How fast makes real sense...

[BangaloreBob]

Any suggestions would be much appreciated – I have a system that is a few years old and I do not want to start from scratch until early next year. Hopefully there will be PCI-X on motherboards with AMD 939 pin sockets by then. In the mean time, I need to upgrade my video card from the ATI 7000 currently installed. I am buying a new 20” LCD monitor and want DVI, and to run at 1600 x 1200. My board only has 533 MHz FSB / AGP 4X. How fast a video card really makes sense? (I’d like to stay with ATI) Does it really make any sense to go beyond a 9200 card if I am not a hard core gamer? Thanks for the help!

[GNXtreme]

If you want a card that will last for a long time and will be a good investment then I suggest the 9800pro....they are going for less than 200 right now and will hold their own for quite some time....granted the new generation of cards are really blowing it away, but it still should last you a while.

[Avid6eek]

If you plan on moving to PCIe early next year, then any card you buy right now will be totally useless unless you can find a motherboard that has an added AGP slot. I would look for the cheapest video card you can find that meets your minimum requirements (DVI, 1600x1200).

[PCgeek]

I totally agree with shizzy. Especially since ur not a gamer. Look for a 9100 or 8500, the are faster than the 9000/9200 series and have DVI. I'm pretty sure they will run 1600 x 1200....
For future reference, PCI-X has been available for years, it is a server board slot. PCIe is the one that will be released in a few months ;)

[BangaloreBob]

Thanks for the feedback. I called ATI this afternoon and the guy I spoke to was very informative. He said exactly what you did "GNXtreme" - 9800 pro was the current sweetspot and under some circumstances AGP 4X would be the bottleneck but that the 9800 Pro would be the best card for my usage. Under most circumstances any serious investment/upgrade now would be pointless, true, but when I build a new box early next year I will give this one to a local school and so nothing will be wasted. Thanks again for the input...