[l_komodo_l]

Hi all, I'm thinking of buying a 6800 XT (agp) for £82(inc vat). Is this worth the money?
The specs according to the etailer:

Chipset Features: nVidia cineFX 3.0
nVidia Pure-Video
nVidia Ultrashadow 2
OpenGL 2.0
GPU Speed: 350 MHz
Memory: 256MB
Memory Bit Rate: 128 Bit
Memory Type: GDDR3
Memory Speed: 1000 MHz
Pipelines/Stream Process: 8

And has anyone ever bought stuff from scan?

my pc specs
1.25 Ghz Athlon XP
512 Mb ram
350 W supply

Thanks in advanced.

 

[pharoah]

the 6800 is a good card a bit dated now though,as far as upgrade it is one of the better agp cards especially considering the price.you might think about upgrading your power supply as well to run that.here are minamal requirements listed at newegg.com for that card.also look at the power supply selection link in my sig

6800xt agp minimum system requirements
Pentium 4, AMD Athlon or compatible CPU
128MB system memory
AGP8X slot
Installation software requires CD-ROM drive
DVD playback requires DVD-ROM drive
System power supply with minimum 500W or higher < looks like you got everything covered except this

 

[l_komodo_l]

Thanks. I ran the power supply calculator and for my specs I needed less than 350 W. I don't really have that many components installed anyway. So will it be ok if I use the 350 W instead?

 

[dai]

did you add the 30% to the end result of the calculator that card is in the mid range not the low range for wattage required

 

[l_komodo_l]

Yea it required about 210 W before I added the other 30%. So it's 273 W right?

 

[dai]

yes just thought i would check as most leave it off

 

[l_komodo_l]

so would it be fine if I use 350 W supply? just in case more is required what is expected to happen to my pc?

 

[pharoah]

i found this for power requirements
Minimum of a 300 Watt power supply.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 18 Amp Amps.)
however ive never seen a 300watt power supply with an 18amp 12 volt rail.so be sure your power supply has a minimum of 18amps on the 12 volt,if not get a new power supply

 

[l_komodo_l]

My PSU has 12A on the 12 V =(.
Thanks for the info. How do u find out power requirements for graphics card? I checked out NVidia website but couldnt find any info there. I might consider buying a lower graphics card instead.

 

[dai]

your power supply requirements are not that high,one of your friends problably has a better one lying around with higher amps on the 12v line that they would give you
for the power draw of video cards
http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=7&t=9354

 

[l_komodo_l]

wow thx dai that helps a lot! i was really worried about this. I only have 1 HD and a DVD rom installed so I guess I should be fine. Cheers.

 

[l_komodo_l]

EDIT: I have 18A on 12V =D. The 12A was one that blew up a while ago ;P. Hmm, why cannot I edit my previous post.

 

[dai]

there is a time limit on editing
your supply is close to the edge on power see if you can lay your hands on a 400-450w with 18a on the 12v line

 

[TheMatt]

I would just like to jump in here.

I would personally go for this card. The 6800XT isn't that great since it has only 8 pipelines compared to the 6800GT, which has 12. Here is a 7600GS AGP, which would be more appropriate for your system and cheaper:
http://www.misco.co.uk/productinformation/~129566~WW~/INNO3D GEFORCE 7600GS 256MB AGP.htm

And here is a good PSU for that card.
http://www.misco.co.uk/productinformation/~100695~WW~es~/Enermax Noisetaker AX 485W Dual fan PSU.htm

 

[l_komodo_l]

yea thx TheMatt, there is this 7600 GS from ebay with higher memory clock (800). Link
It's really confusing when they have different memory clock for similar items but you don't know which one actually gives you the true specs for that item. I probably will consider buying a more powerful PSU in the future but atm it's out of my budget. Thx for the help.

 

[dai]

the higher clock has probably been overclocked to the gt spec
i use the 7600gs there is no fan on it but i think you would need one for overclocking it

 

[l_komodo_l]

ok bought the graphics card. I have an onboard video card, so do I have to disable it on BIOS? or can i just install it right away?

 

[ebackhus]

First try just installing the card and booting with the video cable connected to the new card. If it boots from there then the next step is installing the correct drivers. If not, connect the cable to the onboard connector and reboot. Enter to BIOS and look for a BOOT VIDEO option or something similar.


As a note, don't expect extreme performance with this new card as a 1.2Ghz AMD will really bottleneck it.