[Exdeus]

Hello all! I have a reasonably high end machine, but I feel that my video card is lacking. I have also begun to notice that a lot of the newer games are all going to Nvidia. I have always had an Nvidia with the exception of this computer. I have had a few slowdowns and such and can't run games such as F.E.A.R. or Call of Duty 2 on max settings, which I should be able to do if I had a better video card I am assuming. I am running a Radeon9800 Pro 128mb on this system:

I want to keep it under $300.00 for the card btw.

Motherboard
CPU Type Unknown, 3200 MHz (4 x 800)
Motherboard Name Asus P4P800SE
Motherboard Chipset Intel Springdale i865P(E)
System Memory 1024 MB (DDR SDRAM) (Dual Channel)
BIOS Type AMI (03/26/04)

Display
Video Adapter RADEON 9800 PRO - Secondary (128 MB)
Video Adapter RADEON 9800 PRO (128 MB)
3D Accelerator ATI Radeon 9800 (R350)
Monitor SyncMaster 730B(Analog) [NoDB] (HVEY501456)

Multimedia
Audio Adapter Creative EMU10K2 Audigy Audio Processor

Storage
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive WDC WD1600BB-22DWA0
Disk Drive WDC WD2500JB-00GVA0
Optical Drive IDE DVD-ROM 16X (16x DVD-ROM)
Optical Drive SONY DVD RW DRU-800A

Partitions
C: (NTFS) 152617 MB (145879 MB free)
D: (NTFS) 152617 MB (122198 MB free)
E: (NTFS) 85855 MB (63493 MB free)

Thanks for any and all suggestions.

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You will be able to run call of duty 2 on high settings with a 6800gs or above.


You will need a video card that uses the agp slot. The 6800gs only comes in the pci express slot so you cant get that.


Look at a x800xl or a x800 xt at www.newegg.com

Edited by jrm20, 21 November 2005 - 11:42 AM.

[jrm20]

You will be able to run call of duty 2 on high settings with a 6800gs or above.


You will need a video card that uses the agp slot. The 6800gs only comes in the pci express slot so you cant get that.


Look at a x800xl or a x800 xt at www.newegg.com

Edited by jrm20, 21 November 2005 - 11:42 AM.

[Exdeus]

Okay, I will.

What is this PCI Express slot? Is it new and only on high end mobos or whats the deal?

I take it the x800xt is better then the x800xl?

Would it be worth my while to spend the extra 70.00-100.00 and upgrade it to the x1800 card or would the x800 xt suit me fine?
http://www.newegg.co...=&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

Also, shown on that search, there are the top three x1800's. There is the connect3d, the Sapphire, and the ATI retail card.

Which is better and why?

Thanks again!

Edited by Exdeus, 21 November 2005 - 12:38 PM.

[warriorscot]

They are all really the same the big difference is mainly in the coolers you get and that is really just reading reviews of that particual brand and reading the specs and looking at the pics(generally only hightech put really amazing coolers on the cards though).

The card you have now is actually pretty good, its the fact that its the 128Mb version of the card that is letting it down the newer games need 256Mb and a 256bit memory interface to run properly.

Games dont generally go either way but ATI and Nvidia both pay alot of money to have themselves advertised in the opening screens of games(intel do it to which is ironic sometimes as games run crap on intel sometimes especially when they dont like HT lol.)

[jrm20]

You cannot get a x1800 series because you dont have pci express like I said..

Pci express is new technology which is faster than agp. They dont make agp cards anymore for the newer card series. Agp is now considered outdated.

[Exdeus]

You cannot get a x1800 series because you dont have pci express like I said..

Pci express is new technology which is faster than agp. They dont make agp cards anymore for the newer card series. Agp is now considered outdated.

Sorry jrm...I totally forgot what you had said about the PCI Express.

Would it be worth my while at this point to upgrade the mobo or just get the x800xt card and wait it out a while.

[warriorscot]

I would just get the x800 or an x850 and wait it out, a slightly newer revision of PCI-E is on the way and if you are going to upgrade the mobo you really have to do the whole PC, besides the x800 and x850s are still very fast cards, my x800 plays everything on full to this day(mind you it is overclocked as well).

[jrm20]

Your never going to stay up with technology. I would get the x800xl, x800xt or x850 and keep the system like that for now. Its no use getting the regular x800 because for a few more dollars you can get the x800 xl or xt..


You should be able to keep that system for a year then get a new complete system.