Hey all,
Im currently running a Geforce 4 Ti 4600, and im wanting to upgrade soon. Im considering the SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9800 PRO, 128 MB, 256 bit. Would this card play farcry at full settings? how about doom3?
If the extra 200 is worth it, I may go with a Geforce 6800 GT. Which do you all think I should go with? It would be nice to save the 200$, but if its important, I may fork it over.


Also, any SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9800 PRO overclockers out there?
If so, how far did you take it?

The Radeon 9800 Pro is a beast of a crad, but you might stay away from Sapphire. They've had some problems with burning out in the past. I don't know if that's the case for the 9800 lines, but it's something to think about.

It'll run Farcry with out a hitch and will do a pretty good job with Doom 3 assuming the rest of your hardware is up to specs

Get the 6800, the 9800's are over a year old. They are still good cards, and can run games like Far Cry and Doom 3 pretty good, but it will benefit you in the long run to go for the 6800.

Wow, being the ATI fanboy I am, I can't believe I said that

Is my mb Asus a7v333 even 8x? everywhere I look it says agp pro? will agp pro port be fast enough for GT's 8x?

I have a 9200 128 mb. . How does that hold up over time? Any 9200 owners here?

6800GT is totally worth it. I bought it, and it runs EVERYTHING, highest settings (well except doom 3 on ultra) with at least 2xaa 8xaf, most games higher. It's the hawtness.

Not sure if my mb is 8x, everywhere I look it just says agp pro. Is agp pro in between 4x and 8x? From what Ive found, that seems the case. Asus A7V333

If it's the VIA Apollo KT333 model, 8x
If it's the nForce2 model, 4x,
Either way the 6800GT will still run on it (It has 4x support)

Which 6800GT would you chose?
What company?

If you've got $400 lying around, go for the 6800. However, I've heard that prices are expected to drop around Christmas season, so if you can wait for a few more months, you might be able to get it for as low as $200.

That's what they said about 9800's too Wolfy. The drop didn't happen for another half a year.

6800GT? I'd say go with any company which offers the bundle you like the most. Each company offers one with different games--one even offers Doom 3 with theirs. Far Cry, Prince of Persia, mine came with Commandos 3. You choose.

I just picked up a BFG 6800GT on Monday. I haven't gotten much of a chance to mess with it much (hate school). It comes with an OCed cored of 370mhz (350mhz is the reference stock). I went ahead and upped it to the ultra clocks of 400/1100. Runs just fine. Hell, the card is quieter than my old FX5900. The blue LEDs are a nice addition. It doesn't come with a game bundle like most cards, but I don't really care since they always package lame games with video cards.

My 3dmark03 score went from 5800 to 11500. Quite a jump, I'd say. Doom3 stays at a constant 60fps with 4xAA and 8xAF at 1024x768. UT2004 runs at a million FPS. The Sims 2...well, not that it needs to run fast, but it does.

All in all, it was worth the $420 - $110 (sold my old card).

abehost: Try checking what the voltage of your AGP port is. If it's 1.5v, then it's 8x. If not, then it's 4x.

As for cards, both of them would be reccomendable. Just keep in mind that the 6800 (GT or standard) takes up lots of room; make sure you have the space for it. As for the Radeons, Avenger: Saphire's 9x00 cards seem to work pretty well for over-clocking; I've seen boosts of up to 10% for "free" (no impact on temperature), and can often safely go up to pass 25%.

Of course, one of the things to consider is software bundle. Radeon cards have held the advantage for quite a while in including a voucher for HL2. However, most GeForce manufacturers have stepped in to offer Doom3 with 6800s. That differnce may or may not weigh in on your decision, but if you buy an OEM card, you don't get either game.

As for performance, presuming you're close to the 3Ghz or 3000+ range, and have at least 512MB, either card will do well with Doom3/HL2. I know that a simple 9600XT is plenty to run most new games (I'm merely barring Doom3) at high resolution (at least 1024x768), with x6 AA, and still get 60Fps. If you don't like to use AA, then you won't have any real problems with performance (you'll get at least 30fps) in the next two years or so, even if you take the 9800 Pro. Also, the performance difference isn't too great for an entire generation gap; as I recall, the 6800GT doesn't quite get a 100% increase over the 9800Pro, so both will become obsolete in close time to each other (I'd say abut 6-9 months)

Well then they've fixed their burnout problem, it seems. That's cool. I just hadn't read anything on the new line or cards. Good Times

My 6800GT takes up no more space than my old Ti4400. Whatever makes you think they take up space is wrong.

And it rocks. HARD.

just pick a card, any card.

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=14-102-268&DEPA=1

read all the lil consumer reviews at the bottom, almost everyone of those guys flashes it and o/c it. I have thi card sitting on my desk right now with a fat VGA Silencer on top and am waiting for my next few paychecks to finish my comp

As Far as I know, with almost all GeForce cards made in the past few years, they obstructed the PCI slot next to the AGP slot. However, I do recall that some card manufacturers (it might have been eVGA, XFX, or some other) actually made cards that were of a "normal" thickness. Perhaps yours is one of them. (though many of the pics I've seen of 6800s had a fan that would be big enough for a CPU)

Of course, I'm not dissing the power ofthe 6800. It's a much better challenge to the X800 XT than the 5950U was to the 9800 XT... And if you're running Doom3 at higher than 1024x768, the 6800 actually out-performs the X800, and at a considerably lower price! (the 6800GTs I've seen average $475US, opposed to the $550US of the X800 XT)

Can I have your old card?

It's really just a 8500 with some enhancements like OpenGL 2.0, other then that your just getting a 8500 128MB DDR and Directx 8.1 support.

nottheking--there's an eVGA 6800GT sale going on at newegg for ~380, it's 400 at BestBuy, and the only cards to take up the extra PCI slot were the 6800 Ultra (original model, not anymore), the 5900 and 5950 (original model, not anymore) and the 5800.

The 6800GT is a great buy, well worth the cash, and will last for a long, long time.

eVGA 6800GT
I was looking at this card. Prob will be the one I get.
Still need to find out if my mb is 8x or not. It will still run anyway tho, right?