King_of_Crunk

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I want to buy an AGP 8X video card but I can't decide what to buy.I curently have a Geforce 4 MMX on an Athlon XP 1800+, 512 Mb of RAM and an AGP 4X motherboard.Can anyone suggest a decently priced card ?
 

Eurasianman

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Not to be rude, but you won't see much performance since you're still using AGP 4x. Either get an AGP 8x mobo and then card, or upgrade all together. Otherwise, I don't think your purchase will be well justified.

I have a Pentium 4 2.0A GHz @ 2.66 with an ATI 9600XT on an AGP 4x motherboard with 1 gig of DDR 266MHz. I've ran the card on an AGP 8x and noticed a slight increase in performance. Overall, todays graphic cards will be held back by the slow bus of AGP 4x. This computer now serves as a CS:S, BF2, BF2142 server.

Just my $.02.
 

Pain

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To sell new hardware.

It's true, there isn't all that much difference.

IRT to the original poster, you would get a huge improvement over that MX card with even something like the 6600 or as said a 9xxx series card. You could even get a 7600gs for $125 though I don't really think that would be worth the price in that machine. [or that 7300 linked above for $80 after rebate, or here's a 6600gt for $90 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143083
 

dsidious

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I've had the same problem and the guys at my favourite local computer shop recommended a $45 GeForce MX 4000. That was the best card they could think of that still made sense on AGP 4x, even after I told them I was willing to spend up to $300.

There are cards like X1950Pro that support AGP but they won't work at their full potential on 4x. The CPU may also bottleneck them.
 

georgelawton

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Not to be rude, but you dont know a damn thing. Its been proven many times over that 4x and 8x make little if any difference.

I have a 1950pro agp on a 4x slot, and I get great marks.
 

Pain

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All respect, I think they are wrong and I've used cards at 4x and gotten good results.

Here are the AGP charts from 2005 that show cards you should look at. Find a game you like to play and check out the results. Then, you can look at the latest chart comparing the 7300gt and the 6600gt, using the game Prey.
 

sweatlaserxp

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The only situation where you may see a difference (and likely a very small one) were if you were using one of the more powerful AGP cards, like the X1950 Pro or 7800GS, at high res. and settings maxed out (which you can't really do with 512Mb RAM). Definitely no difference in framerates if you're looking at practically any budget graphics card.
 

prozac26

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*scratches head*

Then wth is the point of having AGP 8x is AGP 4x was sufficient enough???
What's the point of PCI-E 16X then? No card uses all 16 lanes.

Don't know why, maybe they put it out "in case" something needed the lanes.

They get people to buy more expensive hardware that way, like the SLI mobos with "true" 16 lanes on both slots. Even though they make no difference compared to 2 x 8X, people will pay the extra few bucks.
 

Eurasianman

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*scratches head*

Then wth is the point of having AGP 8x is AGP 4x was sufficient enough???
What's the point of PCI-E 16X then? No card uses all 16 lanes.

Don't know why, maybe they put it out "in case" something needed the lanes.

They get people to buy more expensive hardware that way, like the SLI mobos with "true" 16 lanes on both slots. Even though they make no difference compared to 2 x 8X, people will pay the extra few bucks.

Technology is gay!!! (in that case)
 

sweatlaserxp

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Maybe PCI Express has all that capability because the industry won't be introducing another new bus system for quite a long time, so they created the potential for immense bandwidth. It is ironic though. Think about all the yuppies and well-heeled hipsters buying Core 2 Duo Mac Powerbooks so that they can blog, write emails, and move music onto their iPod. Who knows? Maybe PCI Express will never see its full bandwidth potential, but perhaps they create these industry standards to protect against potential limitations.
 

rts_fan

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Someone said 9xxx. Don't get a 9000! I was able to pick up a Radeon 9550 for $30 or 40 after rebate that I use on a 4x board, PSU=300w. This is a slightly slower version of the 9600 that some people are able to open back up to 9600. C&C Generals is the most that I've thrown at it and it had no problems.

Be careful that your PSU has enough juice, especially if you're thinking of the X1950Pro. Sounds like you'll need at least a good 380 watt PSU to get that one to work.

The other idea is to find a used x800/850. 9800Pros can be had real cheap and they would be a good match to your present system.
 

Blacken

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An x800XX and another 512mb stick O' ram would be my ideal upgrade for that rig King O' Crunk; yet it also depends upon the games you play.
 

kaotao

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I agree with mr. blacken on adding another 512MB in there, but IMO with your CPU anything more than a 9800pro wouldn't really be worth it.
 

Pain

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Kaotao is right. The XP is going to fall short with most card above the 9xxx series.

Just to clarify that, his current XP may not get much boost from a higher card, but I have many 3200+ machines that run great with 6800gt and 7900gt cards, though the 7900's are definately reaching the end of those cpu's resources.