Video Card Upgrade Advice/PSU Advice!

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Revolution.

Revolution.

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Revolution52
Alright, I'm looking at upgrading my video card.
My current specs are:
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3.00 GHZ
Mobo: Gigabyte Technology 8IG1000MK
RAM: Single-channel 512mb Stick
Vid Card: ATi Radeon 9550 256mb (AGP)
120gb HDD
Etc etc.

The cards I'm looking at are BFG GeForce 7600GS OC 512mb AGP and the XpertVision GeForce 6800GS 512mb AGP.
There is $75 between them at my local computer store, GetRight (those links), but shopping around online reveals that the cards can be had for a better bargain.
At ComputerAlliance, they have the 7600GS for $269, plus $15 shipping, bringing it to close enough to $285, a saving of $15 from GetRight.
HBOutlet have the 6800GS at the low low cost of $276, plus $11 shipping, bringing it to $287, a huge saving of about $90 from GetRight.

The question is, which to get? The 7600 is a newer card on the 7-Series architecture, and comes overclocked right out of the box. It looks to be a great mid-high range card for the price. The 6800 seems to be a great bargain at HBOutlet, and out of stock at Getright at the moment. From what I hear it makes a good high-end video card (with GDDR3 memory), but its a generation old on the 6-Series architecture.
Any advice would be appreciated.
 
Really, you should be upgrading to PCI-E. Any AGP upgrading is a bit of a last-ditch situation that only a person in desperate need of an upgrade should be making.

With that aside, I would suggest going for a 256MB XFX 6800XT card, which is what I have,. Plays all Source gameso n full settings, 4x AA and 16x AF. I can't seem to find any in stock from places that ship to Australia, but I'll keep looking.

Spending any more than $150-$160 on an AGP card at this point in time is quite foolish. If you're aiming that high, you might as well buy a new motherboard (try and find one compatible with your CPU socket). A decent PCI-E card will pretty much beat out a high-end AGP card.
 
Whilst that would ultimately give me more performance, I'm really not keen on spending that much money. That and I don't know how to upgrade the mobo!
 
It's really easy. If you have XFire, ICQ, or AIM, I could probably teach you how, if your interested. Just suggesting, though :).
 
Heh, don't have any of them.
I'm not overly keen on changing the mobo, because if I'm doing that, I'd need to get new memory (although that is on the list for the future anyways), if you're changing the mobo, you may as well get a new CPU, and to handle all these new components I may need a new PSU... and before you know it I've bought a whole new computer! (and spent a hell of a lot of cash too...)
What I really wanna know is which card out of the two in the first post would be best. I wanna be able to play games on reasonable settings (mid-high, depending on the game). I'll probably end up getting a new PC either late 2007/early 2008, so future-proofing it is not a huge issue, although I'd like it to be a competant card until then.
They both seem to have their advantages and disadvantages, ie the older architecture of the 6-series card, but its the 800 model, and it has DDR3 memory. Etc etc.
By the way, would there be much performance difference between these cards (by XpertVision and BFG) and their stock counterparts?
 
What about a nVidia Geforce 7900GT? I bought mine from Newegg for $270 or so.
 
Revolution.
Could someone tell me whether my current ATX 400W PSU would be sufficient to have the XpertVision 6800GS Super?
Click to expand...
Doesn't it heavily depend on your other PC hardware? Even a high-powered graphics card will eat up less than a couple of hundred watts, so it's hard to know whether 400W is enough total power for your PC. I've got a 256Mb 7600GT GPU in my PC and I'm running off a 400W PSU with no problems.


KM.
 
After asking the question on another forum, it seems I might need a new PSU. The current one is rather low-end.
What I might do is put in the 6800, run some games etc to see how well it runs on my current PSU, and if I notice any problems, order a new PSU, install that and see how it runs. From what I hear the 6800GS uses up to 220W on full load.

dscn4406zy7.jpg

Current PSU

This one here seems to be better suited, despite the fact that its the same wattage.
3a1c377185d2049bb42e807baf0f058d.jpg

The thing I'm curious about is whether it will fit!
It looks physically bigger than the current unit. Also, it has a fan on top of it, does this mean I'd need a vent on top of my case?
Current Unit:
psu1pk9.jpg

psu2ri3.jpg
 
Okay, now I'm alittle confused. Will my current PSU be able to run the 6800GS?
The specs are in the photograph in the above post.
A member on another forum mentioned something about the 220W full load for the 6800, but researching around and reading your posts here, I'm not so sure.
Would only 10A on the 12V rail be sufficient?

I did that online PSU test, and entering in all the components I plan to buy, it showed 343W, meaning I won't need any more wattage, right?
EDIT: Now I'm really confused.
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2593&p=2
It says there that the 6800GS consumes 130W idle and 220W under load.
 

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