotes because future is not that far away,
by future proof I mean whatever you buy can carry over to a major upgrade)
you can't go wrong.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

I would upgrade to a 2nd hand Ti4x00 128MB, and replace the 1800+ with a
2500+ Barton, as long as you run the Barton at 333 (double166).

If your memory isn't PC2700 (333), then don't bother with the CPU, just the
TI4x00 128MB.

Get the 9800Pro only if you realy need DX9, which is nice for 5 minutes,
then you forget about it. A 2nd hand Ti4800SE is about £80 or less. MSI ones
have a three year warranty, and they've only been selling them since
Jan2003. Pretty much a bargain considering it's fast enough to run 1280x1024
in the all the latest games, as long as you have a decent CPU.

On an nForce2 board, the Barton overclocks out of the box. I just put mine
in, bedded in for a week, then moved the CPU multiplier to 12x, giving me
2004MHz.

I upgraded from my MSI Ti4800SE (going to put it on eBay UK from Sunday) to
the same ATi9800Pro you are looking at.

I feel that I really need a better CPU to get the most out of it, so it was
really just an unneccessary luxury purchase.

Didn't do a before and after with Far Cry though (doh!), as I installed FC
just after I swapped my cards.

Anyone seen the difference between FarCry in DX8 vs DX9?

Is it worth the extra £60?