Negative Sun Posted September 12, 2007 Author Share Posted September 12, 2007 No can do on a 300W PSU and a shoestring budget guys The 8 series isn't out in AGP yet here AFAIK... I'll probably go for the 256Mb 9550 as soon as the next money comes in and the bills are paid (god knows when that'll be lolz), at least it's got SM2.0 and it meets the minimum specs for Jade... It's amazing how I've had to lower my expectations throughout this thread over and over again *sigh* aw well, at least I'll be able to crank up the settings a bit more on KotOR with a 9550... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted September 13, 2007 Share Posted September 13, 2007 You should do what I did and look for a used 6600GT or 6800GT on Fleabay. From a reputable seller, of course. Either one would give you a terrific performance boost in older games and would even allow you to play some newer ones at low settings. And see if it is at all possible to overclock your CPU. I would have ages ago if I wasn't stuck with a Dell BIOS and RDRAM. I know that stingerhs managed to O/C his Barton by half a GHZ on stock cooling. You might be able to do the same. It all depends on what kind of motherboard you have, and the performance boost is free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Negative Sun Posted September 13, 2007 Author Share Posted September 13, 2007 Hmmm...The 6600GT is looking very sexy indeed with its GDDR3 memory and low power consumption. What about the 7300 or 7600 series? I've got a few of those on my radar and the requirements meet my poopy PSU (which has given cool points to nVidia in my book because its Ati counterparts all seem to need much more juice), they any good? And what's up with this "GS" and "GT" bs, I'm only used to Ati's confusing name calling lolz...I take it GT is better, but is a 6600GT better than a 6800GS? Or are they about equal? Hmmm did some scouting and I noticed the 6800 has a 256-bit memory interface...does it make much of a difference compared to the 128-bit one? They're both about the same price... Thanks for the hint Q, I couldn't find these before but I found a new online retailer that's quite cheap I'll fire some questions towards stingerhs about overclocking then, cause I was thinking of maybe adding another case fan or two because me thinks it's quite hot in there with a passively cooled GPU and only the PSU and CPU fans... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted September 14, 2007 Share Posted September 14, 2007 Look here and here. That should answer your questions about the relative performance of the different cards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted September 14, 2007 Share Posted September 14, 2007 the 7300 is bollocks, I can tell you that much....its the 6200 of the 7 series mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted September 14, 2007 Share Posted September 14, 2007 Hmm. Your weak PSU makes any video card purchase consideration rather difficult. You'll need to fix this problem first. Don't worry because you'll be able to use said PSU in your new machine when you build it. I haven't a clue what's going on in the UK, but here in the USA Ultra Products has been giving away decent PSUs by making them free after rebate. I've managed to snag a couple this way (along with a case), and the even the cheap model is a 500W model with 28 amps on the +12V rail and a MTBF of 100,000+hrs. It resides in my Dell, ATM. The good model is a heavy-duty (and heavy) server-grade 600W dual 80mm fan model with 34 amps on the +12V rail that I will definitely be using in my new rig. You're just going to have to use a search engine, shop around, and check out your local tech forums for any deals like this in the UK. Stuff can be had for free. Once your PSU problem is addressed, I'd recommend a 7600GT hands down as the best AGP bang for the buck. It blows the 7600GS away and doesn't cost that much more, at least not in the US. Sure, there are better AGP cards out there right now (such as the X1950PRO), but they cost way more and you're looking to spend the least that you can get away with, right? Manufacturers offer rebates on this card here in the US all of the time. A 7600GT in place of you old MX will be like night and day, and would give you the ability to play newer games (at low settings) if you wanted. For both the 7600GS and GT you're going to need at the very least 18 amps on the +12V rail. Any less and the card may not function properly. With a new PSU your options will include the ATI DX9 products as well, which can offer a ton of bang for buck as long as you have enough juice to run them. Of course you could always get the card first and see if your current PSU can handle it. It might be able to, who knows? Last but not least, you'll need to consider whether or not it will be worth the money to upgrade a machine that is already quite old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Negative Sun Posted September 14, 2007 Author Share Posted September 14, 2007 Well atm I'll just get a video card, I've decided (finally I hear some people think ) in theportantly the minimum power requirement is only 300W (for a fully loaded system, whi 6800GS as it is the top notch chipset of the 6-series, has 128Mb of GDDR3 running at 1Ghz, a 256-bit memory interface and most imch I don't think mine is), it doesn't say how many amps are needed on the 12V rail though, so I'm hoping my 15A will do, if not, then I'll deal with it then...And last but not least, it's only £40 ($80), which is quite good here in the UK, especially for a brand new card. So as soon as I've got some money to spend on me, this sucka will be mine! Like you said Q, the PSU is the only thing I will be able to take to my next rig, so I plan to make that one count, I've got my eye (aka bookmarked) on a 600W one with 32A on the 12V rail and it's about £20 ($40), not bad I think... After that and when I get my finances sorted I'll look into a new rig...A 6800 should be able to tide me over until then as I don't plan to play any very recent releases really (except Jade Empire and NWN2, which should both work with that GPU) And I've just been reading an interesting review bout the 6800GS and at my rez (1024x768) and with the games I tend to play it should rip lots! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted September 15, 2007 Share Posted September 15, 2007 An AGP 6800GS is a decent card and you may be able to use RivaTuner to unlock the locked pipelines and vertex shader(s) in the GPU to bring it up to the level of a GT. Then overclock it and you have an ultra! Not too shabby for $80.00. Probably the best deal you're going to find, and your PSU should be able to handle it. Are you sure that it only has 128MB? All the ones that I've seen have 256, and you're going to want 256. Anywho, NS you'll end up with 6800GT-level performance at least, which is exactly what I have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Negative Sun Posted September 15, 2007 Author Share Posted September 15, 2007 Are you sure that it only has 128MB? All the ones that I've seen have 256, and you're going to want 256. That's what I thought, cause the brand is XFX, so I checked out the site and the only AGP that's on there is 256Mb, but hey for that price I can't complain, and if it does turn out to be 256Mb I'll be a happy bunny This is the site where I'll be getting it from and this is the XFX page with all their 6800GS models in it...A bit strange huh? The Scan site says 6800 but then the tech sheet says 6800GS chipset with GDDR3 memory... Ach well, no matter what, it'll be better than a GeForce 4 MX4000 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted September 15, 2007 Share Posted September 15, 2007 That's not a GS. It's just a plain ol' 6800 with 128MB of DDR, not even DDR2. You could still unlock the pipelines with RivaTuner, but that crappy memory will just cripple the card. Look on FleaBay or get a 7600GS or GT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Negative Sun Posted September 16, 2007 Author Share Posted September 16, 2007 Nah I'll just go for the 6600GT with the DDR3 memory then, good enough for the time being...Thanks Q, I thought something wasn't right about that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted September 16, 2007 Share Posted September 16, 2007 Hope you find a good deal on one. It will be a dramatic improvement over what you have now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Negative Sun Posted September 16, 2007 Author Share Posted September 16, 2007 Aye well it's going for about the same price ($80) on that site, which seems to be the only one around here, they're very much in demand on Ebay as well so I doubt I'd get a good deal there...I wish some american sites like newegg would ship overseas but they don't, poop I say! It will be a great improvement though, cause I'm only looking for something to play JE and NWN2 and to see some of the games I've been playing for ages now (KotOR, TSL, EaW, etc...) in their full glory, I'm not expecting to be able to turn it on full blast with the newer games, but as long as it looks nice and is playable that's ok with me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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