Mobo upgrade AGP vs PCI-E

TomCatV

I sent this inquiry to MSI and received a generic "yes/yes".

[I have a MSI 645E Max2 (MS-6567) series ATX motherboard, 400FSB, DDR333/266 memory controller. I want to upgrade the video card from a G4 Ti4200 64mb to a 6600GT 128mb AGP 4x/8x 128bit GDDR3 series type card ... My Mobo says it supports only AGP 2x/4x. I also want to upgrade the RAM from a single 512mb DDR266 to 1GB (2 - 512mb) DDR400/PC3200 cas2.5 Will this card and RAM work?]

I'm trying to upgrade enough (until complete upgrade next year) to run games like Doom3, HL2, and maybe even Farcry on high to near high settings.
My ?'s are:
1)Is it worth spending about $130 US (that's cheap) for a PNY 6600GT AGP card even if my mobo doesn't support 8X's AGP (only 4X's AGP) or should I wait until I can to do a full upgrade next year - Mobo (PCI-E), faster CPU maybe P4 3.0, and at least a 6600GT (PCI-E) card.
2) The price for 1GB (2-512mb,appx. $90 US) of either DDR333 or DDR400 Ram is essentially the same ... might as well go for the DDR400 cas 2.5 right? So when I upgrade my Mobo I'll have the faster Ram.

What do the GURU's THINK???

R.A.D. · 08-27-2005, 05:04 | posts: 184 | Location: Argentina

well my suggestion is that if you are confident that you will have money for a full upgrade next year and most important: pacience. Wait. Besides your card will be able to run most good games till next year not in high settings but they will run pretty decently. Also those parts will be even cheaper next year so you can get a better system with the same money. Also you might want to look for an amd system just because they are better for gaming.

Pupp3tmast3r · 08-27-2005, 09:22 | posts: 1,006 | Location: Haaksbergen, The Netherlands

I agree with R.A.D. here. I'd say wait. You could however buy yourself some nice quality Ram. You're going to need that anyway, and it's gonna speed up your current pc.

TomCatV · 08-27-2005, 15:49 | posts: 1,213 | Location: NV/AZ

Thanks guys ...patience is a virtue! My only real hangup is how noticeable of a loss in card performance will I see in running the 6600GT in AGP-4X's mode on my old board as compared to the newer board's that support AGP-8X's? I'm not totally sold on PCI-E yet and planned on incorporating the 2 newly purchased items into the new build. I'm impressed with the old/new rig benchmarks AMD64/3500 vs P4 3.2 Prescott (above) ... although the cards aren't comparable that's quite a difference and further fuels the fire to upgrade my card now to a PNY 6600GT AGP for $130 US, and it looks like the 6800GT's will be in the $150 price range next year.