What should I upgrade to?

**sapi** · 02-03-2007, 11:33

You made the right decision with teh core 2 - there's no reason to get anything else.

@the 7600, it's both an agp and a pci-e card and works as a mid-range one for both

**Geezer57** · 02-03-2007, 17:42

Regarding the 7600 GPU, I believe the chip (at least the 7600GT, maybe all of them) is designed to work on PCIe expansion slots only, but the manufacturers use a "bridge" chip along with the GPU on the AGP versions of the card, to translate PCIe commands into AGP ones (and back). There is apparently almost no overhead (i.e., slowdown) to this.

**The Foolish Horseman** · 02-03-2007, 20:14

Originally Posted by Geezer57

Regarding the 7600 GPU, I believe the chip (at least the 7600GT, maybe all of them) is designed to work on PCIe expansion slots only, but the manufacturers use a "bridge" chip along with the GPU on the AGP versions of the card, to translate PCIe commands into AGP ones (and back). There is apparently almost no overhead (i.e., slowdown) to this.

wrong geezer because i have a 7600 gt agp staright from the retailer and i have overclocked so technically it is the best agp card you can get

**Beirut** · 02-03-2007, 23:48

Originally Posted by General Boreaus Brittanicus

wrong geezer because i have a 7600 gt agp staright from the retailer and i have overclocked so technically it is the best agp card you can get

Except for the OC 7800GS AGP card I have in my machine.

cough...

**sapi** · 02-04-2007, 02:02

Isn't there a 1950 for agp?

**Xiahou** · 02-04-2007, 05:52

Originally Posted by sapi

Isn't there a 1950 for agp?

Yeah, I was pretty sure that guy is at the top of the AGP heap atm.

I too am starting to think of upgrading- what with tax refunds and all....

My current system is a AMD64 3200+(Venice), 1GB Ram, x800xl(AGP). Is there even an effective upgrade path for this system? My tentative budget is around $500- but I have nothing against saving a few bucks if spending more won't make a significant difference, or conversely I could spend a little more if it would make all the difference.

A faster CPU and a AGP x1950pro would be a painless upgrade- just pop the new CPU in and swap vid cards, but would I see significant gains with the slower mobo/RAM? I loathe reinstalling (sooo many apps and downloads to do over) but I would also consider building a new system if that was the most cost-effective path....

Any thoughts? I felt I was in a similar boat to HughTower, so I hope he doesnt mind my asking the question in this thread.

**sapi** · 02-04-2007, 06:24

Personally, i wouldnt' bother upgrading.

Odds are that's a socket 939 cpu (no longer produced) and that's definitely an agp graphics card.

You'd be better off saving up for a new system - and honestly, how bad is that one today?

**The Foolish Horseman** · 02-04-2007, 09:44

Originally Posted by Beirut

Except for the OC 7800GS AGP card I have in my machine.

cough...

cough....... yes it is...get 3dmark05 and tell me your result

for any noobs 3dmark05 is a thing that shows you how powerful you graphics card is playing the best games at their top settings and then it gives you a score where you have to go online for and compare you with the rest of the world

**sapi** · 02-04-2007, 09:49

Just out of interest, why wouldn't you use 3dmark06?

**Bijo** · 02-04-2007, 17:44

Sorry to barge in, but I was wondering if there's any board in existence that supported both AGP8x and PCI-E. I heard some people talking about it, but I don't really recall all that well.

Point is that I'll be upgrading some time but I'm not in a hurry anyway. And mainly, I feel no need to replace my X1600Pro AGP 512mb. Btw, can somebody explain some more that thing about the bridge thing of AGP and PCI-E? I've read something about the X1600 having something like that.

For the sake of simplicity/argument/etc.: suppose I wanna spend €500,- and keep my current video card, what hardware should be bought, that could last long enough?

Or suppose I wanna spend about €1000,- . Then what's the path to follow?

**Geezer57** · 02-04-2007, 18:57

Originally Posted by General Boreaus Brittanicus

wrong geezer because i have a 7600 gt agp staright from the retailer and i have overclocked so technically it is the best agp card you can get

Read the third paragraph here: http://www.ocworkbench.com/2006/alba...0GS/Intro.html

And paragraph six here: http://legionhardware.com/document.php?id=579

Here's a picture of a 7600GT AGP card: http://www.trustedreviews.com/graphi...-Group-Test/p4
It shows the bridge chip covered by its own heat sink, just below and forward of the main GPU heat sink.

From what I can gather, just about all Radeon x1xx and GeForce 7xxx series chips were designed for native PCIe operation, and so use bridge chips when adapted into AGP configurations. It's one of the reasons why those versions cost more than the PCIe types.