Hi there;

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

What's your current card?

FX5600

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.

Sounds Reasonable to me as well.

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).

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.

Agreed

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?

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.