AGP not enough card? Think again

[Angry_Games]

this is a short comparison for a few of you who might think that you must have the latest and greatest, the newest (and all the latest and newest problems lol), etc

 

it is for those that think they must move to an NF4 and PCI-E vid card

 

it is for those that don't really want to spend all that money

 

mainly though it is a fun little test for me and maybe, possibly, some good info for a few of you

 

 

here's the deal

 

I've put the 939 AGP Ultra-D back together

 

939 AGP Lanparty

4400+ X2 @ 216x11 (stupid 216 HTT bug grrrr...but I used it to my advantage!)

2x1024MB Corsair 3500LL Pro (LED's)

Radeon 9800XT 256MB AGP

36GB Raptor SATA + 80GB Hitachi SATA

NEC 3550A DVD-RW

Intel Pro 10/100 NIC (unfortunately the onboard NIC is not up to my standards)

onboard sound

Skyhawk 520w psu

Coolermaster Cavlier case

DangerDen TDX watercooling + DDC pump

 

 

 

 

 

now, I've ran all of the standard benches with the 9800XT AGP card

 

and then I left the machine alone EXCEPT I took out the 9800XT AGP and replaced it with a 12-pipe, very affordable, ATI X800 Pro AGP (256MB)

 

I have also spent a good chunk of time playing Day of Defeat Source, Eve-Online, Warhammer 40,000, and Dungeon Siege 2.

 

I can't say I honestly see a huge leap from my X800 Pro AGP to my main rig, which houses a 4400+ X2, 2GB RAM, but a 7800GTX lol. I mean, I know there is a difference, because of all the crazy eye candy like Anti-Aliasing etc that I can max, but truly, honestly, and personally...there's not really enough difference there for me (and I play/work with these things all day long so I suppose if anyone would notice a difference, and we are not talking benchmark difference, but my own personal expectations and results).

 

 

 

now

 

 

a few of you will come in, like always, and tell everyone that I am smoking crack and there's no %@#$#@ way that an X800 Pro AGP could "FEEL" the same as a 7800GTX because you are so uber sensitive to technology and you are half-cyborg etc...please be aware that you are mightly and truly powerful and all-knowing and I am but a lowly cockroach in the big scheme of techno-things and you will rule my soul for infinity.

 

 

 

The rest of you that know me, or at least trust me, know that I give very blunt, honest, sometimes brutal opinions, and I show what I can as fact, and I explain what I consider to be opinion and give reasons why.

 

And I am going to show you a couple things, and let you decide, along with a bit of my opinion (which has already made a few of you angry I am sure just by reading the previous paragraphs...)

 

 

here we go

 

 

9800XT:

 

 

 

X800 Pro:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9800XT:

 

 

 

X800 Pro:

 

 

 

 

 

9800XT:

 

 

 

X800 Pro:

 

 

 

 

 

9800XT:

 

 

 

X800 Pro:

 

 

 

 

9800XT:

 

 

 

X800 Pro:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

now, what are the differences?

 

the 9800XT benches were all ran at 200x11 (2200Mhz) on a dual-core X2 4400+ (dual 1MB L2 caches), with the 9800XT's stock speeds (I'll have to load the card up on my brother's rig and find out what stock is)

 

 

the X800 benches were all ran at a very simple overclock of 216x11 (2390Mhz) on the same dual-core X2 4400+ (dual 1MB L2 caches)

 

the X800's stock clocks are 472/450

 

these benches were easily run on the X800 @ 540/502

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

so Angry...wtf is your point in posting this?

 

Well, my point is...I see a lot of rather stupid suggestions by some that they MUST move to the NF4 939 PCI-E platform etc or their games won't run good, their love lives will be ruined, and poverty will end up killing them as rich little nerds that can afford to upgrade every 3 days will spend them into the ground trying to keep up.

 

 

And while I don't get a chance to play games for good long 6-10 hour stretches anymore, I do get to play for 1-2 hours at a time, and since I rarely get that time, that 1-2 hours is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO ME...meaning if my rig is a pile of ., then I am gonna classy lady up a storm.

 

 

and my rig with a 9800XT was so very decent that I never really complained other than not being able to play FEAR and BF2 as well as my main rig can (which of course, remember, has a 7800GTX all watercooled etc).

 

But my 9800XT played Eve and HL2/Day of Defeat and Warhammer 40k and Dungeon Siege 2 just fine

 

but not as pretty as when I dropped the X800 Pro (which is a very stellar card and at a very stellar price these days as far as I am concerned) into it. Now I can easily play at 1280x1024 with the options in most games on high, even some Anti-Aliasing enabled!

 

And BF2 and FEAR now play very very nice. Again, not as nicely as my 7800GTX, but I'd be definitely smoking crack if I was trying to compare the 7800GTX to any AGP card of only 8 pipes (9800XT) or 12 pipes (X800 Pro).

 

 

 

so again you ask...what is my point?

 

My point is...AGP is not dead yet, and anyone that says it is is pretty much a moron who is a know-it-all.

 

I can only imagine if I had an X850XT PE AGP card heh. I have one, but it is PCI-E. The X800 Pro is the best, and last AGP card I have ever owned. Everything else has been PCI-E.

 

And soon I will show you that you don't even need the 939 AGP Ultra-D board...as the NF3 250Gb socket754 board is STILL very very nice, and STILL very very modern performance-wise.

 

I'll be adding my 754 vs 939 (all using the same memory, the same NF4 chipset, and the same 7800GT video card on two different DFI boards, one a 754 + PCI-E, and the other, the old trusty 939 + PCI-E) to the 1T vs 2T, tight timings vs dividers etc thread that is stuck and closed at the top of the AMD - Overclocking section, and you guys will see that there is really very little difference between 754 and 939 cpu's in terms of performance (or maybe you will see it the opposite and that is ok also)

 

 

anyway, just thought some of you might be interested. Feel free to post your comments.

 

(and then also remember that each person's idea of 'decent performance' is going to be different than the next person's idea...)

[JayR_4]

Great job! Made me think twice of abandoning my current AGP setup. i also read that BFG tech has launched a nvidia 7800GS on AGP platform.

[sailindawg]

Thanks AG. You are confirming what I've have been noticing with my choices for my gaming rig. Currently, 3D is quite nice with all settings on high in BF2 and frames range from 40-95. Very smooth. My remaining question is regarding the 7800GS. It's too bad that they made it a 16 pipeline card. A full 24 pipeline AGP card would be very powerful.

[CPDMF]

Angry, you already got me on this in another thread.. Why would you recommend people go out and spend the same amount of money(or more) to buy 754 stuff w/ AGP instead of 939 w/ PCI-E.. Granted there isn't much difference between the two in performance, but why sink more money in a dying socket. It actually costs more to bulid a 754/AGP system than it does to build a 939PCI system, unless your talking a Sempron and 9800 based setup. Then you are talking a person has this amount of dollars to spend and that's it, not a best performance or futureproof system. $400 Socket 754 CPU's and $400 dollar AGP cards, come on...

[Guest shaolin95]

I dont think he means going out and buying NOW...from what I understood he means people that has say, a 6800GT/Ultra right now with a 3400 (754) and is wondering if they should upgrade cause they wont be able to play BF2 or Quake 4. The answer as Angry said, is NO! My current rig runs any game I throw at it perfectly well. Granted, I cant hit 1600x1200 with 8xAA and 16xAF and hope to get 100fps but the image quality I get is superb and only benches show a huge difference compared to super high end setups.

Now, would I recommend buying a 754 over a 939 setup right now? As painful as it is to admit it, I wouldnt cause with 939 you can start with a cheap CPU, then move to FX or dual core without having to built your computer from scratch again. But if you have a great 754 setup right now with a top of the line AGP card, then dont listen to claims of games been unplayable due to you "old" agp vid card.

Regards

[HAV]

Well said Angry_games.

I sold my k8vse + samsung tcc4 memory and bought the DFI mobo + 2*512MB tccd memory and now I can mess up with overclocks. I did this because I have an x800xt PE AGP that I bought about 1 year ago for +/- 350$ (special price here) and i will not buy any graphics card soon.. But now that I've reached my newcastle limit (2540Mhz stable) i'm a bit disapointed cause didn't see much performance improvement. I just thought that it could overclock more, maybe 2700, 2800... I want more lol.

But ok I play all the games at a considerable good fps and no need to go to PCI-E and dual channel stuff (for now)... :nod:

[albumleaf]

Not to mention the new 7800gs that just came out which is basically equivalent to the x850xtpe... this should lower prices on the 6800 series cards to the point where i might be able to afford one .

[sailindawg]

this should lower prices on the 6800 series cards to the point where i might be able to afford one

 

They seem to pretty much discontinued making 6800 AGP cards. The latest 2 are the 6800GS and now the 7800GS. The GT's and the Ultra's are pretty much E-Bay items these days.

[cmay119]

I saw a eVGA 6800GT AGP at my local microcenter a couple days ago. I was very dismayed when I noticed the sticker price they were asking was $400 dollars. My uncle was able to score a X850XT (non-PE) AGP at microcenter about 3-4 weeks ago for a little over $200 that was a steal.

 

Looking back on my newegg records, after shipping I paid $50 less for my 6800GT at newegg over a year ago.

 

You're very correct though, all the 6 series X800 series cards are now going the way of the dodo.

 

If you're planning on getting one of these cards in AGP format, move quickly as they will more than likely be completely discontinued by march/april.

[Skip04]

The 7800GS AGP are out from pretty much all the card manufacturers, not just BFG, and can be had for right around or just under 300.00

 

And like shaolin95 said, AG's not saying if you're building a new rig, build an NF3 AGP setup,

but if you already have 1, you can get by nicely without upgrading to NF4 for awhile longer.

[sailindawg]

you can get by nicely without upgrading to NF4 for awhile longer.

 

I'll qualify that one step further, IF you have a decent cpu AND a higher end AGP card.

 

nVidia is also supposed to be coming out with a new chip in March sometime. The 7900. I'm sure that they'll come out with a $500 high end card first followed a couple of cards downclocked from the uber card at around $300 or so.

[THunDA]

Good job AG.. !!

 

 

You know I run a x800xt-pe AGP in my 250gb rig and everything is totally stock (cpu and vid card).. It runs any game I throw at it with ease.. It doesnt handle the super duper settings like my NF4 rig but it still looks and plays great !

 

TBH thats the rig I usually play my games on because im usually trying to blow something up on my NF4 rig.. umm.. I mean testing a new config..hehe