Sapphire 256MB Radeon X1600 PRO AGP
Sapphire 256MB Radeon X1600 PRO AGP
Author
Discussion

ariel

Original Poster:

423 posts

288 months

Wednesday 1st February 2006
quotequote all
Can I ask what you think of this card? It is AGP so a little different to PCi, do you think this impacts performance very much? A good idea if I do not upgrade the M/board?

Since my ati 9500 has died I am looking to replace but without also swapping the motherboard. Obviously I like the idea of a 939 with new cpu, more ram, pci-express but can't do that yet.

specs:-
""Sapphire 256MB Radeon X1600 PRO AGP Lite Retail

110025789
Die Abbildung kann von der Originalware abweichen!Sapphire Hybrid Radeon X1600 Pro, 256MB DDR2, DVI, TV-out, AGP, Lite Retail (11076-00-20) Pipelines: 12, Chiptakt: 500MHz, Speichertakt: 400MHz • max. Verbrauch: 33W (geschätzt) 130,21 EUR ""

I can only find it available in Germany but assuming I can get a friendly retailer what do you think? My idea is to run it on a Abit NF7 for htpc/games etc and understand the card is good for high def tho perhaps not that brill for games, output to a plasma btw.

Am I thinking along the right lines or not? Any input appreciated.
Any other ideas or card I should look at?

ErnestM

11,621 posts

297 months

Wednesday 1st February 2006
quotequote all
ATI make fantastic hardware. It's their drivers that I tend not to like. You may want to check compatibility with your board manufacturer first...

ErnestM

ariel

Original Poster:

423 posts

288 months

Thursday 2nd February 2006
quotequote all
thanks Ernest, looks like I might re-consider then.

pentoman

4,835 posts

293 months

Thursday 2nd February 2006
quotequote all
I've not been ATi for long but would have to say, if the alternative is to reconsider a nVidia card then I wouldn't.

Got sick of their new graphics cards which were no better than really old ones etc.

Plus if you think ATi drivers are bad (again had little experience but they seem really good to me?) you should try owning nVidia's nForce motherboard. I had an nForce 2 and it never ever worked properly. Every new set of drivers attempting to fix something broke something else. Was supposed to be dolby digital surround but in some games it never worked, some it did but only with a certain old set of drivers (half-life 2 in particular). However some of the older drivers caused hard disk corruption so not much of an option, anyway I was never convinced the IDE channels/DMA stuff were working properly, it always felt like there was a huge bottleneck there.
It was pretty good when it worked, just the drivers sucked .

For the average user, wanting a well developed product I would recommend ATi, but that's only based on my personal experience and knowledge.

Russell

mr_yogi

3,288 posts

285 months

Thursday 2nd February 2006
quotequote all
Yes I have to agree ATI look like they have put their dodgy driver reputation well and truely behind them

I've got an ATI 9700Pro and it's been fantastic for three years

I've now just upgraded to nVidia and i've had no problems with them either, so go for a card on it's merits and value and forget about the drivers

unless you have/ love a particular game which has a well reported problems with one manufactuer i particular

ariel

Original Poster:

423 posts

288 months

Thursday 2nd February 2006
quotequote all
many thanks for the ideas guys. So what do you think of this from ebuyer ""PNY Verto GeForce 6 6600GT AGP8x 128MB GDDR3 £98.95 ""

£100 I can just about justify...

ariel

Original Poster:

423 posts

288 months

Thursday 2nd February 2006
quotequote all
many thanks for the ideas guys. So what do you think of this from ebuyer ""PNY Verto GeForce 6 6600GT AGP8x 128MB GDDR3 £98.95 ""

£100 I can just about justify...

or is this better

Gecube X800GTO 128MB 256 bit 400MHz TV DVI Silencool Uniwise fan AGP
@ £112

mr_yogi

3,288 posts

285 months

Thursday 2nd February 2006
quotequote all
My little Brother's friend has a 6600GT and is very happy with it, however I think the X800GTO would be the faster option. Try taking a look at tomshardware VGA charts to compare the two.

or take a look here:

xbit labs

You also might want to check the clock speeds of the AGP versions as I've noticed the AGP versions of PCI-express cards are quite often clocked slower

>> Edited by mr_yogi on Thursday 2nd February 12:23

>> Edited by mr_yogi on Thursday 2nd February 12:24

>> Edited by mr_yogi on Thursday 2nd February 12:25

ariel

Original Poster:

423 posts

288 months

Friday 3rd February 2006
quotequote all
thanks everyone, the xbit labs link is a great help too.