ATI's X1600 series is meant to offer modern-graphics power for AGP systems. But does the upgrade really make sense or should you save your money and invest in a new rig later?

If I were still on AGP, I would most-likely buy a 6800GS, which I consider to be the best value for money.
 
But personally, I didn't see a point in wasting any amount on a graphics card I wouldn't be able to use in my transition to PCIe, so opted to save for a complete upgrade instead.
The 7800 GT I own now trumps all AGP graphics solutions, and I couldn't be happier with my decision to patiently wait and save.
 
My opinion is to wait and tackle a complete upgrade rather than buying a card now and regretting it once that system upgrade does come within financial grasp.

id get a 6800 or x850, but if u hav the moeny for 7800gs, u should be thinking about pcie system

so how does it compare to a 800XL or 850?  People you categorize as having built a high end machine several years back would not have stuffed a moldy 9600 in their boxes or would have upgraded since then.  
 
If there is no advantage over the last fastest AGP release....than it is of no value to the crowd they look to woo.  Same thing goes for the 7800 AGP, I looked at comparisons and other than a few frames per second here and there....., it was not worth it.  I don't believe 12pipes on a 1600 class card is any faster and maybe slower than an 800 series AGP.

I bought an AGP 6800le in august (in fact I upgraded from a 9600xt) for $130 and it gets 3734 in 3dmark05... I would imagine most people with AGP have upgraded to something similar by this time if they want to be able to play FEAR or BF2 or any new games at acceptable frame rates.  Maybe this card will be a good buy for people who are still chugging along on a 9x00 card,  but those people should've upgraded a long time ago.  You're much better off at this point just waiting until you can build a whole new system, prices should be fairly reasonable once Conroe comse out in July.

Exactly what you said,  
 
I had a pretty decent Geforce 5950 but went ahead and upgraded to 800XL, hate the drivers but the card is fast, pretty cheap on ebay.

 
What do you mean when you say you hate the drivers?

I am in exactly this position.
 
I have waited and waited, but now my P2.4G AGP and 9600Pro is limping along with older games.
 
I have about $1000 to spend, and need to do so before August (or I miss out on a big rebate from work).
 
What do I do????
The dilemma!  The horror!  The thrill (I'M FINALLY UPGRADING!!!)...
 
Conroe will shake up the pricing.  TG just posted a cheap 4GHz solution.  I could just throw down ~$300 on another AGP card and sit on my machine for another year or so... options, options.
 
Any advice is welcomed...

Greets,  
 
I have been quite interested in a potential budget-ish update to my old system, but was a little dismayed to see this benched against the 9600.  
 
Does ANYONE out there know this would perform against a 9800 Pro?
 
Any help is appreciated!  
 
Thanks

If you care to look at the old article AGP Charts Part III you'll see the performance differences between the 9600 Pro and 9800 Pro.  Then you can see the performance differences between the 9600 Pro and X1600 Pro, and draw a good conclusion.

 
If you really can't wait until conroe comes out to upgrade, my advice would be to buy a 6600gt on ebay.  You can probably get one for around $75.  That will let you play games fine on your current system, at least good enough to hold you over until you can get a more serious upgrade.  Then when Conroe comes out, resell the 6600gt and get your money back, then build a new system.

So you think a mid-range system (the $1000 range including vid card) will be effected significantly by Conroe?  Do you see Conroe being an option itself, or just the backlash in pricing of all the current hw?  An example:  pricing of X2 cpus and mbs...?

I was disappointd to see the 6800GS omitted from the testbed.    
The 1600Pro is hampered by a 128 bit interface. The 512MB is wasted.  I would guess a 9800 Pro would give the Viper a good run in most games and lower resolutions.
 
Still, I was happy to see Tom's reviewing an AGP card and still pondering the "advantage" of PCIe.  The comparriso of two 1600Pros was proof that only the dual card setup is the only advantage of the PCIe interface.

I was disappointed to see the 6800GS omitted from the testbed.    
The 1600Pro is hampered by a 128 bit interface. The 512MB is wasted.  I would guess a 9800 Pro would give the Viper a good run in most games and lower resolutions.
 
Still, I was happy to see Tom's reviewing an AGP card and still pondering the "advantage" of PCIe.  The comparrison of two 1600Pros was proof that only the dual card setup is the only real advantage of the PCIe interface.

I'm in your position too...and for the money, i think i'm gonna go w/ a Pentium D 805 and OC it.  I've seen way too many success stories about it.  
 
On TigerDirect I priced a new mobo, 805 D, 1 GB RAM, GeForce 7900GT 256, CPU Cooler, and Power Supply (550 watt) for just over $830.  That would be a screamer for under a grand.  Might be something to consider.  I think i'm gonna do it... just gotta come up w/ the funds.

 
Right, I'd say any CPU you buy today you'll be able to get for 40-50% cheaper come the end of July.  check out this article:
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=2800
 
As far as conroe itself being an option, I wouldn't rule it out completely.  The cheapest Conroe is supposed to be around $250, which may fit into a budget of $1000.  But then, it may not.  Either way, I think the best option is to wait and see.

I was in this sitution a month ago.  I had a P4 2.6c w a 9600.  I pretty much only play BF2 on MEd settings.  Its was pretty decent.  However, the Special Forces expansion chugged along.  
 
I was able to get an x800xl AIW for $179 (CAN) which is a pretty good price up here.  I now have excellent frame rates in both BF and SF, but still at MEd settings.  High settings still get very choppy at times, even after adding a 2nd GB of ram.
 
A full upgrade was not a priority for me financially, and I felt that this would be a decent compromise which would enable me to get another year out of my existing system.   I may upgrade to an AMD 3500+ system in 6 mnths and just carry the x800xl over to that system and see how much of a further performance gain I get.

Still, the question remains - which is the best AGP card for those of us in the $200 or so range?
 
It needs to be fast, and it needs to have all the goodies, of course, but part of me is thinking that I should suffer until DX10 comes out.
 
But I can't play several of my newest games - jut way too slow for no apparent reason(Hitman Blood Money, for instance - ghastly slow despite its crude graphics.

So staying on topic, I am in a situation where I have a media center PC and AGP + Socket 478 P4.
 
You mentioned at the conclusion of the article this might be a good solution for HTPC owners for the latest decoding and HDR features etc... and Avivo. I am trying to get better image quality from my TV signal and I think this might be a solution for me. I currently have a BFG 6800GT OC that I bought in July 2004 and an EVGA tv tuner for Media center 2005 and I have to say DVD's look great but the tv signal is something to be desired. also I can't play many of the newer movie trailers well because my vid card doesnt support H.264 acceleration.  
 
I dont really play games on this PC but I want the option if something needs RMA'd on my gaming PC or it melts or something like that. LOL.
 
Now I just need to find a good TV tuner card to pair this with.

If I were using an X1600 for HTPC, I'd also use the ATI TV Wonder Elite, or one of the cheaper clones from Sapphire/Powercolor.
 
Of course I'd also use ATI MultiMedia Center rather than MCE, since it seems to have a bit less overhead and I have a couple XP Pro licenses.
 
But regardless of MCE or MMC, the TV-Wonder Elite and its clones are top candidates for standard TV quality.

my opinion of current AGP options would be the Sapphire X800GTO (I bought one earlier this year).  You won't have pixel shader 3 capability, but as a result you save the extra workload it would otherwise need to process for it.  It has GDDR3 memory (why is the x1600 only ddr2 when it's newer???), and can be significantly overclocked even with the STOCK cooler!  Why Sapphire's x8xx series coolers are better than ATI's is beyond me!  I switched to a zalman cooler and only gained marginal increase in max overclock, with about a 10 degree decrease (does'nt hurt).
 
looking at the VGA charts it is roughly equivalent in performance to the 6800, depending on what game you are playing (although hard to know for sure since it was not reviewed for some reason), but does not have pixelshader 3.  The difference in these technologies is marginal right now, and you would likely not miss it (I don't).
 
With 1gb of RAM and an A643200+, I can play BF2 on all high settings, but no AA/AF.  If you really want AA/AF in an FPS, save up and get a PCIE 7800+ card.  Personally, I have seen them side by side at LAN parties, and I am SO glad I saved the money and stuck with AGP for now.  I can't see the difference.