Would a 7600gs be overkill?

[Xune]

I've recently treated myself to a long overdue new system and so after scavenging hard drives and burners I'm left with the following components:

An Asus A7N8X Deluxe mobo, an Athlon 2600+ XP, a matched pair of Corsair 512 MB DDR memory sticks and a 9700pro GPU.

All very old kit, but still working perfectly. So I was wondering would it be overkill to swap out the 9700pro for a 7600gs? Would it be bottlenecked by the RAM or CPU, would it be too much for the PSU (an Antec 350 TrueBlue)?

Cheers.

[Bl00dFox]

Nope. The 7600GS would definately make a difference. Make sure you have the correct slot (AGP, PCI_E, etc..)

[White_Pawn]

are you buying this 7600gs brand new? I'm guessing this is an AGP system?

personally, if you are going to buy a brand new videocard for AGP, try to find a x1950pro 256mb.

That should tie you over until you get the money/time to build a completely new build.

If you OC that 2600+, it should be able to unleash most of the x1950pro's power.

[Xune]

Thanks for the input.

The components mentioned above are the remnants of my old system. The aim is to reuse all but the 9700 pro to make a system my brother can use. Until now he has played games like Half Life 2 and Oblivion (barely) and would like to play Bioshock however the 9700 is only SM2.0.

The motherboard is Socket A and AGP 8X making upgrading the CPU a hard task but finding AGP graphics cards is still fairly easy.

I was looking at new cards but I have bought second hand and would do again if the price was right. My major concern is that given the relative lack of power in the existing components buying a contemporary graphics card would be a waste of money and power. If I went with a X1950 pro would I need to replace the CPU and PSU to keep up with it or would a simple overclock suffice?

[jiggamanjb]

I'd say the x1950 may be too much. I'd get the Radeon HD 2600 XT and it only draws 45w of power.

[White_Pawn]

even if it is slightly bottlenecked, that is besides the point.

at the end of the day. x1950ro > 2600XT

[jiggamanjb]

even if it is slightly bottlenecked, that is besides the point.

at the end of the day. x1950ro > 2600XT

Well he can keep the $70 difference in his pocket for the 'same' performance.

Check these links out from guys with the 'same' setup as you.

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?threadid=207591
http://www.xtremods.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=8915

[Xune]

Thanks for the input again guys, it's certainly given me something to think about.

If I'm likely to see the same performance from the 2600xt as I would from the x1950pro, I'd have to go with the cheaper option. Moving up to a faster processor would cost about £50 for a 3200+ (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=220187482032&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=012), which is what I was hoping to spend on the 7600gs, and then adding £100 for the x1950pro (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/119956) means I'd have spent £150 upgrading a PC that I just spent £700 to replace. :-/

Now what I need to know is does the performance increase between the 7600gs (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132315) and 2600xt (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/134856) justify the difference in price?

[RollingThunder]

Thanks for the input again guys, it's certainly given me something to think about.

If I'm likely to see the same performance from the 2600xt as I would from the x1950pro, I'd have to go with the cheaper option. Moving up to a faster processor would cost about £50 for a 3200+ (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=220187482032&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=012), which is what I was hoping to spend on the 7600gs, and then adding £100 for the x1950pro (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/119956) means I'd have spent £150 upgrading a PC that I just spent £700 to replace. :-/

Now what I need to know is does the performance increase between the 7600gs (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132315) and 2600xt (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/134856) justify the difference in price?

Xune,

My son runs a 7600GS AGP with a P4 Pentium and a 300w power supply because that's about the maximum card he could use allowing for some overhead on his power supply. Runs CoD 4 just fine.

Never ran any comparison tests with it for performance, it just works!

[vgta88]

hey i think £ is a lot less than usd/cad but don't...never get a 3200+ when you can get a mobile XP-M 2500+/2800+/ or the 2600+ on ebay they are pretty cheap if you can find a non rip off seller. (you can get em for 40-45 usd, which is like £20-25?)

stay away from the xp-m 3000+ essentially the same as the xp 3200+ because they require more voltage to be stable so they don't overclock much. most reviews I read say xp-m 2600+ is best, the lower the voltage requirement was the higher they overclocked at normal voltages. (and stayed cooler)

the mobile ones can run with higher heat tolerance and lower voltage+ wattage requirements and should be just as cheap. I was looking to beef up my aging system too and decided cpu was all I was really gonna change. my xp-m 2800+ AXMJ2800FHQ4C stepping IQYHA Q437EPMW is running at ~2.3 ghz stable at ~1.6v which probably isn't that good

but its an option if your desktop 2600+ doesn't overclock well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_Athlon_XP_microprocessors#Athlon_XP-M_.22Barton.22_.28Mainstream.2C_45-53_W_TDP.2C_Socket_A.29
(only thing not mentioned on this page for xp-m's is that my xp-m is rated at 53 watts tdp)

[jiggamanjb]

Thanks for the input again guys, it's certainly given me something to think about.

If I'm likely to see the same performance from the 2600xt as I would from the x1950pro, I'd have to go with the cheaper option. Moving up to a faster processor would cost about £50 for a 3200+ (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=220187482032&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=012), which is what I was hoping to spend on the 7600gs, and then adding £100 for the x1950pro (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/119956) means I'd have spent £150 upgrading a PC that I just spent £700 to replace. :-/

Now what I need to know is does the performance increase between the 7600gs (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132315) and 2600xt (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/134856) justify the difference in price?


There is no reason to get a new cpu, when you can just overclock the one you have to the same performance that you would get from the new one.

I wouldn't get the 7600gs. I would get the 7600gt or the x1650 pro at about the same price point as the 7600gs. Here in the US the 2600xt is pretty cheap, it's 58 pounds, so that's why I suggested it.

[ALiEN2953]

i would stay away from the 2600xt like the plague. the 7600gs will give you much better performance at a cheaper price.

[jiggamanjb]

i would stay away from the 2600xt like the plague. the 7600gs will give you much better performance at a cheaper price.

I'd like to see links to prove that. :confused:

[rainless]

Well I'd say just about everyone who's posted here is wrong.

If you click on my name and view my profile you'll see my old system:

Athlon/Sempron 2600+
A7N8X-E Deluxe (because it's gotta be classy for Team Rainless)
9600pro

I never really had any trouble running anything all the way up to F.E.A.R. but I'm sure I would've had trouble with Oblivion. I don't think you'd get much use out of something like a 2600XT and DX10. It's not so much that your CPU would bottleneck your video card, but the CPU would bottleneck Vista and you would'nt get anything done in DX10 anyway.

A 7600GS would be fine. X1950pro? 2600XT? That would just be pushing it.

[moocow]

I'd look for a Radeon 1950 Pro or 1950GT. From what I've heard all the 2000-series AGP cards have major driver problems. If you look around you can find a 1950 card pretty cheap, I got a 512mb 1950GT for around $130.

[jiggamanjb]

Well I'd say just about everyone who's posted here is wrong.

If you click on my name and view my profile you'll see my old system:

Athlon/Sempron 2600+
A7N8X-E Deluxe (because it's gotta be classy for Team Rainless)
9600pro

I never really had any trouble running anything all the way up to F.E.A.R. but I'm sure I would've had trouble with Oblivion. I don't think you'd get much use out of something like a 2600XT and DX10. It's not so much that your CPU would bottleneck your video card, but the CPU would bottleneck Vista and you would'nt get anything done in DX10 anyway.

A 7600GS would be fine. X1950pro? 2600XT? That would just be pushing it.

A 7600GS is crap compared to a 7600gt or the x1650 pro at the same price point.

[rainless]

I'd look for a Radeon 1950 Pro or 1950GT. From what I've heard all the 2000-series AGP cards have major driver problems. If you look around you can find a 1950 card pretty cheap, I got a 512mb 1950GT for around $130.

A 7600GS is crap compared to a 7600gt or the x1650 pro at the same price point.

But we're all still missing the point:

What is the OP going to use the card for?

Can't be for power gaming... And if he's just using it for 2D apps then the 7600GS would be overkill.

[smokie mcpott]

But we're all still missing the point:

What is the OP going to use the card for?



The components mentioned above are the remnants of my old system. The aim is to reuse all but the 9700 pro to make a system my brother can use. Until now he has played games like Half Life 2 and Oblivion (barely) and would like to play Bioshock however the 9700 is only SM2.0.

[Xune]

My son runs a 7600GS AGP with a P4 Pentium and a 300w power supply because that's about the maximum card he could use allowing for some overhead on his power supply. Runs CoD 4 just fine.

Cheers RollingThunder, that's good to know.

...its an option if your desktop 2600+ doesn't overclock well

Nice one Vgta88, that's certainly given me food for thought!


jiggamanjb, ALiEN2953, rainless and moocow: Thank you all for your recommendations. The 7600gs will suffice but you all say I could do better. The 7600gt would be good but it's near impossible to get an AGP version. Next is x1650pro which I can still find and is in budget. Lastly there is the 2600pro/xt and x1950pro. My concerns are that these cards will not only be bottlenecked but also too demanding for the PSU?

At the end of the day, as long at it will play Oblivion and Bioshock at decent setting I'm sure he will be over the moon.

[Blazing fire]

What res? OS?

Bioshock at max settings, 1680X1050 on a GTS8800 (320), 575/850 and CPU:2.66GHz gives about 40fps.

[Xune]

I believe the resolution he uses is 1024x768 @ 32bit. OS is of course XP, it's safe to say Vista will never be installed on this system. I haven't even decided if and when I'll be getting Vista and I have a rig that can handle it now.

As for settings, he's struggled through Oblivion at near enough minimum so I'm sure he'd be happy with anything that's better than that. It just doesn't seem fair to make him continue to use a 9700pro when I now have a 8800gt, ya know?

[jiggamanjb]

Cheers RollingThunder, that's good to know.



Nice one Vgta88, that's certainly given me food for thought!


jiggamanjb, ALiEN2953, rainless and moocow: Thank you all for your recommendations. The 7600gs will suffice but you all say I could do better. The 7600gt would be good but it's near impossible to get an AGP version. Next is x1650pro which I can still find and is in budget. Lastly there is the 2600pro/xt and x1950pro. My concerns are that these cards will not only be bottlenecked but also too demanding for the PSU?

At the end of the day, as long at it will play Oblivion and Bioshock at decent setting I'm sure he will be over the moon.


here is the 7600gt
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/127243

[Xune]

Yup spotted it but it appears to be gimped. It's using DDR2 memory clocked at 800mhz. I'll keep an eye open for a GDDR3 model on ebay. Failing that, a decent priced x1650pro.

Thanks for all the advice.