ATI X850 Pro

[irme77]

i found a new X850pro 256mb AGP card and was wondering if it is worth buying

The price of the card is $250

[Darthtanion]

Re: ATI X850 Pro

It isn't too bad a board. It has 4 of the pixel pipelines disabled, but it still uses the R480 core and has memory running at nearly 1100MHz so it will perform well as long as your system has enough horsepower to let it do its job properly.

[irme77]

Re: ATI X850 Pro

Thanks for the reply

and a P4 3.0Ghz with 1 gb should be fine, I might end up getting some more memory as well since it is getting cheaper.

The Graphics card is at Bestbuy of all places, and is $250 and they will put $10 down on Call of Duty 2, F.E.A.R, or Quake 4 for free

[Yawgm0th]

Re: ATI X850 Pro

The price is identical online, except for shipping. If you're going to be playing any of those games (Q4, FEAR, CoD 2), you'd be better off with an nVidia card, most likely. I can't say that for sure with CoD, but for Q4 and FEAR and a 6800 in some form would suit you much better in terms of both performance and image quality. If I were you, I'd spend the extra $30-$50 on a 6800GT. Performance will be very similar in some games, but the 6800GT will have a huge advantage in all of the current games where either card can be taken advantage of fully. Image quality will also be noticably better in most newer games, especially Q4 and even the FEAR demo as it is.

That said, the X850 Pro is no slouch and you certainly won't be unhappy with it. I just think that you'll be happier with a 6800GT in the long run.

[irme77]

Re: ATI X850 Pro

Thanks and yes many games seem to have the Nvidia label on them these days. I think i might be able to squeeze the extra $50 for a card. I don't really want to upgrade my motherboard so AGP it will be. One last question though. What kind of lifetime should be expected from a 6800GT (untill it becomes obselete(sp?))

Thanks for all the help so far guys @ Tweaktown

[Darthtanion]

Re: ATI X850 Pro

AGP will likely die soon. The high-end cards will still be viable for a couple of years most likely, but the technology is pretty much dead right now since PCI-E has been accepted full force in the computer world.

[irme77]

Re: ATI X850 Pro

Guess Il just hold off the upgrading till I get more money then and just get a SLI motherboard

[Yawgm0th]

Re: ATI X850 Pro

AGP will die at the top end, but that's completely irrelevent. If the system in your sig is what we're talking about, then and upgrade now is just fine. The rest of that system will be dead before AGP. If either the 7800 or X1*** line are made for AGP (which is still TBA, though neither company has announced plans to do so), then your CPU will certainly be a bigger problem than AGP.

Plus, if you ever want to upgrade the CPU and motherboard but not the graphics card, motherboards with PCI-E and true AGP are available, so the death of AGP won't stop you there.

Bascially, how soon AGP dies is totally irrelevent to your upgrading situation.

[eat@joes]

Re: ATI X850 Pro

What boards have both AGP and PCI-E. I've heard that the AGP is just down converted to PCI to run on the PCI bus at PCI speeds. I guess it really won't matter considering the next thing anyone buys is going to be PCI-E and the technology will be real cheap in a year or so.

[irme77]

Re: ATI X850 Pro

Alright, thanks for all the help guys. Today is the last day of the sale so im buying. Next upgrade for the computer will be all around(processor, motherboard, memory, graphics) but will be a few years down the roadX850 pro it is
and thanks for all the help

[Yawgm0th]

Re: ATI X850 Pro

What boards have both AGP and PCI-E. I've heard that the AGP is just down converted to PCI to run on the PCI bus at PCI speeds.

Yes, AGP Express was one name for the technology. Both socket 939 and LGA 775 boards made use of a a PCI slot reshaped to look like AGP. That's not what I'm talking about. ULI's new chipset (M1695/M1567)supports both AGP and PCI-E without any performance loss or loss of overclockability compared to nForce 4. Currently (AFAIK), there's only one M1695/M1567 board on the market, the ASRock 939Dual-Sata2. It does lack good voltage options (which can be fixed via BIOS update, if ASRock wants to, that is), so overclocking some of the better RAM to its potential will be impossible, but it's unecessary anyway. It overclocks CPUs pretty well, though. It also lacks GbE and Firewire, which is its only major loss over any nForce 4. As more ULI-based PCI-E boards come out, I expect that this will be fixed.

Anyway, it has both AGP and PCI-E, which is the important thing. There's no performance loss for using either, so it's a very viable option for people looking to upgrade their board and processor without upgrade their video card.

[Kuebler2]

Re: ATI X850 Pro

I bought a X850 Pro AGP on 9-6-05. Since that time I have spent more time trying to get it running right than playing. When it works it works great, when it doesn't (~50% of the time) it doesn't work at all. Go with the Nvidia 6800 GT