What is the Best AGP 4x Graphic card on sale??

[penguin1]

Ok my motherboard supports AGP Speeds 1x, 2x, 4x
on AGP ver2.0 Currently using a super hopeless MSI G4MX420..

I think i should just get a temperory Graphic card for now.. because i only intend to get a new PC when the DX10 card comes out next year.. by then the prices of Conroe are likely to drop too.

Qn is, may i know what are the BEST FEW agp 4x card availble?
-intending to run @ least HL2, BF2, F.E.A.R at medium settings.

Oh and i heard AGP 8x cards can be run on AGP 4x slot too.. is it true?
(even if it is, i cant get the newer cards like the 7600GT AGP ver because of power consumption. I'm using this rare species of PSU, smaller than the usual with only 230W, i cant change my PSU due to the slot size.. COMPAQ and i don't want too anyway)

thanks!

 

[Spitfire_x86]

All AGP 8x cards work with AGP 4x motherboards

 

[NeonDeon]

Make sure you read on Tom's home page the HD chart on the right hand side of the page. Then Google the best cards. Watch the card for a wek or two to see what goes on sale... www.pricewatch.com is a nice place to start too if your not afaid to buy from some smaller OEM's and such.

i cant change my PSU due to the slot size.. COMPAQ and i don't want too anyway)

Well then, you may need to snach out everything else inside your box.
You will not be using two HD (if you have them already). To save power if you play games, use a no CD/DVD patch so your DVD player won't spin up and draw power. Or if the blue screen of death dosn't bother you..go for it....

 

[celewign]

ew.






sorry.
-cm

 

[megame255]

You never did say what system you have other than motherboard and psu. But with that 230w psu, it probably doesn't even matter as I really doubt you're going to find a card that can play the games you mentioned at any settings. Even a lowly GeForce 6200 wants at least a 300w to run.
Your best bet would be to save your money and get a whole new setup if want to play any demanding games.

 

[SciFiMan]

Would you be opposed to creating a Frankenstein? You could put your existing guts into a new standard case, and then you could get a standard PSU. But be aware that some frontside things may not quite work such as LEDs, sound ports, front USB, etc. Depends on your mobo, and what you can live with or without. Obviously you don't want to invest much into a AGP system these days.

 

[MxM]

I had had to make similar choice recently. I have AGP4x with P4 2.6MHz. I do have 500W power supply though, so for me new video card means just a card. Though power supplies are cheap, compared to video-cards.

So my choses were: to get new computer, to upgrade mobo, or just to buy new video-card. I end-up doing the later. And here is why:

New computer is quite expensive (at least the one that I would end up buying) I would end-up paying at least $1500 USD, and that without monitor and speakers.

New mobo means new memory + new processor + mobo itself + still new video-card. It is also expensive, for me it would be around $1000, plus windows and all programs and drivers reinstallation (very big minus for me)

I will still buy a new computer, but now I can wait until second generation of DX10 hardware is available and when Vista will have SP1, which I would estimate withing 1 year from now. Then my system would become really old, but with new computer I will get Vista (it is much cheaper this way). Pus it always takes some time for the games to adopt new technology, until then, there is no reason to go new the latest hardware/DX10.

As for what particular card, the best AGP card available are those 7800GS. You will not be able to by better AGP card. EVER. So, right now, is about right time to by them, because I doubt that the new 7800GS will be cheaper in the future.

 

[ikaz]

You need to post what video card do you currently have in your PC right now.

 

[choirbass]

he has a GF4mx420..

 

[MxM]

Also, if you just want to play HL2 and BF2 on medium settings, then even 6800GT or Ultra will do the job. You can find a bargain on e-bay for them for about 100$ I think. I do not know how F.E.A.R. runs on those cards though.

 

[quantumsheep]

Ok my motherboard supports AGP Speeds 1x, 2x, 4x
on AGP ver2.0 Currently using a super hopeless MSI G4MX420..

I think i should just get a temperory Graphic card for now.. because i only intend to get a new PC when the DX10 card comes out next year.. by then the prices of Conroe are likely to drop too.

Qn is, may i know what are the BEST FEW agp 4x card availble?
-intending to run @ least HL2, BF2, F.E.A.R at medium settings.

Oh and i heard AGP 8x cards can be run on AGP 4x slot too.. is it true?
(even if it is, i cant get the newer cards like the 7600GT AGP ver because of power consumption. I'm using this rare species of PSU, smaller than the usual with only 230W, i cant change my PSU due to the slot size.. COMPAQ and i don't want too anyway)

thanks!

Buy a new PSU, get an x1950 PRO.

 

[kaotao]

You're going to have to get a new PSU for any GPU that's going to give you the performance you want.

 

[jamesgoddard]

I fear that your current PC is completely non upgradeable...

 

[penguin1]

Also, if you just want to play HL2 and BF2 on medium settings, then even 6800GT or Ultra will do the job. You can find a bargain on e-bay for them for about 100$ I think. I do not know how F.E.A.R. runs on those cards though.

that would be my idea chioce but i'm afraid my PC wouldn't boot due to lack of power.

Buy a new PSU, get an x1950 PRO.

haha. 1950 on agp.

I fear that your current PC is completely non
upgradeable...

I know. However, i'm waiting for DX10 before getting a nnew PC all at one go.. after all by then prices of conroe would have drop. double win.


---

*Stupid old rig. Kicks chassis*

 

[ikjadoon]

What? The X1950 Pro is going to be released for AGP. Might be a bottleneck on 4x, though...Who knows?

~Ibrahim~

 

[uraflit]

if i had to make a decision, id just take out the old psu, get a new psu, put it on the side with the case open, and add-in a more powerful video card.

=D

 

[jamesgoddard]

What? The X1950 Pro is going to be released for AGP. Might be a bottleneck on 4x, though...Who knows?

~Ibrahim~

Not a serious bottleneck, unless gfx card companies start to try and use direct access to system memory again, like what ATI do with hypermemory on some low end cards http://www.ati.com/technology/hypermemory.html the load across the PCIe bus is tiny tbh... In fact an x1650 with hypermemory probably puts more load on the PCIe bus then an x1950xtx does....

Nvid also do something like this with the 8800's and that funny 384 bit memory bus, so I expect the 8800 to be a PCIe bandwidth killer...

 

[quantumsheep]

Buy a new PSU, get an x1950 PRO.

haha. 1950 on agp.



Oh dear...

Please RESEARCH before posting.

 

[MxM]

Also, if you just want to play HL2 and BF2 on medium settings, then even 6800GT or Ultra will do the job. You can find a bargain on e-bay for them for about 100$ I think. I do not know how F.E.A.R. runs on those cards though.

that would be my idea choice but i'm afraid my PC wouldn't boot due to lack of power.


Yeah, you do need better power supply in any case. So 50$ PSU, 100$ video card, and you are good until real DX10 games start to come around, then you can buy new computer. As I had mentioned before I am in the same waiting mode right now, only I end up buying 7800GS, and now I can run most of the games on high (but not ultra-high) settings.

AGP 4x does become a bottleneck for some games though. For example I had to lower texture sizes in Oblivion to medium, because the game briefly pauses with high textures, probably to upload them into the video card memory. After that pause the game runs just fine, but the pauses are very annoying.

This kind of bottleneck is not easily seen in benchmarks, where textures are loaded before the benchmark starts.

 

[melarcky]

Ok well. you don't need a GF6800ULTA to play FEAR on Medium i play it on High. Same goes for HL2 as for BF2 if he has the ram he is ok.
So i would suggest a GF 6600, A x800GTO i have seen those of around $100. its a good card and it will work in a AGP4x slot so you are OK.

 

[crazyhandpuppet]

Are you saying your PC has a smaller-than normal size PS? If so, it may be using a mATX PS as opposed to an ATX PS. mATX PS's measure something like 3x4x5 inches, making them much smaller than a normal full-size ATX PS. If that's what you have, you can find stronger ones. I use a 300-watt on an AMD XP3200 PC with an FX-5600 VC. Runs it fine. In fact, before I switched cases I had a 250-watt PS running the PC without any problems for almost 2 years. Both the CPU and VC are overclocked as well.

This page gives a good comparison of current gen VC power consumptions.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/power-noise.html
If there is a 7300GS VC in AGP, it may make a good short-term fit for your PS at oly 16-watts under full load, but more likely the 7600GS at 27-watts max will be the best fit. The 7600GT sits at almost 36-watts. ATI pulls more power.

If it just needs to hold you over till the Spring, this would work. They would all be a huge step over a GF4MX.

 

[neveremember]

first off, you need to post more info regarding your system before anyone can hope to come up useful information for you. that being said, i think i have enough info to tell you that you are SOL if you hope to play fear at reasonable settings. if you decide to upgrade your video card, be very careful becuase there is a decent chance it won't do you any good with out additional upgrades. here's my cautionary tale...

I upgradded an Athlon XP2000+ w/4x AGP mobo, 350watt PSU, gig o ram, geforce 3 TI. i figured i had a decent system except for the GPU which is a bit dated, and if i just upgrade it i could play some games till the new hardware comes out next year. I picked up the GeForce 7800GS thinking that would hold me over, but alas there were problems. Problem #1 PSU required for that video card is a minimum of 400watts, i got away w/350watts for a couple weeks, but the smell of burning PSU convinced me i should upgrade to 400watts. next was the fact that many current games also have CPU requirements, and if you are just in at the low end of CPU "recommendation" you can expect current games to crash. For me it was Oblivion, TitanQuest & HL2 - all 3 of these ran with the new video card but would crash until i upgraded the rest of my computer. now i have an Athlon 4000+ system w/8x AGP, gig o ram, 400watt psu, and GF7800GS. it plays all of todays current games and is a cool computer, but that's a $1000 i don't have to spend next year when i figured a $300 upgrade would hold me over.
my advice... don't upgrade

 

[melarcky]

first off, you need to post more info regarding your system before anyone can hope to come up useful information for you. that being said, i think i have enough info to tell you that you are SOL if you hope to play fear at reasonable settings. if you decide to upgrade your video card, be very careful becuase there is a decent chance it won't do you any good with out additional upgrades. here's my cautionary tale...

I upgradded an Athlon XP2000+ w/4x AGP mobo, 350watt PSU, gig o ram, geforce 3 TI. i figured i had a decent system except for the GPU which is a bit dated, and if i just upgrade it i could play some games till the new hardware comes out next year. I picked up the GeForce 7800GS thinking that would hold me over, but alas there were problems. Problem #1 PSU required for that video card is a minimum of 400watts, i got away w/350watts for a couple weeks, but the smell of burning PSU convinced me i should upgrade to 400watts. next was the fact that many current games also have CPU requirements, and if you are just in at the low end of CPU "recommendation" you can expect current games to crash. For me it was Oblivion, TitanQuest & HL2 - all 3 of these ran with the new video card but would crash until i upgraded the rest of my computer. now i have an Athlon 4000+ system w/8x AGP, gig o ram, 400watt psu, and GF7800GS. it plays all of todays current games and is a cool computer, but that's a $1000 i don't have to spend next year when i figured a $300 upgrade would hold me over.
my advice... don't upgrade

i agree and disagree at the same time, I agree that when you want to upgrade something you need to look and make sure it will all work good together. Games such as Counter-strike Source, want a good CPU so that they can process everything smoothly. But I disagree about not upgrading at all. Just make sure everything works together good and you shouldn't have any problems.

 

[caamsa]

Ask Santa for a new computer. or............I have an old AGP ATI 9100 64mb gpu in my garage that you can have.

 

[Mach5Motorsport]

If there is a 7300GS VC in AGP, it may make a good short-term fit for your PS at oly 16-watts under full load, but more likely the 7600GS at 27-watts max will be the best fit. The 7600GT sits at almost 36-watts. ATI pulls more power.

If it just needs to hold you over till the Spring, this would work. They would all be a huge step over a GF4MX.

The 7300 series would be a waste in the AGP market. The 7600GS and GT price points coupled with the existing 6200, 6600 and 6800 series cards still available.

**EDIT***
OMG, Newegg has a 7300GT AGP by XFX listed for $120!!! 8O 8O
what the heck is going on here? Don't they know that AGP is dead?! :lol: