Which Card to buy?

WarEagleAU · Jul 9, 2006

Im in somewhat of a quandry. Seeing as I wont be upgrading my motherboard anytime soon, Im stuck with using AGP 8x. Ill probably upgrade later in the year, but for right now, Im eyeing me a new AGP videon card. My choices are as follows: PowerColor Radeon X800 GTO Video Card (149.99 US) ATI Radeon X850 Pro Video Card
(256MB, AGP 8X, DVI, VIVO - SKU: 100435712) (139.00 US) Sapphire Lite Radeon X1600 Pro Video Card
(512MB, AGP 8X, DVI - SKU: 100158) (142.99 US) and Radeon® X800 XL AGP 256MB D/V/VIVO Whitebox - REFURB* + Standard Warranty (119.00 US). What Im wanting to know is, which is the best card to go with for performance, overclockability and the possibilty of unlocking the extra pixel pipelines? Ive read in Maximum PC and CPU magazines that some GTO's will go all out and some x800 and x850 pros can be put to PE status. What do you all think? I was thinking the 1600 just because it has a 512mb buffer and also has AVIVO technology with IMPROVED drivers? Thanks. Oh, btw, this is my first post.

magibeg · Jul 9, 2006

I'm guessing your buying from a specific store then if your listing these prices. I'ld say the x850pro would be your best bet from what i can tell. The x1600 is slower then any of those other options you have listed there (the 512mb really doesn't help that much

). Bear in mind only certain video cards can be unlocked though and you might even want to consider looking for a nice x850 to buy just to be safe

. But my final choice out of those listed is the x850 pro :toast:

WarEagleAU · Jul 9, 2006

Yeah, its from the ATI website, with most of these prices from the ATI store. They are all pretty cheap but the x1600 was a sapphire lite edition.

magibeg · Jul 9, 2006

I recommend not buying from the ati store. If your in the US try something along the lines of newegg instead. Or if you want to ebay it up you'll find you can get some very good prices.

WarEagleAU · Jul 9, 2006

Just outta curiosity, why not? Aside from the free shipping and lower than low prices, newegg nor ebay can touch them

Tatty_Two · Jul 9, 2006

Yep, will probably go along with that followed by the GTO. What are the prices of say the 6800GS just to compare? they clock like mad and have a pretty good unlock record but It's been a while since I played with the 6 series. I am assuming the prices you have quoted is around your budget and therefore you are not considering the 7800GS or 850xt.

rpg711 · Jul 9, 2006

get this card if u have money and overclock it to like 500/700 or 550/750 its a great card paired with this waterblock switching out the water block inthis to get the 500/700, but still depends on ur card

magibeg · Jul 9, 2006

Generally from what i usually see the ati website seems to have some sort of markup on a lot of their video cards. But from what i can tell your looking at the clearance section and they seem to have pretty good prices there. Just making sure you hit all the bases before you buy yourself anything

rpg711 · Jul 9, 2006

read my post and see if u can afford that, if not get this paired with the cooling stuff i specified

Tatty_Two · Jul 9, 2006

Here's a 6800GS link at newegg for $120, clocked at 1400 memory...pretty good and you will get SM3.0 also, the 850 pro beats it on performance but has no SM3.0 and is probably a little more exspensive....the choice is yours!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122193R

WarEagleAU · Jul 9, 2006

Yeah, these are in my price range. Too bad that 7800 GS wasnt, I have read some good things about that. Havent really looked at the 6800GS. I was wanting a 6800 Ultra for a decent price if I could find it, but I havent been so lucky. Im basically wanting to get a 256bit bus on my vid card. My old radeon 9800 pro that came with this system has a 128bit bus. Cant soft mod this to a 9800 xt for that reason. Ive been searching and researching for like a month and Im finally landing good cards and great prices. Im just hoping that x850 pro (even though Im buying from ATI who has made it, not a add in partner) is unlockable. But it doesnt matter, anything Ive quoted to ya'll should be better then what I have.

Also, Im looking at the extreme giant 3 that I believe, infared had posted in his sig. I cant seem to find where its sold. Ive searched compusa, bestbuy, newegg, tiger direct, no such luck. Im seriously looking at the TT Tide bigwater. Any of you all have any luck with that?

Tatty_Two · Jul 9, 2006

rpg711 said:
read my post and see if u can afford that, if not get this paired with the cooling stuff i specified

Naa the $120 6800 on the same page but below is better, less memory but much higher memory clocks and $48 cheaper.

rpg711 · Jul 9, 2006

get the one i told in the link, the 6800 12 pipes are possibly unlockable to 16 pipes via rivatuner... big waters are just a beefed up version of the tide water but with the combination i posted, the tidewater with a after aftermarket heatsink that comes with ram sinks, u should beable to get higher performance than big water.

WarEagleAU · Jul 9, 2006

6800 on newegg.com is like 168.99 + shipping. The 512mb of ram is nice but this is the asus model (only agp they have) and it has a 128-bit bus.

Tatty_Two · Jul 9, 2006

WarEagleAU said:
Yeah, these are in my price range. Too bad that 7800 GS wasnt, I have read some good things about that. Havent really looked at the 6800GS. I was wanting a 6800 Ultra for a decent price if I could find it, but I havent been so lucky. Im basically wanting to get a 256bit bus on my vid card. My old radeon 9800 pro that came with this system has a 128bit bus. Cant soft mod this to a 9800 xt for that reason. Ive been searching and researching for like a month and Im finally landing good cards and great prices. Im just hoping that x850 pro (even though Im buying from ATI who has made it, not a add in partner) is unlockable. But it doesnt matter, anything Ive quoted to ya'll should be better then what I have.

Also, Im looking at the extreme giant 3 that I believe, infared had posted in his sig. I cant seem to find where its sold. Ive searched compusa, bestbuy, newegg, tiger direct, no such luck. Im seriously looking at the TT Tide bigwater. Any of you all have any luck with that?

My link is a 256 Bit Bus!!!!!! and $120......and if you are lucky not only may you be able to unlock the 4 pipes but flash to GT/Ultra but thats a risk you take and is not certain whether you go for ATI or Nvidia, both have good track records howerver.

WarEagleAU · Jul 9, 2006

True, but 128mb of vid memory. Thanks for the help folks I really do appreciate it. Now, anyone have a link for the TT Extreme Giant 3?

WarEagleAU · Jul 9, 2006

Hmm XFX 6800XT 256mb 256 Bus 1000mem clock 350 core, any thoughts?

rpg711 · Jul 9, 2006

i googled it and found a austrailian site... it is like 46 au $ so should be like 30 us... this is the site

Tatty_Two · Jul 9, 2006

WarEagleAU said:
Hmm XFX 6800XT 256mb 256 Bus 1000mem clock 350 core, any thoughts?

Think the xt comes with only 8PP???? and 8 pipes are a LOT less likely to unlock to 16 if at all., effectively its a 6600 with 256 Bus and sm3.0 then.

WarEagleAU · Jul 9, 2006

Ahh ok, thanks.

BigD6997 · Jul 9, 2006

get the x850pro

Tatty_Two · Jul 9, 2006

BigD6997 said:
get the x850pro

Yep!

WarEagleAU · Jul 9, 2006

Thanks for the help everyone, I think that is the way Ill go. Appreciate it much.

System Name	Pandemic 2020
Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 "Gen 2" 2600X
Motherboard	AsRock X470 Killer Promontory
Cooling	CoolerMaster 240 RGB Master Cooler (Newegg Eggxpert)
Memory	32 GB Geil EVO Portenza DDR4 3200 MHz
Video Card(s)	ASUS Radeon RX 580 DirectX 12 DUAL-RX580-O8G 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video C
Storage	WD 250 M.2, Corsair P500 M.2, OCZ Trion 500, WD Black 1TB, Assorted others.
Display(s)	ASUS MG24UQ Gaming Monitor - 23.6" 4K UHD (3840x2160) , IPS, Adaptive Sync, DisplayWidget
Case	Fractal Define R6 C
Audio Device(s)	Realtek 5.1 Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair RMX 850 Platinum PSU (Newegg Eggxpert)
Mouse	Razer Death Adder
Keyboard	Corsair K95 Mechanical & Corsair K65 Wired, Wireless, Bluetooth)
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64

System Name	Not named
Processor	Intel 8700k @ 5Ghz
Motherboard	Asus ROG STRIX Z370-E Gaming
Cooling	DeepCool Assassin II
Memory	16GB DDR4 Corsair LPX 3000mhz CL15
Video Card(s)	Zotac 1080 Ti AMP EXTREME
Storage	Samsung 960 PRO 512GB
Display(s)	24" Dell IPS 1920x1200
Case	Fractal Design R5
Power Supply	Corsair AX760 Watt Fully Modular

System Name	Pandemic 2020
Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 "Gen 2" 2600X
Motherboard	AsRock X470 Killer Promontory
Cooling	CoolerMaster 240 RGB Master Cooler (Newegg Eggxpert)
Memory	32 GB Geil EVO Portenza DDR4 3200 MHz
Video Card(s)	ASUS Radeon RX 580 DirectX 12 DUAL-RX580-O8G 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video C
Storage	WD 250 M.2, Corsair P500 M.2, OCZ Trion 500, WD Black 1TB, Assorted others.
Display(s)	ASUS MG24UQ Gaming Monitor - 23.6" 4K UHD (3840x2160) , IPS, Adaptive Sync, DisplayWidget
Case	Fractal Define R6 C
Audio Device(s)	Realtek 5.1 Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair RMX 850 Platinum PSU (Newegg Eggxpert)
Mouse	Razer Death Adder
Keyboard	Corsair K95 Mechanical & Corsair K65 Wired, Wireless, Bluetooth)
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64

System Name	Not named
Processor	Intel 8700k @ 5Ghz
Motherboard	Asus ROG STRIX Z370-E Gaming
Cooling	DeepCool Assassin II
Memory	16GB DDR4 Corsair LPX 3000mhz CL15
Video Card(s)	Zotac 1080 Ti AMP EXTREME
Storage	Samsung 960 PRO 512GB
Display(s)	24" Dell IPS 1920x1200
Case	Fractal Design R5
Power Supply	Corsair AX760 Watt Fully Modular

System Name	Pandemic 2020
Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 "Gen 2" 2600X
Motherboard	AsRock X470 Killer Promontory
Cooling	CoolerMaster 240 RGB Master Cooler (Newegg Eggxpert)
Memory	32 GB Geil EVO Portenza DDR4 3200 MHz
Video Card(s)	ASUS Radeon RX 580 DirectX 12 DUAL-RX580-O8G 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video C
Storage	WD 250 M.2, Corsair P500 M.2, OCZ Trion 500, WD Black 1TB, Assorted others.
Display(s)	ASUS MG24UQ Gaming Monitor - 23.6" 4K UHD (3840x2160) , IPS, Adaptive Sync, DisplayWidget
Case	Fractal Define R6 C
Audio Device(s)	Realtek 5.1 Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair RMX 850 Platinum PSU (Newegg Eggxpert)
Mouse	Razer Death Adder
Keyboard	Corsair K95 Mechanical & Corsair K65 Wired, Wireless, Bluetooth)
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64

Processor	Rocket Lake Core i5 11600K @ 5 Ghz with PL tweaks
Motherboard	MSI MAG Z490 TOMAHAWK
Cooling	Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120SE + 4 Phanteks 140mm case fans
Memory	32GB (4 x 8GB SR) Patriot Viper Steel 4133Mhz DDR4 @ 3600Mhz CL14@1.45v Gear 1
Video Card(s)	Asus Dual RTX 4070 OC
Storage	WD Blue SN550 1TB M.2 NVME//Crucial MX500 500GB SSD (OS)
Display(s)	AOC Q2781PQ 27 inch Ultra Slim 2560 x 1440 IPS
Case	Phanteks Enthoo Pro M Windowed - Gunmetal
Audio Device(s)	Onboard Realtek ALC1200/SPDIF to Sony AVR @ 5.1
Power Supply	Seasonic CORE GM650w Gold Semi modular
Mouse	Coolermaster Storm Octane wired
Keyboard	Element Gaming Carbon Mk2 Tournament Mech
Software	Win 10 Home x64

Processor	Intel P-4 3ghz @ to 4.7ghz 1.55 vcore
Motherboard	ECS C19-A SLI
Cooling	Thermaltake Golden Orb 2
Memory	OCz ddr2 333mhz@ 432mhz 2 volts
Video Card(s)	HIS ICEQ2 x800gto vivo 650/650 soon to volt mod
Storage	160gb seagate baracuda 7200 rpm+160gb western digital 7200rpm pata in pata raid 0
Display(s)	Samsung 17" LCD
Case	RAIDMAX MUSTANG
Audio Device(s)	Realtec integrated sound with fiber optical and coaxal? lol never heard of that 1
Power Supply	Ultra ULT31845 X-Finity 500W
Software	Windows XP Pro,, getting 64 bit soon...

Processor	e8400 @ 4ghz 1.344v
Motherboard	EVGA 780i
Cooling	Thermalright Ultra-Ex lapped
Memory	OCZ Reaper HPC 2GB (3-5-5-17) @ 450mhz
Video Card(s)	8800gts
Storage	200G WD
Display(s)	23in samsung lcd hdtv
Case	stacker 831
Power Supply	OCZ stealthxstrem 600watt
Software	Xp-Pro

Which Card to buy?

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