9600 to x800 Pro worth it?

[Chet Spartan]

OK, 2 questions for those that want to be helpful. Thanks in advance.
1. Read below and let me know if the performance I'm getting is good for this setup or my vid card is holding me back?

2. Will the x800 Pro make a $250 difference in this rig? (and yes I'll be OC'ing it to 16 pipes)

Rig:
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Winchester
Mushkin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200
PowerColor 9600 Pro 256mb
Audigy 2 Value
60gb WD 7,200
160gb WD 7,200
NEC 3520
Lite-On 351S
Antec TrueBlue 480W
All wrapped up in an Antec P160 w/acrylic side panel

Stock/Orig chipset/BIOS on the Neo2, everything else updated drivers, no overclocks. I've cleaned my cache folder (huge help), haven't played with page file size, AGP set to 128mb, fastwrite disabled, defrag and virus clean. Just upgraded to the Audigy over a SB Live Value and noticed marked improvement in performance and quality of sound.

I have settings at pretty much low/medium with no AA/AF and get about 35-40 FPS at 1024@75 on a Dell/Sony P991 monitor.

Does this sound right for the specs given?

Will bumping to the x800 Pro drastically increase my FPS and give me the ability to crank up the quality at the same time?

Thanks for to those that reply with helpful insight or suggestions.

[lcplsickoll]

Yes the 9600 is holding you back. I didn't know you could open the 800Pro to 16 pipes, but it's worth it stock anyways. Is it worth $250, well that's up to you. I went from a 9800Pro to a X800XL PCI-e, yes new mobo, and I think it was well worth the 500ish I spent on the Mobo, GPU, and PSU. You should be able to run that rig w/X800Pro on High at 1280x960 w/2 or 4x AA and get the same FPS or higher. I get around 50-60 on all high 4xAA @1280x960

[tomster2300]

I went from a Geforce 4 ti4800se to a 6800 GT (I know you're not talking about nvidia, but they're both similar cards in comparison to the two you're speaking of). You will see considerable performance increase since you do have a rig that will make use of a high end card. The only thing that might be a deterent is the price, but that's up to you. I spent $400 on my GT when it first came out.

I play BF2 at 1280 x 1024 4xAA all medium settings and I get 50-100 fps.

My rig is

AMD 2500+ barton core OC'd to 2 ghz
ASUS A7N8X-X
eVGA 6800 GT
1 gb DDR 400 (pc3200)
40 gig WD 8 mb cache

[Chet Spartan]

Thanks Tomster, I looked at both the 6800 & the x800. I'm not a ATI fanboy, just chose it based on the reviews. Anyone else feel free to make a similar comment/experience about the benefit of increasing to said cards. Thanks

Also I swear I read you could unlock the x800 Pro to 16 pipes, but maybe I'll just get the XT for the clock speed benefit as well.

[tomster2300]

Thanks Tomster, I looked at both the 6800 & the x800. I'm not a ATI fanboy, just chose it based on the reviews. Anyone else feel free to make a similar comment/experience about the benefit of increasing to said cards. Thanks

I was just saying that since the geforce 4 ti4800se compares directly with the ATI 9600 and the 6800 GT compares directly to the x800 then you would probably receive a similar performance increase as I did.

EDIT: The only true difference between the ti4800 and the 9600 was that nvidia's card lacked true directx 9 support -- I noticed the difference when I switched.

[lcplsickoll]

Thanks Tomster, I looked at both the 6800 & the x800. I'm not a ATI fanboy, just chose it based on the reviews. Anyone else feel free to make a similar comment/experience about the benefit of increasing to said cards. Thanks

Also I swear I read you could unlock the x800 Pro to 16 pipes, but maybe I'll just get the XT for the clock speed benefit as well.

You may be able to, I'm just unaware of it. You can go with the X800XL which is a great deal. You can find them for under $300 on Newegg.com and I can attest to their performance and many others here can too. In a benchmark using the BF2 Demo they inched out the 6800GT by about 15FPS. That is the 512M version, but the 256M version will give similar results. Actually I just did a little research and there's absolutley no difference between the 512 and 256M versions of the X800XL in FPS in gaming benchmarks. Just goes to show that these games aren't going to make use of that high Video memory yet. Although BF2 may.

[tomster2300]

You may be able to, I'm just unaware of it. You can go with the X800XL which is a great deal. You can find them for under $300 on Newegg.com and I can attest to their performance and many others here can too. In a benchmark using the BF2 Demo they inched out the 6800GT by about 15FPS. That is the 512M version, but the 256M version will give similar results.

It's those 15 fps increase which determines whether you see the bullet tracers coming your way or not and if you'll react in time.

[Canadian Bacon]

I went from a 9800 to an x800xt. Definatly made a difference. If you have money to waste, go for it.

[[UT]MajorHavoc]

Also I swear I read you could unlock the x800 Pro to 16 pipes, but maybe I'll just get the XT for the clock speed benefit as well.

not all x800 pros can unlock 16 pipes, ONLY X800 PRO VIVO cards can. now getting an x800 pro vivo is another question, if you're lucky you might get one. if you do get one, you effectively have an x800 xt platinum edition because you can flash the bios and it becomes a full fledged x800 xt pe. to check if your x800 pro is a vivo and to flash, use this link.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=31&threadid=1371898&enterthread=y

i was lucky to get the vivo version and i was able to flash my card to the xt pe. i used the flashed card for some time and then decided to return the card to it's original pro state because i currently don't need all that extra horsepower.

[lcplsickoll]

i was lucky to get the vivo version and i was able to flash my card to the xt pe. i used the flashed card for some time and then decided to return the card to it's original pro state because i currently don't need all that extra horsepower.

Don't need extra horsepower?!! What kind of madness is that? We all need more power than is necessary. It's the American way.

[sra_slimshady]

OK, 2 questions for those that want to be helpful. Thanks in advance.
1. Read below and let me know if the performance I'm getting is good for this setup or my vid card is holding me back?

2. Will the x800 Pro make a $250 difference in this rig? (and yes I'll be OC'ing it to 16 pipes)

Rig:
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Winchester
Mushkin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200
PowerColor 9600 Pro 256mb
Audigy 2 Value
60gb WD 7,200
160gb WD 7,200
NEC 3520
Lite-On 351S
Antec TrueBlue 480W
All wrapped up in an Antec P160 w/acrylic side panel

Stock/Orig chipset/BIOS on the Neo2, everything else updated drivers, no overclocks. I've cleaned my cache folder (huge help), haven't played with page file size, AGP set to 128mb, fastwrite disabled, defrag and virus clean. Just upgraded to the Audigy over a SB Live Value and noticed marked improvement in performance and quality of sound.

I have settings at pretty much low/medium with no AA/AF and get about 35-40 FPS at 1024@75 on a Dell/Sony P991 monitor.

Does this sound right for the specs given?

Will bumping to the x800 Pro drastically increase my FPS and give me the ability to crank up the quality at the same time?

Thanks for to those that reply with helpful insight or suggestions.

Yes, your card is holding you back. NO, DO NOT go back to an ATI card.
Get at least a 6800GT or a 7800GTX... ATI SUX!!!

[lcplsickoll]

Yes, your card is holding you back. NO, DO NOT go back to an ATI card.
Get at least a 6800GT or a 7800GTX... ATI SUX!!!

LMAO...there's an educated and valuable opinion.

[tomster2300]

I wouldn't get a 7800 GTX, I'm going to wait for ATI's new line of cards to come down and blow everyone out of the water ~ and I'm a nvidia fan boy :)

EDIT: BTW, my friend just recently built a rig and put a x850 in it (not sure which one it is XL, pro - like I said, I'm a nvidia boy :) ) but he is able to run BF2 with everything on high at 1600 x 1280 no AA and get decent, playable framerates (actually probably better that, I've never seen it in person, but he does manage to kill me nicely online :)). Amazingly in BF2, even a 30 fps can be smooth.

[lcplsickoll]

I wouldn't get a 7800 GTX, I'm going to wait for ATI's new line of cards to come down and blow everyone out of the water ~ and I'm a nvidia fan boy :)

Actually you've been pretty neutral and your advice from what I've read seems neutral. It's refreshing after what I've been reading. I want Crossfire.

[tomster2300]

Well I think it's foolish to take sides in this situation. The cards from both companies are always similar, and if not, then wait a few months and the tables will turn. I go with nvidia because when I went for my first upgrade years ago that's what somebody recommended to me. I found it worked well so I've just stuck with it out of habit. Now that I know more about computers and can make more educated choices I still go with nvidia. It seems whenever it comes time for me to upgrade nvidia is always on top (:) I had to). But when my next upgrade comes and if it looks like ATI has a dominant lead, then I'll certainly give them a whirl.

But just for you lcplsickoll, ATI sucks :)