agp upgrade or not.

proffit · February 26th, 2006, 03:03 AM

my question is should i upgrade my AGP rig that i built out of spare parts. i dont want to go to PCI-e with it because its just spare parts mostly. but lately i have started to notice some artifacts and glitches when playing WoW, the glitches may be heat related. now i realy do like shinney and want to play BF2 fear all maxed out and get decent fps which i cant do right now. also heat wise i have noticed its starting to get hot, playing halo for about 1 hour resulted in 84 degress celcius... would a 7800 run cooler or about the same?

so the question is should i go out and buy a 7800 gs to replaice my ageing 6800gt?

i am in australia and can pick up a xfx 7800gs for abit over $500 so is it worth it?

the rig.

amd 64 3500+ clawhammer
kingmax superram 512mb x4 (2 gig)
120 gig hdd
asus a8v deluxe
vortec 500watt psu

this is not my main PC, but i do use it often.

RetroEvolute · February 26th, 2006, 03:20 AM

I wouldn't do it.

Unless your 6800's defective or overclocked too much, I wouldn't think that upgrading to a 7800 would do all that much, if anything at all. It's a more powerful GPU, which usually points at the idea of more heat... I'd try getting a can of air, and blowing out your computer parts (ridding of dust and crap), and then clearing any wires that may be getting in the way... If you upgrade anything, I'd spend a little less money on something like a new GPU HSF or a larger case for the air to circulate.

I just don't think that spending 500 bucks for a new GPU and only getting slightly better performance with, still, high temperatures is worth it. Make sure you're doing everything you can before spending that kind of money.

proffit · February 26th, 2006, 03:25 AM

i thought that would be the response. the case is a brand new thermaltake tsunami. and every thing was cleaned about 2 weeks ago part of my monthly house cleaning ritual. as got cables they ae always a problem but i have them tucked up in a spare drive bay. realy im just waiting for the new socket to come out for AMD then ill be upgradeing again so realy need some thing to hold it together for another year - 2 years.

does any one have some kind of performence chart that would show how much of the increase in performance it would give?

RetroEvolute · February 26th, 2006, 03:30 AM

I see where you're comin' from now... Hm... It's a toughy. If the artifacts are reallllly buggin' ya, go for it... But I, not necessarily you, don't like to spend money unless I HAVE to... Or really feel like it.

A 6800 shouldn't be putting of those kinds of temps, though. So, if you're still under warranty from the manufacturer or something... Try trading it out for another one.

proffit · February 27th, 2006, 12:16 AM

bump for other peoples opinions and possibly a performance chart.

dont think its still under warranty but im not sure of the temps im in australia so it is kinda hot here in the middle of the day, but the card wasnt getting this hot last summer. im not over clocking a thing, so im just thinking it might be on its last legs, maybe i can give it you a friend or some thing.

Micro Bean · February 27th, 2006, 12:32 AM

How many case fans do you have? just curious to know.....If anything I would thats if there is a free slot under the AGP which should be Place a decent blower to assist the card out abit...My friend also has a 6800 GT started running into the same situation I suggested that and it helped alot...for some reason when he was cleaning he kinda put a few fans backwards and the air flow in the system was choking abit aswell so there was alot of heat floating around in the system a good airflow keeps a system cool

proffit · February 27th, 2006, 12:50 AM

2x 12cm 1x intake (front of the case) 1x exaust (rear of the case)
1x 8cm side of the case intake onto the graphics card.

around the graphics card is clean. got the agp port then 3 spare pci slots then waireless card then sound card

heat from my cpu seems to be taken away by my psu that is drawing air into iself threw a 9cm fan that right on top of the heat sink.

cpu heatsink http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118119

graphics card is stock.

proffit · February 27th, 2006, 11:37 PM

haha opps. just had a check of my graphics card profile and noticed i must have or some one else must have over clocked it from 350/1000mhz to 401/1100 mhz. that my account for some of the excess heat tho i doubt it would account for the 80+ temps under load. i jsut dropped it down and going to test it for a while ( oh the pain i have to play FEAR

). get back to you with the results

RetroEvolute · February 28th, 2006, 12:20 AM

Hah.

Sweet.