Best AGP Card For ~$160: Tie

The X1650 XT has recently come down in price, and is a good competitor to the 7600 GT. Overall performance is a bit faster than that of the 7600 GT, but they trade blows depending on the game. The bottom line is that for $175 you can get a really good AGP gamer's card. Note that we have seen this card for as low as $140 after rebates online! At that price, it's a steal.

The 7600 GT is an amazing card in this price range, sporting new SM 3.0 technology and very high clock speeds to deliver excellent performance. Its weakest feature is its 128-bit memory bus, but its high memory speeds offset that disadvantage, making it competitive with 256-bit cards like the X800 XT/X850 XT and even the 7800 GS.

The worst thing we can say about the 7600 GT AGP is that the X1950 PRO shouldn't cost much more, but will outperform its predecessor easily.

Best AGP Card For ~$190

The X1950 PRO is similar to the X1900 GT, the main difference being that it is not based on the X1900 XT, but a whole new and less power-hungry core. The card's main competition is the 7900 GS, which it beats in almost every benchmark.

The X1950 PRO is a powerful card that will make AGP gaming viable for at least a year or two more, and these cards are becoming easier to find online. This is a great last stand for the AGP'er.

Best AGP Card For ~$260

The X1950 XT - manufactured exclusively by Gecube - is simply the most powerful card ever to grace the AGP bus. This card has no direct competition, and in fact its closest competition is its X1950 PRO AGP sibling, which is much less powerful.

At $260, it is admittedly a bit of a tough pill to swallow for a dying interface. I would only recommend the X1950 XT AGP to someone with a very fast AGP system who already has a power supply with enough juice to handle the X1950 XT.

It must be noted that if you have $260 to spend on an AGP card - and possibly an extra $100 for a power supply that can handle it - you might be much better off purchasing a PCI Express motherboard, CPU and PCIe graphics card. PCI Express graphics cards are cheaper than their AGP cousins. If you upgrade your system to PCIe and sell your old components, you may actually spend a similar amount of money compared to buying an expensive AGP card alone.