Does the 128 MB 9800 Pro cut it these days or time to ugprade?

I have had a 9800 Pro 128MB for a year or two now. Due to twins in my life, gaming has been a "bit" hard these days and I have become so out of touch with video cards its scary.

I picked up Oblivion yesterday and it has recommended video card specs of X800/GeForce6800 and P4 3.0 or higher. Now is this BS marketing material, or is the 9800 Pro just outdated these days? The game did get choppy in its first battle, but did not have much time to play after that.

I am not adverse to spending cash on a new card as I want quality video when playing games with the time I can scrape up. I am not going to spend 500 bucks, but would not be against a few hundred. Any recommend a good upgrade path that will last me a few more years?

Also my system specs are P4 2.8 ghz and 2 gigs of ram. Not gonna bother upgrading the CPU as I think its the card that is my bottleneck right now. Is that true?

Also is it really necessary to go down the PCI express route? Doing that would require a new mobo which I really would prefer not to do right now, but would if buying a non-pciE card is foolish.

Thanks in advance.

 

Your card would be a bottle neck right now, yes.

I had a 9800 pro, it started getting too slow for games about last year this time, I pretty much had to upgrade to keep up with the trends.

An upgrade would be advised, but you could probably still play all the new games, on low.

 

Yeah, ATM its a fairly ballanced system. (The ram is kinda out of wack, but i've never heard of anyone hurting from too much ram)

98Pro's are really awesome, king of their time, but for now they dont cut it without sacrificing some of th high quality graphics that oblivion offers. Good tweaking and maybe a volt mod will certainly help.

Of course, you dont need to spend 500 bucks. There are plenty of good deals around for cheap, the 76GT for one, which, aside from sporting several nice features, will be faster than the pro.

 

My system is almost identical to urs and i play most games with no problems with medium eye candy. It doesnt cut it if u want to play game @ everything on high though.

Currently playing
BF2
Empire @ war
Commandos Strike Force
GuildWars
CS:S ( All on High with 2AA and 4AF)

IMHO

AGP is out of date i am planning to play my 9800 PRO all the way till i have to play games all @ low detail then decide on an upgrade. Personally i believe PCIe is still maturing ... ATI just annouced Crossfire without CF cable requirement. Chipsets are churning out fast. The SLI config has SLI X16 which allow 2 cards to operate @ full potential. X800/6800 Series on AGP is a waste considering the cards on PCIe including the highly regarded X800GTO2/6800GS.

PCIe technology stabilizes as more companies lauch different chipsets and prices drop. Multiple GPU solutions are absolutely the way to go as a good cost saving tool.

EG. 6800GS becomes too slow just slot in another in the future to double the spd ( the future prices will also decrease due to obselencense althought u might not get the latest and newest technology it will still be workable rather then comdemning ur old card to the bin or selling it off )

 

I am assuming you think its too much ram? Do a lot of virtual machine work so it helps having a lot of ram. I am actually considering a bump to 4 gb.

What about PCI Express? As a test I checked on newegg and was quite surprised by the lack of Socket 478 mobos with PCI Express support. My processor is unfortunately a socket 478 P4, so all the newer boards that support LGA seem to be ones with PCI-E.

Also after checking out pricing on the 7600GT cards, I see that newegg only has PCI-E versions...does this come in AGP?

Also ATI is offering a instant 50 dollar savings on checkout for ATI cards priced at 349 or higher. I would go for that savings on a card for 349 if there was a major performance increase.

Damn I hate old components that make you upgrade your whole system!

 

There was quite a major increase in performance when I got my x800 xt.

Though I had a althon 3500+ then.

 

A 7800GS ($300) would be good for you if you want to spend only a few hundred. It's a GeForce7, it's AGP, and it's a powerful card, albeit overpriced a bit. (the faster 7800GT for example goes for about $285)
Don't go SLI unless you have money to burn and you want top performance right now. The idea of buying another card in the future and "double up" the speed & performance is stupid. By the time you get that card, there will be so many new visual features and breakthroughs and having just 2X the horsepower will be meaningless without the new features.
Look at the topic with dual Voodoo2's in SLI running Doom 3 in the Voodoo forums. Fast? Kinda. Pretty? No way in hell.

 

i suggest buying a pci-express motherboard. its going to be aggravating not being able to upgrade in the future because you dont have a pci-express slot...i suggest a x1800xt 256. its going for 289$ on newegg. or you can play the waiting game and itll be even cheaper.

 

Confused...the faster card is cheaper? Or should that have read 385? If it wasnt a typo, why wouldnt I just go with the 7800 GT? I have been a ATI fan for so long, that I irrationally hate switching to another brand. I know its silly and I can get over it. The 7800s are solid cards?

I agree..that would prob be the best solution, but would blow my budget out of the water. If I get a new mobo with PCI-E, and want to stick with intel, it would have to be a LGA board. Then I have to replace my processor as I have a Socket 478 processor. Now my max $300 video card upgrade has catapulted to an upgrade over 600 dollars.

AGP is probably the best bet right now for me I think.

 

The 7800 GT would be a PCI-E card, costing less for whatever reason.

If you budget is as you say, then a 7800 GS would be ideal, giving you somewhere near the performance of a x850 XT, but with SM 3.0.

 

Yeah OP I'm in the same situation as you about upgrading and money. I have the AMD version of the same problem.

A 7800GT (PCI-E) is faster than 7800GS (AGP), and it's cheaper. The 7800GS however, is the *only* modern AGP card and therefore carries a hefty price tag that in terms of value, is overpriced.

However, it will last you for another year at least, and judging by how often you upgrade, it'd probably last you personally for 3 or 4 years before you're forced to upgrade out of AGP.

 

like scatman839 said, 7800GT is PCI-E ONLY. 7800GS is AGP. I assume it costs less becuz they have a bigger supply of the GT's. GS just came out, and probably limited supplies for a small market, since most people who upgrade to such a card has PCI-E Mobo's, not AGP's.

Have you considered selling your system on ebay? I had a 9800pro as well before i bouht my 78gt. Sold the 98p for about $100 and bought the 78gt for $268. Sell mobo & cpu? If rams are compatible you can use those for next system, along with everything else.

 

I really really started getting the itch to start a new computer from scratch. Its just too much money right now that it would not make sense. For example, I upgrade the mobo to get PCI-E. If i upgrade the mobo, I need to get a new cpu..so i may as well get a dual core. Also as the new ddr2 standard is out, i may as well get a mobo that supports that and now I have to buy new ram.

That puts me out at 550 bucks without even buying the card. On ebay..maybe I can recoup 200 bucks. Still to expensive. I think I am going to buy the video card and then when my site needs a new web server or db server, convert my existing machine to that, and build a nice one for home. Then i can justify the cost

So now my last few questions before I pull the trigger and leave you all alone:

Any major difference between these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130272
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130274
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150131
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150129
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127092

Seems like the cheapest one is not as fast?

Also I am currently using valueram...is there any major advantage upgrading to better performing ram?

 

This is my theory for people on budgets.

upgrade to best value instead of top of the line. Get a decent pci-e Mobo, an AMDA64 CPU. You can always get 3200+ or 3500+ or 3700+ which are priced very well. Use same memory to save money, (i have valueram as well CAS2.5, and they work fine).

Then when X2 cpus get cheaper, you can just sell ur 32/35/3700+ and buy the X2 with a small difference in cost. Overall, you make good use of your CPU. Instead of buying a top of line CPU now, that you won't take FULL advantage of, and having to wait years (because u spent so much) before you can upgrade again. By then, your CPU will be so slow.

With this method, you'll always have the right cpu for todays demands.

Just my opinion. Many will disagree, or not want to waste time upgrading every year.

 

Checking prices...i am not familiar with AMD. Anyone know of a chart somewhere that explains the speed equivalencies between an AMD name and an Intel processor? Is it all the name..ie a AMD 3700 is equiv to a intel 3.7 ghz?

Also its been a long time since I looked at AMD...how is it compatibility wise with programs/OS's designed for intel architecture. Prob a moot point these days but need to make sure.

 

I don't know any programs made for PC that can't run on AMD... Did that use to happen in olden days?

CPU's are more difficult to understand now than ever. Even intel resort to model numbers that don't mean anything. But at least AMD keeps the "theoretical speed" in its model #.

Athlon XP's 1800+, 2400+, 3200+ use to be equiv to P4 1.8Ghz, 2.4Ghz, & 3.2Ghz respectively.

But now...A64, 3200, 3500, 3700 don't, because now P4's don't go by just CPU frequency either. They have model numbers as well (P4 640 cedar...541, 540J, 551 Prescott, etc.) because you can no longer compare only by frequency.

There are other factors such as L2 Cache, and many more i don't know about.

 

As far as what you can do with one, AMD=Intel. There are no restrictions, the only one i can think of is skype, but they cracked that, so no worries.

The naming system is gone, and if you dont have the money, and upgrade might prove hazardous.

Of all the 78GS's you listed, the cheapest has slighly slower clocks, but from it to the most expensive you might only gain 5 FPS at most.

If you do get your 200 bucks on ebay, that leaves you with 750, which you could build a moderate system with. But at 1k, you will really be entering a whole new world of gaming.

For now, i say stick with what you have, and get a new card. The 78GS may be a little too expensive, if your not ready to commit to and, or dont think your PSU could take it, then the 68GS is still a great deal.

 

Thanks all for the info and advice. I decided to go out and just pick up the card, and a new PSU as mine was only 300 watts and it says it needs 350 min.

Thanks again.

 

Ah, but PSU's are cheap.

 

Not the quality onces like OCZ, Antec, etc