My 2003 rig specs: PIV 2.4GHz o/c to 3.2GHz, 1.5 GB RAM, mobo - ABIT IS7-G, almost 1 TB storage, 17" LCD. Rig is used for video editing and gaming mainly.

I was pretty happy even with F.E.A.R. recently, but it seems I could do much better

I do not want to replace mobo and CPU for at least 12 months or so. Could you recommend any decent replacement for my ATI 9600 Pro by Saphire? I like ATI but I could switch to NVIDIA if tempted.

Do you know if any of those most recent animals (7800 or 1800) are going to be offered for AGP?

The 6800GS should come out in AGP soon...hopefully...maybe...

Let us know you're budget and we can narrow down the search.

I would look at the highest card you can get in agp with would be around the 6800gt or oc, or ati 850xt line.

Havent heard but seriously dought the newer cards will be offered in the agp line. Why put all that power into a dying technology?

Best AGP card deal right now - bar none - is the X800XT. They're available out there as alow as $250 after rebates.

If you can afford it, there's no reason to look at another AGP card right now. Even the upcoming AGP 6800GS pales in comparison.

That card with your rig will play the newest games well, but games that show up in a year or so might require a faster CPU. SO you might want to consider your upgrade path.

I am with you, X800XT or X850XT if it's not too much money. Saving $50 or so down from that gets you so much less performance.


Speaking of upgrade paths, did you get your Asrock ULI yet? I got one, along with a San Diego 3700+. Haven't tested it yet though, but Looking forward to playing around with that rig. My only PCI-e card is a plain ole X800, so I'll be able to test that against a 9800 pro.

I would go with the x800xl, not quite the card the xt is, but your 17" lcd, with a max resolution of 1024x768, it is able to max out most current games.

The xt shines in the bigger screens, like 1600x1200. xl has plenty to power your screen.

Best of all, they are readily available on fleabay for $170 in the agp style.

I used the pci express version till last month and ran most all fps at 1280x1024 with a lot of eye candy very well. (BF2, FEAR, Q4, COD2)

my $.02

i just got a new rig that is a amd 300064bit 939,6600GT pci e ect. and i was useing a amd 2700,with a 9600 pro 256mb agp 8x and the only differance for me was turning of shadows for the 9600 and enableing soft shadows at 1024 for most games useing the 6600 so if u wunna use ur 9600 with no shadows be my Guest! anyway that was random sorta so ill get 2 da point

u should go to a 6600GT AGP 256mb dont even think about 128mb because is shaves 10fps or more of games and is not much less

ps. both my comps had 1gb ddr mem and sb sound cards

Hi,

I've gone PCI Express, so I'm going purely on what I've read.

If you've got to stick with the AGP slot, I've read somewhere you can unlock an additional 4pipes on the X800 to get it upto X850 specs....

try reading this for a bit more info...

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/ [...] to2/7.html

I previously had the GeForce 6800GT, and had NO qualms with it, and would recommend one. I just wanted to move to PCI express and found a card at the right price....

Shame I can;t boot from Raid now though

i had a 9600 as you all know and i actuley put a x700 and in the agp slot and it ran like a charm and with ati`s drivers finaly not sucking u should consider a x700 pro 256mb

Thank you for all the suggestions. BTW, my 17" goes on 1280x1024.

I think I would go for a nice X800 with some silent sollution if possible. Unless there will be good price on similar stuff of NVIDIA.