Video Card Advise

[EonDel]

I am trying to upgrade my videocard to the max my system can take. My Motherboard is ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe with AGP slot. Currently I have a X800 pro, I want to upgrade, was looking at HD3850 cards but was reading that they need FSB 800 to maximize their potential, mine is only FSB400. If that is true what would be the best card to get without losing performance due to my MOBO limitation.

Thanks.

 

[smalltime0]

Your smaller FSB will slow the 3850 down a bit, but it's still the fastest available for the aging AGP slot.
What sort of games are you playing?

 

[EonDel]

Mostly I play older games such as mechwarrior and my exhisting card is fine, I want to play Call of Duty, BF2142 & UT4 and it just drags a little bit on them. I saw the 3850 but it goes for around 250 where a x1650 is only 80 bucks and was wondering if the FSB issue would negate the better performance.

 

[smalltime0]

Thats a tricky one.
Yes the FSB would negate some of the performance gain, but really the 3850 setup would beat the x1650 setup...

 

[EonDel]

Thanks for the advise, been looking more and found a AGP round up article here at toms with my same basic config which they tested an x1950 pro, I know they are tough to find but I found some. I am just trying to get another year out of my rig before the MOBO replacement so the 3850 is a little too much $$ to be scrapped next year. So now it is between the X1950 pro or the HD 2600 XT; these appear to be similar and the 2600 is cheeper just wondering if it is better then the 1950 (prices are higher to to availability issues.