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[veggiestick2000]

Posted this on a couple of other forums too, wondering if anyone could give me some advice...

I'm looking for a video card upgrade for my current (fairly old) system, just something to tide me over until I put together a brand new system next year when the Nehalem chips are out for a bit.

Currently, I'm just playing World of Warcraft which the Radeon 9800 Pro handles well enough, though I recently got a 22 inch 1680x1050 monitor, and the game's performance at that res on my system isn't as good as I'd like.

I'd like a card (has to be AGP) that will play WoW on my system near 60fps, all graphics settings max (except AA, not a priority).

My specs (no overlocks):

CPU: 2.8 ghz P4 w/HT
GPU: Radeon 9800 Pro
RAM: 1x2GB DDR2
MOBO: Abit IC-7
PSU: 430w Antec TruPower II
HDD: Seagate SATA 250GB


I was looking at either the Radeon HD 3850 512MB or the X1650PRO 512MB as an upgrade. The X1650 is obviously much cheaper, but will it give me that much of a performance improvement in WoW over the R9800? If not, is the 3850 -too- powerful for my system, leading to bottlenecks? Is there another AGP card besides these two, preferably ATI, that you would recommend for WoW @ 1680x1050, near 60fps?

Thanks for your time, any advice is appreciated.

- Nicholas

 

[toneroni]

lol i came in here to recommend the 9800 pro =x

 

[Yoshichan]

This sounds interesting, I would like an answer too please (we've got identical computers, basically).

 

[klownboots]

Just curious, but why is it that prefer ATI? (Not trying to avoid answering but it helps to research when you have more options heh).

 

[Jirotrom]

i made a thread like this a few months a go... now I just said f it and upgraded.

 

[klownboots]

It is coming to the point where you are going to need to upgrade the CPU, so also the MoBo, and of course then you can get an PCI-Express.

Sure you can use that PC for WoW for quite a bit longer, but you are closing yourself off to many other games that a simple $500 or so upgrade would get you.

 

[Mr. Pointy]

I think you can get the X1950 Pro in AGP. It'll be a noticeable improvement over the 9800 and it's still fairly cheap. The HD3850 is overkill for WoW.

 

[larvi]

Actually you can probably find the 3850 for pretty much the same or cheaper than the x1950 (provided you can find one that is). I.e. here is a 3850 going for $120 AR at the egg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131090

As for creating bottlenecks on your system, it's not going to create any that don't exist already today, it will just keep your graphic card from being the limiting factor. The only concerns about a card being "too powerful" would be power draw, but you should be fine with your power supply and price. But seeing that it's only about 60 or so difference between the 3850 and the X1650, I would probably step up and get the 3850. I will also be easier to sell later when you do upgrade your sytems to recover some of your investment.

 

[veggiestick2000]

Yeah *sniff* I will miss the 9800...amazing card it is, just at 1680x1050 it starts to chug.


Also the card doesn't have to be ATI. I just figured I'd stick with the same manufacturer. I figured there might be some people in a similar situation as me (looking to upgrade an AGP card in an AGP system).

And as far as playing other games, I don't really care until I build an entirely new system next year. This video card upgrade is really just for WoW...sad I know.

I just want to be able to squeeze >40 fps at all times. Right now the 9800 is doing OK though I have to turn the terrain distance down to 50%, which I don't like doing, and in many zones and light pvp I barely get 25fps.

If the 3850 is overkill I'll take a closer look at the X1950 then. I'm just worried that it won't be THAT much better than the 9800. Regardless, I know my options are likely limited as on the higher end I'll hit bottlenecks with my P4, and on the lower end a new card might end up not being much better than the 9800 in the first place.

EDIT: Thanks for the extra info larvi. Also for the link, I didn't see that one. It has a much better cooler than the Sapphire so I could save $30 there.

 

[Kryten]

After reading this article at Tom's Hardware, I decided to ditch the idea of going for either a 3850 or 1950 and ended up with a Sapphire 2600XT. It uses less power, is quieter and was considerably cheaper than the alternatives, and was a nice upgrade from my 9800 Pro.

The only downside is that there's no official ATI standard for the 2600XT on the AGP bus, so you have to wait for Sapphire drivers. I've paired mine with a Socket 939 Athlon 64 4000+ and my rig runs perfectly fine. That said, I know it really is on it's last legs now

 

[Grayman]

Not that I would waste the money on it but what is the best agp card that nvidia makes?

Waste in the sense that it will cost more than half the price of a modern card with a fraction of the performance.