Best choice for next card...

[Adam Parkin]

Okay yet another one of those "which cards should I get" postings....

I want to upgrade my *old* Radeon 8500, and right now it's a toss up
between:

9800 AIW Pro $199
X800XL $299

And I'm just not sure which would be best for me, is the extra $100
worth it? Like will I experience 50% more performance (or better) with
the x800 to justify the 50% higher cost?

If it helps, generally I run mostly FPS's, with the occasional RTS
thrown in. I'd consider myself a "heavy" but not "hardcore" gamer.
Also keep in mind that I've been running with my 8500 for quite a while,
so it's not like I'm accustomed to 100+ FPS in most of my games. =;->

Any advice appreciated....

Adam Parkin

 

[Oenone]

9800 AIW Pro $199
X800XL $299

It's obviously your money, but I recently upgraded my PC from an Athlon
XP2400 with a 9800 Pro to an Athlon 64 3500 with an X800XL. The performance
difference is astounding. How much of that is down to the CPU and how much
is the graphics card, I can't tell... But I am extremely impressed with the
X800XL.

 

[Smart Feet]

Okay yet another one of those "which cards should I get" postings....

I want to upgrade my *old* Radeon 8500, and right now it's a toss up
between:

9800 AIW Pro $199
X800XL $299

And I'm just not sure which would be best for me, is the extra $100
worth it? Like will I experience 50% more performance (or better) with
the x800 to justify the 50% higher cost?

If it helps, generally I run mostly FPS's, with the occasional RTS
thrown in. I'd consider myself a "heavy" but not "hardcore" gamer.
Also keep in mind that I've been running with my 8500 for quite a while,
so it's not like I'm accustomed to 100+ FPS in most of my games. =;->

Any advice appreciated....

Adam Parkin

The brand new cards with Shader Model 3 are being announced / released
tomorrow. You should probably take a look at those before you decide...

 

[Lance Ballantyne]

I want to upgrade my *old* Radeon 8500, and right now it's a toss up
between:

9800 AIW Pro $199
X800XL $299

And I'm just not sure which would be best for me, is the extra $100 worth
it? Like will I experience 50% more performance (or better) with the x800
to justify the 50% higher cost?

depends on your system specs. your mobo support 8x agp? if neither of thsoe
cards are worth spending the money on.

If your system is jsut dowqn right old, from the sounds of it since your
still using an 8500, than upgrading to anything wont be worth it.

can you suplly your system specs?

i just upgraded from a 9800xt to the x800 pro 256 AGp card and i dont see
much of aperformance boost at all and my system is only a couple years old.
it was practicly top of the line when i put it together

 

[KCB]

depends on your system specs. your mobo support 8x agp? if neither of
thsoe cards are worth spending the money on.

If your system is jsut dowqn right old, from the sounds of it since your
still using an 8500, than upgrading to anything wont be worth it.

can you suplly your system specs?

i just upgraded from a 9800xt to the x800 pro 256 AGp card and i dont see
much of aperformance boost at all and my system is only a couple years
old. it was practicly top of the line when i put it together

Where you would see a performance boost from that upgrade would be the
ability to run a much higher resolution, with AA and Aniso cranked up, and
get as high or higher frame rates. If you just are running your games the
same as before, you'll probably not notice a few extra FPS at the same res,
etc...

 

[DaveW]

I don't suppose you'd want to mention what motherboard and CPU you are
using, so we can make an intelligent recommendation?

 

[Lance Ballantyne]

Where you would see a performance boost from that upgrade would be the
ability to run a much higher resolution, with AA and Aniso cranked up, and
get as high or higher frame rates. If you just are running your games the
same as before, you'll probably not notice a few extra FPS at the same
res, etc...

I stand corrected. you are correct in your statement. I thought i should see
a higher framerate but i am only seeing the same frames at a higher res with
AA and such.

thank you for correcting me. but i still think if he's running an 8500 his
system would be of the same time frame, being outdated , what have you. IMO
i dont think the x800 would do him much good.

 

[Adam Parkin]

I don't suppose you'd want to mention what motherboard and CPU you are
using, so we can make an intelligent recommendation?

Sorry for the late reply, but here's the rest of my specs:

CPU: P4 3.0 GHz
RAM: 1GB PC3200
MBoard: ASUS P5P800

Thanks,

Adam