Upgrading 4 Half-Life 2. Radeon 9700?

[Ace No-Money]

I am up grading my Athlon XP system for better gaming, particularly for Half-Life 2. I have a radeon 9200 128mb and the half life 2 demo was even laggy in 800x600! I am wanting to not just upgrade my video card to a 9700 (what do ya think?) but also want to do some thing with my athlon xp 2500 barton as well.

2 Choices of system upgrade +radeon 9700
buy
ABIT NF7-s 2.0 and overclock my Athlon 2500+ to 3200+ for $80


ABIT AV8 dual channel socket 939 mobo and 1.8GHZ Athlon 64 3000 with 2000MHz Hypertransport - 512kb cache for $250

What is your opinions on all of this? Is the Socket 939 setup worth $250? Will the overclock setup give me a huge boost in performance? Would the Radeon 9700 be enough by itself? Any Alternatives?

Here are my specs-

Athlon XP 2500+ @1980MHz 360fsb w/ Tt Silentboost
(CHEAP) ECS KT600- Socket 462 MB
2x256mb Mushkin Enhanced DDR400 2-2-2-5 @ 180MHz(DDR360)
ATI powercolor Radeon 9200 128mb 128bit
80gb WD 2mb
Samsung CD-RW
Hercules 400w?
Windows 98 (yeah I know!)



Remember i have hardly even $100 dollars for this right now!



(Hope I didnt leave anything out!)

 

[Nubius]

If you only have $100 then I strongly suggest you just hold onto and wait. It really isn't worth to upgrade that little amount as far as vid cards go. For now also I'd say you're better off just OC'ing that 2500+ XP. That 64 system you have planned won't be as powerful if you can get that 2500+ XP to 2.2GHz - 2.4GHz

If you were willing to spend $250 on the socket 939 then you should try to get that much to get something like the 6600GT or X700 if you're an ATI fan.

 

[4W4K3]

In DOOM3 the 6600GT outperforms the X700 and even the X700XT. I would definently get the 6600GT, i think it is somewhat cheaper as well.

I agree with Nubius, try and get that 2500+ up higher, and it will do fine in HL2. Then save up for a better system when you upgrade and it will have 0 problems running HL2. even the 9700 will lag in HL2 with high enough settings. I think that would be your best bet...

 

[Nubius]

well I only suggest X700 as an alternative to nvidia. I personally would go with the 6600GT of course, BUT if he really loves half life then ATI does perform better in HL2 just like Nvidia performs better in Doom3. All in all I go by personal pref and in this case I like Nvidia. Probably will always stick to them unless there's an insanely horrible card like the X600

 

[Ace No-Money]

But what about the bottle necks with the athlon xp. I think i would benefit very much overall if I had all the bandwidth from the athlon 64 and my very fast dual channel memory with winbond chips, dont you? And remember i have to have AGP8x cards. I'm definitely AN ati person. How about a 9800 pro or is that expensive compared to x700? And will I really benefit that much from a 400MHz overclock?

 

[Musjunk22]

Well if you want you could save up for that A64 which I think is a good idea, I think you could still play HL2 with that 9200 you have if its on low settings, you can test it out, they just released the demo. I played it on my 9800SE with 325/277MHz (Clock/Mem) on high settings with very little to no lag, the only time I experienced lag was when there was animated fire on screen.

But then again if you only have 100 bucks and don't want to wait untill you get the 250 then ocing your A 2500+ to 3200 speeds would be a great idea and a challenge.

 

[4W4K3]

BI'm definitely AN ati person. How about a 9800 pro or is that expensive compared to x700? And will I really benefit that much from a 400MHz overclock?

the 9800PRO can be had for cheaper than the X700 (depending on what model) but it doesn't perform as well, and the 6600GT will slam it to the floor in comparison (and depending on what model/make you get, 128MB,256MB, PRO,XT, the 6600GT still might be cheaper.) it's really up to you, but if you can get past your reason for not liking nvidia and jsut get there card, you might find in the end it was the best move and saved you money.

a somewhat accurate of cards and how they stack up in D3.

 

[Ace No-Money]

It is well known that Nvidia cards are good on doom 3 but radeon cards are the best for half life games and that is what im after. And remember I dont have pci express!

 

[Leonidas]

6600gt, definitely it has been shown to outperform all ati cards even near the price range... and it outperforms the 9800 pro 256mb in everything but 1600x1200(because the 6600gt is 128mb) and forget the x700 and its XT version everything ive ever read says it's crap.

 

[Nubius]

radeon cards are the best for half life games

ATI is the GPU maker...Radeon is just a manufacturer....besides that's what we already said above...it comes down to personal pref and 4W4K3 even said it depends also on whether you're a big doom3 or HL2 fan...and to say 'half life games?' ....I was unaware of there being multiple half life games out right now....


The point is like I've said a million times to everyone in here...either card will kick ass at both games...it comes down to PERSONAL PREFERENCE...

I like Nvidia so I'd choose them regardless of HL2 performance compared to ATI's card....like newegg says 'Basing your purchasing decisions on reviews is not a good idea'.....couldn't have said it better myself.

The fact is Nvidia probably does a whole 5 FPS less than ATI in HL2 and vice versa for doom3 and nvidia, plus the fact everyones system is different, so what your system does could be entirely different to 'Toms hardware guide review!'

Go with whatever company you've enjoyed through the years.

People really need to stop buying cards based off the current games out...there's no point.

"Ohh I want nvidia for doom3" or "oh I must have ATI for HL2"...

Who cares? I want to play ALL games that are out currently and all FUTURE games....why focus on which company obviously builds a game towards their technology for marketing reasons...gotta look past all that