Advice on an AGP x 8 gfx card

**Thunderchild** · June 2nd, 2006, 08:37 PM

Hi all

I recently got an X1600 Pro but sadly after many days of trying to get it work it turns out (from viewing sapphire's forums) that there's so many problems with compatibilty its just not worth it - tried two cards in two PCs both didn't work so got a refund. A bit sad really because it was only £90 and the 512mb version

I'm looking for an nvidia card now as hopefully that'll be more compatibily with my Asus A7V8X-X KT400 motherboard - hopefully :-)

So, what kinda of Nvidia compares to the X1600? Hopefully for about £100 and hopefully 512mb tho I'd be happy with 256

**EXreaction** · June 2nd, 2006, 09:40 PM

Don't get pulled in by the 512MB marketing crap. Most cards with 512MB of ram on actually run SLOWER than their 256MB versions(they use cheaper ram that can't run as fast).

I would look for a 6600 GT(not the 6600 or 6600 LE, those are horrible compaired to the 6600 GT).

I believe that an X1600 Pro is faster than a 6600 GT, but I would have to look around for benchmarks(I have never heard of problems with it, mabey its just Sapphire that is having problems?)

**Thunderchild** · June 2nd, 2006, 10:48 PM

Aye I think its just Sapphire's - seems like it was rushed to be released and has huge compatability issues. If you look at their forum in the trouble shooting section there's nothing but posts about the X1600s.

How does a 6800 compare? Something like this one? It's an Asus to match my motheboad too.

http://www.morecomputers.co.uk/textr...eferer=Froogle

or this 6800 XT?

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=402366

or this 6600 GT?

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=200309

**carl33p** · June 2nd, 2006, 11:24 PM

Go with the 6800XT. It runs on par with the 6600gt but seems to be cheaper there. Looks nice as well

I feel bad for people in the UK. Prices are like double there.

EDIT: But if you want the 6600gt, heres the same price as the 6800xt(although its 128mb)
http://ebuyer.com/UK/product/109723/rb/19546864544

**Thunderchild** · June 3rd, 2006, 12:17 PM

Aye, and atm £1 is $1.87 ... everything costs a fortune here, only Sweden costs more tbh. It's the AGP cards too - they're starting to cost a lot more than PCI-E but I can't afford to a new mb, cpu, ram, and gfx card atm

The 6600 Gt seems to look nicer, spec wise.... will 128 be much worse than 256?

**Thunderchild** · June 3rd, 2006, 12:26 PM

What about this ASUS N6800/TD GF 6800... 512mb for £119?

Still liking this one for £123 though since its got the highest specs and is 256mb

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...urce=shopzilla

**carl33p** · June 3rd, 2006, 12:31 PM

Well, here are benchmarks you can look at. Compare the 256 6800 to the 128 6600gt. The 6800 scores a couple more frames in most games.
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphi...=295&chart=108

Core clock doesnt mean everything. But im not sure how big a difference there would be with a 128 6600gt vs 256 6600gt- Proly not a a whole lot.

Edit: 512mb is useless. Ive seen benchmarks where the 512 version scores lower than the 256version. Its a marketing trick to try to make people think its better than it is; when in reality its useless or actaully worse.

Edit2: Ur choose depends on how tight ur budget is. £123 is almost double the price of the 2 cards i suggested. But you wont see anywhere near double the performance. I would think the 256mb 6600gt might give you 3-4 more FPS. IMO thats not worth the huge price jump. If ur gonna spend that much i might look at a ati x850 or something

**Thunderchild** · June 3rd, 2006, 12:37 PM

Can't see the 6800XT on there so I just used a base 6800 ... and nicely it seems to do better than my X1600 I sent back

Gonna get the 6800 =)

*edit

Yeh I've always been an ATI man but I don't want the hassle of having another incompatability issue - I know I'm using an old spec PC really (a7x8x-x mainboard) but I was more than a little annoyed when the x1600 didn't work and now I'm scared to get an ATI card.