Posted: 9/24/2006 10:34:28 AM EDT
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ATI Radeon X850XT 256MB GDDR3 Or ATI Radeon X1600PRO 512MB GDDR2 The current and most stressful video card application is to play BF2 at higher settings then is currently possible. PC is: Pentium 4 2.8C Northwood 2.8GHz Socket 478 1.5MB Ram ASUS P4P800 Motherboard ATI 9600 128MB DDR AGP All-in-Wonder Video Card WIN XP |
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Check this site out, It has great info for every aspect of computing. Tom's Hardware With the VGA charts you can compare any two graphics cards with your choice of benchmark. ETA: I would go with the X850, It smokes the X1600 in most of the benchmarks. I used this when I bought my X1900XTX, It came very close to what is shown here, consistently accurate with their findings as far as fps in the given benchmark. |
 I'd looked at Toms Hardwares VGA chart and it seems that the benchmark I selected is just about the only one that doesn't have the X850XT anywhere on it.  I'm looking more now and it does score higher than the 1600Pro. Bunny, Ok suggest a comparable Nvidia product at a similar price point (appx $180) (needs to have a DVI out and dual monitor support would be nice) I've always been happy with ATI (other than one 16 hour trouble shooting session for my current AIW card because the at the time latest drive had a buggy scheduler) |
Are you serious? If you just click the link in my previous post, I already have the comparison entered in.... The two cards being compared are the ones in BLUE, look at the chart that shows framerates. Higher is better, the X850XT AGP scores way higher than the X1600. Those are the cards you specified, keep the cards the same and you can select the different benchmark from the drop down menu... The X850XT is probably the most bang for buck you are going to find.... ETA: here is the link, click THIS and scroll down, look at the blue portions of the graph, those are the cards you specified. |
I didn't explain very well. I was banging my head because before you posted I'd gone to Toms Hardware and looked at the comparisons but I selected a test that didn't have a result for the 850 (3D mark 1600x1200, 1280x1024) and stopped looking at that point. Thank you for setting me straight. The X850Xt does look to be good (now that Newegg has it back in stock) 
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Between the X850XT and the X1600Pro, the X850XT has more firepower. Pipes: 16 vs 8 Bandwidth: 34GB vs 22GB The X1600 is newer and has a newer shader model which helps it be a little more efficient per cycle...but it's no match for the horsepower of those 16 pipes on the X850. RAM quantity isn't a factor in this fight as it's a measurement of capacity. Sure...you need "enough", but even on an intensive game like HalfLife 2, FEAR, or Far Cry, the X850 will wipe the floor with the X1600, which is also reflected on Tom's "interactive" VGA charts. |
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Neither- trash mobo and get a mobo w/ pcie x16 good luck either way here are my specs ------------------ System Information ------------------ Time of this report: 9/28/2006, 21:03:56 Machine name: BADROC1 Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2(2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519) Language: English (Regional Setting: English) System Manufacturer: INTELR System Model: AWRDACPI BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz (2 CPUs) Memory: 2046MB RAM Page File: 288MB used, 3144MB available Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904) DX Setup Parameters: Not found DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode --------------- Display Devices --------------- Card name: Radeon X1600 Series Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc. Chip type: Radeon X1600 Series (0x71C2) DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz) Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_71C2&SUBSYS_23421002&REV_00 Display Memory: 512.0 MB Current Mode: 1152 x 864 (32 bit) (70Hz) Monitor: Dell E193FP ------------- Sound Devices ------------- Description: SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio [EE00] Default Sound Playback: Yes Default Voice Playback: Yes Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1102&DEV_0004&SUBSYS_20021102&REV_04 Manufacturer ID: 1 Product ID: 100 Type: WDM Driver Name: ctaud2k.sys Driver Version: 5.12.0001.0442 (English) Driver Attributes: Final Retail |
That's not an option at this time. I looked once and didn't find a suitable motherboard that would accept my Pentium 4 2.8C Northwood 2.8GHz Socket 478 Processor and RAM; a total upgrade isn't warranted just so that one game (currently) will look better. |
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SLI is the way to go. I have an old AMD 2600+ with a 850XT (256), that I used to run BF@ on. I've since upgraded to: 2x - Evga eGeforce 7600 GT KO (256 mb) ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe NF570SLI AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Orleans Thermaltake CL-P0200 Silent 939 K8, CPU Fan 2 GB Corsair DDR2 800 Twin2X Matched RAM NEC Dual Layer DVD+/-RW (ND3550A) Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA, 320 GB Hanns-G HC194D LCD Display Thermotake Soprano case (2x - 120mm, 1x - 80mm fans) Windoze XP x64 (I have to run XP for BF2, I have a Ubuntu box for crusin' the net)  |