Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphic & Displays > Graphics Cards > Best AGP option for a really old computer?

Best AGP option for a really old computer?

Forum Graphic & Displays : Graphics Cards - Best AGP option for a really old computer?

Tom's Hardware: Over 1.4 million members in 6 different countries available to answer all your high-tech questions. Sign up now! Its free!
Ask the community Add a reply
Word :    Username :           
 
Giskard Reventlov   08-30-2007 at 12:02:22 PM

Hi there; :hello:

I want a new AGP graphic card for this computer:

- Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2800+
- Mother Board: Asus A7N8X Deluxe
- Memory: 1,5GB DDR400

I believe that the ATI x1950pro is too much for my slow computer, but a 7600GT(GDDR3) or something like that is a good option, or it is not worthwhile and I can buy a lower card?

Thanks :)

Add a reply
Sponsored Links
Register or log in to remove.
randomizer   08-30-2007 at 01:02:56 PM
- 0 +

What's your current card?

Reply to randomizer
randomizer   08-30-2007 at 01:42:03 PM
- 0 +

A 7600GT will be like night and day compared to an FX5600, and the x1950 pro will be like heaven and hell.

But considering you CPU is rather slow, I'd stick with the 7600GT.


Message edited by randomizer on 08-30-2007 at 01:43:56 PM
Reply to randomizer
zenmaster   08-30-2007 at 02:17:04 PM
- 0 +

Sounds Reasonable to me as well.

Reply to zenmaster
KyleSTL   08-30-2007 at 02:44:49 PM
- 0 +

I second those votes, I'm happy with the 7600GS I recently upgraded to (although I'm not a huge gamer, playing NFS:Carbon right now).

------------------------------ Lian-Li PC-7B | XClio Greatpower 550W | P4 3.2 Prescott SL7E5 | Scythe Ninja
2GB DDR400 Corsair VS (4*512) | eVGA nVidia GF 7600GS AGP vmod 1.46/1.91 OCd 759/907
WD 160GB & 640GB SATA
WinXP MCE 2004
 Reply to KyleSTL
misiu_mp   08-30-2007 at 03:07:40 PM
- 0 +

7600GS or 7600GT, depending if you have something better to do with the ca 50$ more 7600gt costs. Personally i dont think there is a point in pumping so much money in such an old system, so i would go with 7600gs.

Reply to misiu_mp
KyleSTL   08-30-2007 at 03:24:28 PM
- 0 +

Agreed

------------------------------ Lian-Li PC-7B | XClio Greatpower 550W | P4 3.2 Prescott SL7E5 | Scythe Ninja
2GB DDR400 Corsair VS (4*512) | eVGA nVidia GF 7600GS AGP vmod 1.46/1.91 OCd 759/907
WD 160GB & 640GB SATA
WinXP MCE 2004
 Reply to KyleSTL
Giskard Reventlov   08-30-2007 at 03:28:35 PM
- 0 +

Thank you for your answers.:)

GT or GS; it is a good question... the difference between both is around 30€, but the GT with GDDR3 and the GS with DDR2. What do you think about this?


Message edited by Giskard Reventlov on 08-30-2007 at 03:30:17 PM
Reply to Giskard Reventlov
rockyjohn   08-30-2007 at 03:33:11 PM
- 0 +

The fastest card you can get is probably limited by your PSU. Please post specifications - make & model and power output (the latter should be on a label on the PSU or available from the manufacturer online). Does it have an available PCIe power connector (so named but also used for higher end AGP cards) and/or two available 4 pin molex connectors?

Because the FX5600 is a power hungry card (65W) you should be able to go with most other current options - including the 7600GT (36W) or either the 7900 GS (45W) or x1950Pro (66W). Depending on how close you are to capacity on current PSU, you may need to consider that PSU efficiency decreases a small amount over time.

The 7900 GS and x1950Pro are approximately equal in speed with an edge to the x1950Pro but the 7900 GS overclocks better and the x1950Pro takes a lot more power. Both are about 50% faster than the 7600 GT.

For most games, your CPU is a minor consideration, but perhaps someone with your CPU and one of the faster cards can tell you if there really is any performance loss - or what specific games might be affected.

Reply to rockyjohn
cristip60   08-30-2007 at 03:45:34 PM
- 0 +

I have in what is now a htpc rig a athlon xp 2500+ oc'ed to 3200+ a palit 7600gs with ddr3 i oc'ed it to 550 core and 1250memory and i played test drive unlimited on high, oblivion with low to medium setting with no lag and bioshock with high details.

Reply to cristip60
mtyermom   08-30-2007 at 04:41:07 PM
- 0 +

I just purchased an x1650 Pro AGP for my old system and I am quite pleased with the results for the money spent.

Reply to mtyermom
zenmaster   08-30-2007 at 04:52:18 PM
- 0 +

The 7600GT will be quite a bit better than the 7600GS.

However, either will be a huge improvement.
Much depends on your finances and how long you plan to your very old system. Any thing you spend on the card will be lost when you upgrade the rest of your system.

Reply to zenmaster
Cleeve   08-30-2007 at 05:13:00 PM
- 0 +

Here is a review copmparing the 7600 GT and X1950 PRO on an Athlon XP 2500+:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/0 [...] -analysis/

The short answer is, a 7600 GT would be a fine companion to your 2800+. Even an X1950 PRO would be a good choice for certain games like Oblivion or NFS: Carbon.

Reply to Cleeve
KyleSTL   08-30-2007 at 05:44:17 PM
- 0 +

Yeah, I went from a 5200 to a 7600GS and I used a 3D benchmark that was a flyover some trees (I think it was part of PC Wizard or something). Anyway, it went from a barely veiwable slide show (maybe 8-10 FPS) to smooth as butter (62 FPS). I think the 6-8x increase in processing power was more than enough.

------------------------------ Lian-Li PC-7B | XClio Greatpower 550W | P4 3.2 Prescott SL7E5 | Scythe Ninja
2GB DDR400 Corsair VS (4*512) | eVGA nVidia GF 7600GS AGP vmod 1.46/1.91 OCd 759/907
WD 160GB & 640GB SATA
WinXP MCE 2004
 Reply to KyleSTL
Giskard Reventlov   08-31-2007 at 11:02:17 AM
- 0 +

According with the review, the x1950pro seems great for some games, but I think that for my slow computer, much cheaper 7600GT is better.

Thanks for your help. :)

Reply to Giskard Reventlov
cristip60   08-31-2007 at 01:59:44 PM
- 0 +

The 7600gt is just perfect.

Reply to cristip60
TerribleComputerMan   08-31-2007 at 04:30:16 PM
- 0 +

Hi everybody, I just saw that I can get the BFG 7600 gt OC 512mb on sale for $110. I also have an old computer, but it's even worse than the OP's.

motherboard: P4VXMS - ECS Elitegroup
I have a P4 1400 mhz
512 mb of ram
current graphics card: BFG Geforce fx 5200 OC

the card has as much ram as my whole computer! I know I should buy a whole new computer, but I wont be able to for at least a year. Is my computer too weak too really get any use out of it?

Message quoted 1 times
Reply to TerribleComputerMan
Cleeve   08-31-2007 at 04:49:10 PM
- 0 +

TerribleComputerMan wrote :



motherboard: P4VXMS - ECS Elitegroup
I have a P4 1400 mhz
512 mb of ram
current graphics card: BFG Geforce fx 5200 OC

the card has as much ram as my whole computer! I know I should buy a whole new computer, but I wont be able to for at least a year. Is my computer too weak too really get any use out of it?



Your P4 at 1400 Mhz and 512mb of RAM is probably too slow to really get the goods from a 7600 GT.

Time for a system upgrade!

Reply to Cleeve
rosanjin   08-31-2007 at 05:08:37 PM
- 0 +

Cleeve has the right of it. It's time to move up.

I had a somewhat similar set up.... a P4 2.53 GHZ system w/2gigs of PC3200 ddr on a Soyo P4x400 board. Original vid card was 9800pro.....great card in it's time.

When I updgraded to a 7800GS graphics card, I found it was considerably better - but not to the tune of what I'd hoped for after studying a lot of benchies. I put a x1950 pro in the same setup to find that performance had only marginally improved. Major bottlenecking seemed to be the problem. (cpu, bus, etc.)

Swapped out the motherboard and CPU and almost doubled my performance from the x1950pro.

It's worth the time and money just to upgrade the platform. ;)

Reply to rosanjin
TerribleComputerMan   08-31-2007 at 05:12:14 PM
- 0 +

Thanks guys! Well that saves me some decision making, I guess I'll put the money towards a better computer when I finally upgrade everything.

Reply to TerribleComputerMan
nucleus   08-31-2007 at 06:12:06 PM
- 0 +

everyone missed the 7800gs great card with 16 pipes,i think.

Reply to nucleus
KyleSTL   08-31-2007 at 07:08:27 PM
- 0 +

7800GS is probably a little overkill. The value really isn't there for the price you pay. 7600GS/GT is the right range.

------------------------------ Lian-Li PC-7B | XClio Greatpower 550W | P4 3.2 Prescott SL7E5 | Scythe Ninja
2GB DDR400 Corsair VS (4*512) | eVGA nVidia GF 7600GS AGP vmod 1.46/1.91 OCd 759/907
WD 160GB & 640GB SATA
WinXP MCE 2004
 Reply to KyleSTL
cristip60   08-31-2007 at 07:36:50 PM
- 0 +

I saw allot of bechmarks where the 7800gs did not beat the 7600gt.

Reply to cristip60
Cleeve   08-31-2007 at 09:19:24 PM
- 0 +

The 7800 GS is about exactly as fast as the 7600 GT.

Get the cheaper one...

Reply to Cleeve
smokedyou911   09-01-2007 at 05:28:44 AM
- 0 +

how mcuh amps on your 12v rail of your psu?

I would say a 7600gs upgraded to one from a fx5700 a while ago to run oblivion and bf2 on high

Reply to smokedyou911
furyagain1   09-01-2007 at 03:51:24 PM
- 0 +

i have a old system too which have a X800GTO 16 pipe which only have ps 2.0

a dual p3 1.47ghz
1.2gb SDRAM
X800GTO 16 piple
asus CUV4X-D mainboard

i have been thinking if i should get a 7600GT/GS or even a 7900/7800GS / X1950PRO

or should i wait for a HD2400,HD2600 AGP ?? ( i wantto play HD video using this rig.. it is my HTPC )

Reply to furyagain1
Ask the community Add a reply
Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphic & Displays > Graphics Cards > Best AGP option for a really old computer?
Go to:

There are 1171 identified and unidentified users. To see the list of identified users, Click here.

Forum map
Bestofmedia Forum ©
2000-2009 Bestofmedia Group
Page generated in 0.575 seconds
Please mind

You are about to answer a thread that has been inactive for more than 6 months.
If you still wish to proceed, please ensure that your posting is original and does not duplicate or overlap any prior responses to this thread.

Add a reply Cancel
Sponsored links
  • Ask the community now
  • Publish
Ad
Related Topics
See all relatives topics
They won a badge
Join us in greeting them