The best AGP card?

Santa88

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Jan 30, 2008
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Hey people, ok first things first. My specs are;

ASUS A7V8X-X SERIES
AMD Athlon XP 3000+, 2.2GHZ, 333MHZ FSB
ATI Radeon 9600 PRO, 8X AGP, 128MB DDR
1024MB DDR RAM, 333MHZ
76.6GB HITACHI 7200RPM + 38.1GB MAXTOR 5200RPM
400W COLORSit Power Supply

Yes I know, very old. But I'm not planning to buy a new computer until sometime around this summer maybe, but thats when I move house so it will have to wait. So till then I wanted to upgrade my computer to squeeze a bit more performance, this cpu is the max for my mobo, so them 2 must stay. I wanted to buy a new video card and perhaps add another gb of ram.

I was planning to get Radeon 9800XT until I found out that there are way better cards for AGP. nVidia GeForce 7900 GT or ATi Radeon X800 XL AGP? Or those the best cards out there for AGP? Thx for reading!
 

pauldh

Illustrious
For new games I'd avoid the GF7 series mainly because the HD2600XT does better and costs less. If you are in the USA, and have $99, it's the best AGP performnace you will find without spending much more on the X1950 pro or XT which do much better with fsaa turned on. The price just dropped and free shipping too. grab it qucik if interested.
http://www.newegg.com:80/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102711


With this card, you will want at least 22 amps on the 12v rails. Also use the latest Hotfix 8.1 drivers from ATI or Sapphires site for this AGP version.
 

Santa88

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Jan 30, 2008
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What's that??? I don't get many results from it, hehe. Is it good? Grrr this is so hard. I want the best AGP card!!!

So ATI HD2600XT? or ATI X1950XT? Are those the 2 best AGP cards out there? I'm so bad at this :p
 

pauldh

Illustrious
Um, yes that site is USA only. I have not seen the HD3850 AGP available anywhere yet although they are coming sometime. It will be the top AGP card, but really your CPU isn't up to the task so unless it's priced right, I would go cheaper.

In AGP, I rank them:
1)X1950XT
2)7950GT/X1950 pro
3)HD2600XT/7900GS
4)7800GS/7600GT/X1650XT/HD2600 pro/X850XT

But I personally no longer like the GF7's as they are hurting in some of the new games. For instance, in old days the 7950GT usually beat the X1950 pro. Now in games like UT3, COD4, Crysis, TF2, HL2 ep2, Oblivion, NFS:carbon & Pro street, etc., the X1950 pro is easily beating it. Still depending on pricing, a 7600GT or 7900GS may be a good value for you. Here in the USA, the HD2600XT absolutely crushes them both in some games for about the same price or cheaper. And I would not recommend the radeon X850's or X800's not for performance, but because they are not supported in some games now.
 
I think that power supply is going to be a problem if its the standard one its 20Amps on the+12 and if its the gold that goes up to 25, So the 1950 would be a bad idea as that requiores about 28 so the 2600XT would probably be the best bet power wise, Personally if its the standard one i would look at replacing it anyway you say its old and they degrade over time so if its the gold i would say you would be ok running the 2600XT but if not upgrade the psu and get the 1950 Pro.
Of course this all depends on your price point where you are the two cards are similar in performance as long as you dont use AA/AF but pauldh already covered that.
Mactronix
 

Santa88

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Powersupply shouldn't be a problem. I could always buy a better one if I need it. So then best is Radeon X1950XT? It can use DDR1 memory right? My motherboard uses 333mhz DDR1.

Thx a lot guys! You'w been very helpful.
 

pauldh

Illustrious
This will be the top AGP card when they become available:
http://www.powercolor.com/Global/products_features.asp?ProductID=1730

Otherwise until HD3850, the Gecube X1950XT is tops:
http://www.gecube.com/products-detail.php?prod_cat_pid=9&prod_cat_id=166&prod_id=65116

Third on my list is the His Ice Q X1950 pro 512MB:
http://www.hisdigital.com/html/product_ov.php?id=296&view=yes


But, again my feeling is all of these may be overpriced considering the rig you are putting it in. I can't help for prices in Spain. If cost doesn't matter at all, go fo it.
 

Santa88

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Jan 30, 2008
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Thx a lot for all your quick replies! But hehe, I'w decided to just get a new pc. Not much point of upgrading just a video card, my cpu will hold it down.

I mean moving computers from a country to another cant be that bad right? I mean, in airports there are these special iron box things you can put your tower in right? or...