I consider upgrading my machine from Radeon 9800Pro to … to something, for upcoming gaming hits like Oblivion, Gothic 3 and so on. I have an AGP connection, and I am a little out of track with modern graphic cards. If anyone here is expert and can answer my question, i will appreciate it.
How much better (in percentage) is
Gainward Ultra/1980 GF 6600GT 256MB
then my older
Radeon 9800Pro 128MB ?
For game rendering purposes 
thanks in advance.
I have no personal experience with those cards.
I just use TomsHardware to make my comparisons
This section is specifically for AGP cards, there is another for PCI express.
Toms homepage has a link to these on the right panel, “VGA Charts”.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/07/05/vga_charts_vii/index.html
15 pages of good stuff there, have fun!
The 9800 pro and GF 6600 GT are both in the charts.
A 6600GT is not that much better (sometimes even slower) than your current card. It supports shader model 3 which the ATI doesn’t, but apart from that, it’s not a reasonable upgrade IMHO. If you want an upgrade that makes sense, go for a Radeon X800 (XT/XL or Pro) (which is still limited to SM2) or 6800GT (which supports SM3). Both should still be available but i suggest to not to wait too long…AGP is dying, the choice is very limited already.
I’ve just ordered a revision 2 (DDR2 instead of DDR1) 6600 with 512 Mb on-board.
512 Mb!
This, I feel, will make up for all those years with a 16Mb Geforce2 
Depending on the budget, these would be my choices (from better to worse):
- One of the ATI X1000s on AGP.
- A GeForce 6800GT/Ultra (if you can find any) or the new GeForce 6800GS.
- A GeForce 6600GT.
- Any of the X8xx series.
Of course, I have developing in mind, but if you’re primarily interested about power, swapping choices 3&4 would be better.
Recently buy an X800 AGP and i think it’s a very good quality/price.
I just test battlefield 2 with it and it run very well with quality set to maximum on an AMD 2000XP (1.6GHz)
NB: AGP card are a bit more expensive than pcie : about 180 AGP euros (saphir bundle) again 150 for pcie for this card two months ago.
Bruno
I’ve just upgraded from a 9800 pro to a 6800GS.
I’m not an expert or a heavy gamer but I have noticed a difference in my 3d mark03 score (not tried 05). The quick test I did with Doom3 seems to show an improvement as well it feels smoother. I’ve not tested HL2 as I have no net connection at home for the moment.
I went for the GS as I wanted nvidia and it seemed the best AGP (can’t afford a pci-express upgrade) I could get my hands on.
YMMV
Dan.
Tnx for recommendations, guys. I did a little search myself meanwhile, and found that 6600GT will beat 9800Pro almost by 100% on 1024x768 resolutions. With AA turned on difference is only growing.
For example:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/2004-27gpu2_3.html
Moreover, I am aiming at Gainward’s Ultra series with faster GPU and memory clock that will beat any other 6600GT on market.
So, since I am still stuck with AGP, for twice performance, shaders 3.0, 256 ddr3 mem and price difference of 100Euros (after I sell my Radeon ), I think I made my decision.
That’s only for DOOM III, most other games show similar performance of the 9800 Pro and the 6600GT, so you will get an average speed boost of 10% for your 100Euros…
No, there are 50 pages of comparisons, my link is only for Doom3 page by random choice. And all other tests agree (3d mark, HL2 …) in what I wrote.
But only for Doom3. I did an upgrade from the 9700pro to a 6600GT (had to, because the 9700pro was broken) and the difference is hardly noticable in everyday use. I’ve then replaced it with a 6800GT and that difference IS noticable. Well, it’s your decision… ;D
Hm. I will think again about it… The problem is not just in money, it seems that my hardware salesman don’t have na AGP version of 6800GT. If there is one at all…
I have a bios & HW modded 6800 and love it.
It was only a little more expensive then a regular but it came already modded (unlocked pipelines and shaders, better fan) with guarantee.
It does did not require a larger energy supply.
… and another opinion from well known anandtech:
6600gt clear winner.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2277&p=3
" Across the board, the 6600GT is a better buy than the 9800 Pro. There is no question that the performance is better across the board, and only gets better at higher resolutions. Add to that the fact that the feature set is a year newer, and there really isn’t a debate. "
There is no doubt, that the 6600GT is better than the 9800 pro, I own one myself.
I was only saying, that the speed gap is not big enough (imho) to justify spending as much as 100 Euros for it.
Here is a link to a german game mag that link gfx card with cpu.
Might me more insiteful.
FYI: my modded card cost about €170
Yes, its really good insight - to see a CPU as a variable on one constant graphics card. I liked that review. My AMD 64 3000+ is still pretty good
Eh. My hardware vendor just got Radeon X800GTO, 256 MB with 16 pipes for same price as my previously targeted 6600GT. I will probably go with it.
Yes! I had a radeon x800 256 Mo for about two months now and it works perfectly.
Bruno
you could try to read around on the internet to find out what cards can be softmodded with 100% success. That way you get way more for your money.