9500Pro -> 6600gt. How much of an improvement?

[Dr.Jeckyl]

i am doing some computer work for a friend and he is giving me a Evga 6600gt 128mb agp card for trade. how much of an improvement is that from my current ati 9500Pro?

T.I.A.

[DaSmerg]

Damn boy...we gots to get you in a new rig...upgrading from a 9500 PRO?  Eeek!  

On topic, I thought the 9500 series was one of the cards that AMD-ATI isn't supporting anymore? If it helps you out, the reviews I looked at are comparing the 6600GT to the x700.

[MindlessOath]

i would say its better.
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1714&page=6
the 9500pro was slower than the 9700pro which was in the compairison, so you can see that it was clearnly faster. in some tests not by much, but in some yea.  

is it going to win you best rig to play the best games? nope, you need to upgrade big time.


nvidia stoped supporting older drivers too, so you can get updated drivers to work with older cards from http://www.ngohq.com/ they mod the inf install file to allow new drivers to work with the older cards.

[Dr.Jeckyl]

Damn boy...we gots to get you in a new rig...upgrading from a 9500 PRO?  Eeek!

i'll pay shipping for any surplus hardware to achive this.

so far there hasn't been a game i can't play.... seriously. i just played the GRAW2 demo last night, i can play STALKER on medium, HL2 look stunning on my box and FarCry gets a solid 30fps. granted these are all last gen titles(aside from GRAW2) but they play just fine. i'm happy. don't get me wrong, i'd love to drop some serious coin on a dx10, quad core monster, i have 2 kids though.

[DaSmerg]

Damn boy...we gots to get you in a new rig...upgrading from a 9500 PRO?  Eeek!

i'll pay shipping for any surplus hardware to achive this.

so far there hasn't been a game i can't play.... seriously. i just played the GRAW2 demo last night, i can play STALKER on medium, HL2 look stunning on my box and FarCry gets a solid 30fps. granted these are all last gen titles(aside from GRAW2) but they play just fine. i'm happy. don't get me wrong, i'd love to drop some serious coin on a dx10, quad core monster, i have 2 kids though.

 $340+tax will get you a mobo, processor (5600+ x2) and 2 gigs of ram.  I'll sell you my back up card (x1950 pro) for $150 including shipping.  I'm thinking you already have hdd's, case and a PS.  You might have to go spend $60 on a new PS and $80 on a case locally worst case scenario

How's that for an economy solution for ya?  .

[MONOLITH]

 $340+tax will get you a mobo, processor (5600+ x2) and 2 gigs of ram.

Christ Smerg.

Give me some links, I'll order tomorrow. I'm looking to replace my mobo/cpu right now. Still on a single core P4 2.4.

Seriously.

I want an AGP Mobo though, I just bought the X1950 Pro.

[DaSmerg]

GL finding an AGP mobo these days :/.  Not saying their not available, but PCIe is here to stay.

NCIX.com...it's kinda like our version of NewEgg.  Started up out here.  Wicked place.

The mobo is just a simple mATX but if you want a budget rig that will scream through some games, there ya be.

Mono it's a pretty insane time to be a PC enthuisiast with a little know how.  THe prices are so low atm...
...you can nab the ASUS AMD board (570 series) for $108...
...add an AMD 4800+ x2 (2.5ghz dual core)for $125
...and 2 gigs of RAM for $104 + tax + shipping.  And it's all in Canuck bucks so you save a few bobbles.  Won't be an award winning system or anything but it'll definately rock the house for a few years to come.  Keep your current HDD's, PS and case.  If you want to upgrade your PS...a decent 500w will only run you $80.  I'm sure your current rig is already in a case, or nab a new one for $62

I have the PCIe x1950pro for a back up.  Seemed to perform well the little bit I had it plugged in.  It's no 8800gts though .  As I said above, it's just a spare and I'd send it shipped for $150.  Only ever been plugged in once and ran for an hour.  It's sitting behind me in it's original box.

!!!WARNING!!! taking thread a bit off topic here...I expressed in another thread the issues I was having with my 8800gts.  That's been recanted now I'm running Vista.  Everything runs like a dream.

[Dr.Jeckyl]

DAMN! i'm going to have to put my pennies away for a bit. good thing too... i need to concentrate on a rebuild of a certain website before i get too heavy into games again and get distracted.

i'll have some requests for certain at a later date DaSmerg.

[MONOLITH]

Mono it's a pretty insane time to be a PC enthuisiast with a little know how.  THe prices are so low atm...
...you can nab the ASUS AMD board (570 series) for $108...
...add an AMD 4800+ x2 (2.5ghz dual core)for $125
...and 2 gigs of RAM for $104 + tax + shipping.  And it's all in Canuck bucks so you save a few bobbles.  Won't be an award winning system or anything but it'll definately rock the house for a few years to come.  Keep your current HDD's, PS and case.  If you want to upgrade your PS...a decent 500w will only run you $80.  I'm sure your current rig is already in a case, or nab a new one for $62

I have the PCIe x1950pro for a back up.  Seemed to perform well the little bit I had it plugged in.  It's no 8800gts though .  As I said above, it's just a spare and I'd send it shipped for $150.  Only ever been plugged in once and ran for an hour.  It's sitting behind me in it's original box.

This is light years ahead of what I'm using right now....

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim4550/specs.htm#1101572


Thanks Smerg.

[Ronin]

Mono, you can get those four items (subbing two for what I think are better items) from Newegg for about $390.

================================================

ASUS M2N-E Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813131022      $98.99
   
   
Thermaltake W0093RU ATX 12V 2.0 Version 500W Power Supply - Retail
Item #: N82E16817153028      $79.99 (I have one of these. excellent PSU - drives a Core 2 Duo E6600 on Intel DP965LT, with 3GB of PC2-800, two SATAII 320GB drives, 2 optical drives and a GeForce 8800GTX 768MB just fine -- rock solid)
   
   
Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KVR800D2K2/2GR - Retail
Item #: N82E16820134488      $88.99 (I just prefer Kingston memory -- never had a problem with any of it unlike other brands - this is what I have in my current rig)
   
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Brisbane 2.5GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADO4800DDBOX - Retail
Item #: N82E16819103778      $109.99(I don't do AMD but they are cheaper)

Subtotal:    $377.96
Calculate Shipping
 Zip Code:  GO   Shipping:              $8.22
 
Grand Total:                              $386.18

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As for pulling enough power from multi rails on the PSU for video.  Use the Y connector to pull power from two 4 pin (drive) connectors on two different rails.  That will combine the amperage for those rails and give you enough power on a lower rated PSU (what I did with my 8800GTX).

I'm putting a 700W OCZ Game Xtreme PSU in my box today (got a new Lian Li V1000B case since I'm running caseless right now -- the 8800GTX is so large it won't fit in _any_ of my cases... :eek:)

I have also sworn off ANY Antec "Tri-Power" PSU.  I've had three, now, and they are all dogs.

Cheers,
Bruce

[MONOLITH]

Thanks Ronin.

I'm good with the power supply (I currently have two seperate supplies hooked to my rig, a 500 watt running my mobo, my X1950PPRO, and my Ageia PhysX card. Then a second 300 watt PSU running my hard drives, disc drives, etc).

Those are great prices and I definately would like to upgrade to a dual core CPU. Especially after I just got this PhysX card that needs it.  BUT, I just bought this AGP X1950Pro, it kicks ass for a vid card, and I hate to waste it having to buy another card again (for PCI).

But, I suppose it's minor price to pay for being able to upgade the CPU.

[DaSmerg]

It's pretty incredible how PS went from being a whatever item to a crucial piece of your rig...right up there with mobo and processor choice IMHO.

I went big and long term when I built again.  I went with Zeus 750w

[Ronin]

How does that Ageia PhysX card help with GRAW?  Does it smooth it out or just provide more eye candy?  I've never seen the results of one.

Perhaps you could post some screen shots where the Ageia improves things?

[MONOLITH]

Well, the overall effects you get seem entirely based on how the software is written.

With GRAW 1 PC, I honestly think I noticed a bit of FPS increase as the PPU (physics card) took some load off the VPU.  Also, there is a huge difference in what you see occur in game.  If you launch a grenade at a vehicle without a PPU, you get a nice explosion and a damage texture on the vehicle. With a PPU, the entire vehicle comes apart with pieces flying all over the place. After the explosion the entire vehicle is reduced to a mangled frame. A completely different model than you see without a PPU. There's also a better dust effect when a blackhawk is landing, better explosions, etc. You've all seen the street poles and stuff come down from grenades in GRAW1, but with a PPU, the debris is much more fragmented, the street lights seperate from the poles, more debris fly around, etc.

But I see no FPS impact with GRAW1. If anything, it helped it.


Not the case with GRAW2 demo.  Unlike GRAW1, GRAW2 has an options setting for the level of physics applied. Normal, High, and 'you better have alienware' Extreme.

With Normal, there is no extra physics programming applied that I can see, and the game just acts like you do not have a PPU.
On high, there's windblown dust moving around the ground, all the trees and plants are swaying in the wind, you get the same blown apart vehicles as described above, and something really cool... Picket fences, when shot, come apart one board at a time, the board falling to earth with 'realistic physics'. Without the PPU, the whole fence just sort of vanishes after some bullet rounds. So, with the PPU, if a guy is hiding behind the fence, you can pick the fence apart a board at a time and slowly whittle away his cover.

The problem with GRAW2, is the physics programming really puts a hit on the CPU. You need a dual core for it, which I do not have. On my rig, on normal (no physics) I get around 25 to 30 FPS all settings on high. As soon as I kick in the physics, I drop to 13 to 18 fps. Still Playable, but stuttery enough to be annoying.

All in all, I definately say the Physics card is well worth the investment. Really brings the game world to life. Watching the trucks blow into 100 pieces in GRAW1 is way cool.

You can the get Ageia card for about $150 I think. And more an more games now will be programming in the physics effects.