Best Gaming Graphics Cards for the Money: AGP Interface
Best AGP Card for Under $100:
| Codename: | RV630 |
| Process: | 65 nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 128 |
| Texture Units: | 8 |
| ROPs: | 4 |
| Memory Bus: | 128-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 800 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 700 (1,400 effective) |
| DirectX / Shader Model | DX 10 / SM 4.0 |
The 2600 XT can be found at a much cheaper price of $65 lately. This is a decently-fast DirectX 10 card available for AGP, and it surprisingly offers a great deal of performance for an older machine. Previously reported driver issues seem to have been worked out, so the 2600 XT can be recommended for older AGP machines without reservation.
Best AGP Card For over $100
| 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 (1,666 effective) |
| DirectX / Shader Model | DX 10.1 / SM 4.0 |
The Radeon HD 3850 is, frankly, a curiously powerful card for the aging AGP bus. It’s a bit too powerful, in fact, 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 an older system with 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, then we’d be incredibly surprised.
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just wanted to say thanks for the update for this month =)
I liked the update thanks
4850 X2 dont you mean 4870 X2?
opps sorry didnt know there was a 4850 X2
4850 X2 dont you mean 4870 X2?
You're kidding right? Why would they put the same card in the $370 and $400+ categories and with a different description?
EDIT: Nvm, I'm too slow to respond.
If the GTX260+ is not labelled any different, then it can't be a different price to the GTX260 can it?
Mistake!! RadeonHD 3870 is 256bit
Thanks for the write up.
Since you are including on-board chipsets on your GPU hierarchy chart, it would be highly appreciated if you could provide detail as to where the Intel on-board GPUs end up on the spectrum.
Another mistake.... According to my knowledge HD4830 has 16 ROPs.
Great article, thanks for the update!
4850 X2 has higher clock compares with regular 4850?
According to your own charts the 9800GTX+ beats the 4850 in nearly all tests. It has a pretty large lead in the overall FPS of all games in that category too. So using this site as a guide to purchase a 9800GTX+ (which I am very happy with) I now wonder why you say "The Radeon HD 4850 will usually best the GeForce 9800 GTX+."
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts [...] 2,766.html
There's a typo, but the leading card is the 4850x2 on that chart. HL2 EP2 @ 1680x1050.
Yes please, as Slomo requested, please add the Intel Graphics Media Deccellerator IGPs to the chart, if only to assist laptop buyers to know if they have any hope of playing games. Thanks.
While the Radeon HD 4830 offers the 8800/8900 GT its first competition in its price class, the card remains a strong contender and is still a viable option. bottom of page 3 typo....last i checked there was no 8900gt...
one quick thing. Radeon HD 4870 1GB probably is not that good unless you play at high resolutions...you might wanna opt for a 512MB versoin if you play at low resolutions.
I hate ties
Me too, so fortunately my job doesn't require that I wear one :-D.
Prices falling for the GTX260 is great. I keep watching it dip below $200. At $150, I'm buying!
Cheers,
As usual, very good article, i read it each month and i love it. If there is one thing i'd like to see, it's in the Graphic's Card Hierarchy Chart. I'd like to see SLI'd card against single card of the same force. For example. 8800 GT in SLI on par with a single 4870. (This is an example)
According to your own charts the 9800GTX+ beats the 4850 in nearly all tests. It has a pretty large lead in the overall FPS of all games in that category too. So using this site as a guide to purchase a 9800GTX+ (which I am very happy with) I now wonder why you say "The Radeon HD 4850 will usually best the GeForce 9800 GTX+."
While the Nvidia 9800 gtx+ and the ATI 4850 have similar specs and price points, It is more expensive to run a pair of 9800gtx in SLI then a pair of 4850's in crossfire. This is due in part to the premium price of the Nforce chipset over a comparable P45 chipset. I think this is why they choose ATI over Nvidia.