| Radeon X1950 PRO | |
|---|---|
| Codename | RV570 |
| Process | 90 nm |
| Pixel Shaders | 36 |
| Vertex Shaders | 8 |
| Texture Units | 12 |
| ROPs | 12 |
| Memory Bus | 256 bit |
| Core Speed MHz | 575 |
| Memory Speed MHz | 690 (1380 effective) |
| DirectX / Shader Model | DX 9.0c / SM 3.0 |
The aging X1950 PRO is still a powerful AGP card. The only card over the X1950 PRO you might want to hold out for is the Radeon 3850, which may be too powerful for your older AGP system to utilize fully.
Best AGP Card For $215
| Radeon 3850 512 MB | |
|---|---|
| Codename | RV670 |
| Process | 55 nm |
| Universal Shaders | 320 |
| Texture Units | 16 |
| ROPs | 16 |
| Memory Bus | 256 bit |
| Core Speed MHz | 670 |
| Memory Speed MHz | 833 (1666 effective) |
| DirectX / Shader Model | DX 10.1 / SM 4.0 |
Forever rumored and now finally available to purchase, the Radeon 3850 is, frankly, a curiously powerful card for the aging AGP bus. It is possibly too powerful to be properly utilized on the single-core CPUs that are typically paired with this platform.
Regardless, this is the most powerful AGP card you can get. Perhaps you have an AGP gaming system you just can't bear to part with, or perhaps you have an anomalous motherboard that has both a dual-core CPU and AGP slot. Whatever the reason, you can't get better than an AGP 3850, and if anyone ever releases a more powerful card in the future for the dying bus, we'll be incredibly surprised.
