ATI x800 Pro (AGP) vs. HD4650 (AGP)

[Sal Manilla]

Howdy folks. Wow, what a great site for this type of thing. Was wondering, I have a ATI Radeon X800 Pro AGP at the moment and upgrading to a PCI-E is not an option. Not looking to buy a new computer and I don't play a ton of games other than sports titles. Am looking to get a little more bang for my buck or upgrade to one of the better AGP cards out there. I'm in no way a cutting edge guy and I definitely am not one of those guys that always needs the latest and greatest. Question is, I thought I saw somewhere that going to the ATI HD4650 AGP card would be a pretty big step up compared to my current card. Wondering if that is indeed true? I know AGP's are dying or dead already but one of the sites I looked at had the HD4650 at a pretty reasonable price.

Current setup is XP Home SP3 with all updates, P4 with 2.0 gb RAM, AMD Athlon XP2400+ 2.0 ghz processor.

Thanks in advance for any help. Really glad I found this awesome site!

 

[hunter315]

A 4650 would be a huge step up and doesnt need any extra power connectors, it wont generate a ton of heat or use much power at all. It would definitely be an improvement for you.

 

[Sal Manilla]

Wow. Great news. Thanks for the quick reply Hunter! The 4650 is the same card as this is it not? Just making sure as I'm also not the most tech savy person out there and definitely not up on my video cards. I can do most basic things though easily.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150433

Thanks again Hunter!

 

[hunter315]

Yup thats a 4650 alright. Based on the hierarchy chart is should be a huge improvement
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2404-7.html
There is a 9 tier difference, 2 is a noticeable performance increase, 9 should be amazing.

 

[Dekasav]

Yup, I went from an X850XT (a bit better than yours) to an HD 4670 (a bit better than your proposed one) and it was awesome. Low settings turned into High settings. It was magical....

 

[Sal Manilla]

You guys rock here. Thanks for the woody, oops I mean good news...lol Going to get that baby for sure now.

 

[Sal Manilla]

Yup thats a 4650 alright. Based on the hierarchy chart is should be a huge improvement
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2404-7.html
There is a 9 tier difference, 2 is a noticeable performance increase, 9 should be amazing.

Hunter. I looked at that hierarchy chart you posted and I noticed that the HD4650 DDR2 in that link is only 3 lines (levels?) above my X800 Pro 256mb rather than 9 like you mentioned. Will that still be a noticeable difference? Or would that be too close to notice much? Thanks again!

 

[jyjjy]

You shouldn't be getting the DDR2 version. The DDR3 version is both slightly cheaper and substantially better;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103080
The difference in the amount of memory on the 2 cards is something you should entirely ignore. It would take a card twice as powerful for 1gb of memory to be anything more than a marketing gimmick.

 

[jyjjy]

Oh yeah, the DDR3 card should be more than twice as powerful as your current card.

 

[Sal Manilla]

I don't use DDR3 RAM though. WOuld I need to buy that kind? Just went to Crucial.com and ran a scan and it said Each memory slot can hold DDR PC2700,DDR PC3200 with a maximum of 1GB per slot.*. I have 2 gb now. Would I need to upgrade to DDR3 ram to use that card? Looks like my PC can't take it. Starting to feel like I'm missing something here. Not the most tech savy person out there. I do know how to replace RAM though. Also noticed that DDR3 card at Newegg that you posted is 512mb. Does it mean it's not as good as the 1 gb DDR2 card I posted originally? Thanks again. Learning as we go here.

 

[crosko42]

Ram and Vram are unrelated.

Get the DDR3 card.

 

[jyjjy]

The memory on a video card has nothing to do with your system's RAM. It's built into the card.
As I already said the DDR3 version is substantially better and the difference in amount of memory will have no effect at all. The card isn't anywhere near powerful enough to use more than 512mb effectively. 1gb of memory on low end cards is a pointless marketing gimmick targeted at people who don't know any better.