GeForce GT 740 LP on AGP Bus?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
D

davidw006

Reputable
Sep 7, 2014
7
0
4,510
Recently I have been looking for a means of upgrading my PC which has a 1.3Ghz Celeron processor and a gigabyte of DDR 400 memory(PC3200). Old Blackie has an AGP port for video expansion which is occupied by a generic 512MB video card.
The old card will handle MS Flight Sim X on minimal settings. I wish to play X3:Albion Prelude which is a little more demanding.
My initial notion was to get and Z87 board, initially an i3, and 4GB DDR3 PC10500. Including a new 2GB PCIe3.0 video card I was looking at about $750 US. Not too bad but this puts a bit of a crimp on holiday generosity.

I found that BestBuy(DOT)com was offering a Zotac 2GB GT 740 DDR3 card for AGP interfaces.
This suddenly seems like a far less expensive option at about $170 which includes a matched set of 2GB DDR PC3200 memory.
Doing a little poking around I find that the bus speeds of the AGP 4 versions of ports were providing 1Ghz of bandwidth which from what I can see is close to the newer PCIe 3.0 card bus.

I hope to be able to get decent performance from this less expensive combination.

Has anyone out there had any experience with this video card?
Is my understanding of minimal differences between PCIe vs AGP hold water?
Any suggestions with respect to my project would be appreciated.

Cheers
 
Solution
coozie7
Even if a AGP GTX740 exists (I suspect it's a typo) you'll still be locked into a very old, slow setup, well below the minimum requirements of AP which, as a player of that game, I can tell you is VERY hard on the CPU and GPU.
If you're not planning to overclock, go for the 'H' rather than a 'Z' motherboard and use the money saved to fund a non 'K' i5, you'll get better mileage out of a decent Quad core than the dual cored i3, despite the i3s Hyperthreading.
Don't forget, you'll need a new power supply as well unless it's been change/upgraded fairly recently, a unit of that age won't have the correct connectors to power a modern system, nor the high 12v amperage current systems demand.
Sort by date Sort by votes
gear999

gear999

Reputable
Jun 19, 2014
407
0
4,960
AGP GT 740? That doesn't seem right. Something's wrong. Is this what you're talking about?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/zotac-nvidia-geforce-gt-740-lp-2gb-ddr3-agp-graphics-card/7383111.p?id=1219267037282&skuId=7383111

http://www.useusaexpress.com/Zotac--NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-740-LP-2GB-DDR3-AGP-Graphics-Card_p_178781.html

Seems kind of fishy to me. Nvidia's website doesn't mention it. Zotac doesn't mention it. And the 740 is a 2013 card, while the AGP interface is extremely old.

I'd get a new system if I were you.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
P

prkle

Honorable
Jan 10, 2014
137
0
10,710
Not worth the upgrade, i'm afraid. That Celeron is what's holding you back, not the gpu.

The bus on that Zotac card doesn't look like AGP to me.

And what comes to the difference between PCI-e and AGP, well let's just say that PCI-e was invented for a reason. That reason being AGP couldn't handle the bandwidth of the newer cards.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
coozie7

coozie7

Champion
Jun 2, 2007
10,015
10
59,215
Even if a AGP GTX740 exists (I suspect it's a typo) you'll still be locked into a very old, slow setup, well below the minimum requirements of AP which, as a player of that game, I can tell you is VERY hard on the CPU and GPU.
If you're not planning to overclock, go for the 'H' rather than a 'Z' motherboard and use the money saved to fund a non 'K' i5, you'll get better mileage out of a decent Quad core than the dual cored i3, despite the i3s Hyperthreading.
Don't forget, you'll need a new power supply as well unless it's been change/upgraded fairly recently, a unit of that age won't have the correct connectors to power a modern system, nor the high 12v amperage current systems demand.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
D

davidw006

Reputable
Sep 7, 2014
7
0
4,510


I thought this was a bit odd as well. I am unable to see any reference to this particular card on Zotac's site either.
I did send the company an email to see if there was a spec sheet for this version if it did indeed exist.
I am sure I will get the expected response that it was a typo.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

davidw006

Reputable
Sep 7, 2014
7
0
4,510


You found the same adverts for the card offered. I thought this seemed odd however considered the possibility that the image was a stock image showing the other interface.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

davidw006

Reputable
Sep 7, 2014
7
0
4,510


I agree with you. I think that it is back to my original idea and upgrade the board, memory, power supply and memory.
Looks like it will indeed be a sad gift giving season after all.

Thank you for joining in.
Cheers
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

davidw006

Reputable
Sep 7, 2014
7
0
4,510


Thank you for the information. I am indeed not planning to overclock with this build. I have been looking for some decent cases with really good airflow and I like the Cooler Master Elite 120 for $40.
I like your idea on saving a bit on the since I don't need the OC features.
After your suggestions my winter project will be to get a decent machine built with the H87 which I can pick up for a respectable $80 - $100. I have been trying go as cheaply as possible but I do like the i5 in at $200 then add a decent PCe 3 2Gb video card and power supply. Looks like all this is quite doable for about my original estimate.

Again thank you.

Old Blackie will become a small NAS.

Cheers

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom