Need info for my next AGP card

Browser_ICEBrowser_ICE Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6944Members
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">ATI, GeForce or 3rd party ?</div>I am currently starting to get limited on games with my ATI Radeon 9600XT and it is about the next one in line to get discontinued at ATI. Regretably, I have very little money until I can find a better job (been looking for a while). The thing is, I am starting to feel pressure as stores have 95% of the times PCI cards where my motherboard is AGP 4x/8x only and the longer I wait , the less chances I will have to find an available AGP card. I seriously do not think I will find the money to go PCI (I would have to buy a new MB, new CPU, new memory).

So considering my PC specs below, what would you guys recommand for a decent AGP card that gives me roughly 2x more power then my 9600XT ?

- in ATI cards (Catalyst driver stuck on my PC at 6.4 beause of installation bug existing for one year now (VIA chipsets on my MB) )
- in GeForce cards
- any 3rd pary cards using either ATI, GeForce chipsets


my PC :
AMD Athlon 3000+ XP
Win XP Pro
DirectX 9.0c
2Gb memory
plenty of HD space
Motherboard is an MSI-6712 KT4VL (on Board Lan)
I believe my monitor is a CRT Compaq S700
I would like anything to be at least 1280x768 at max setigns on everything
Living in Canada

P.S. : should I go away from ATI and head to GeForce because of AGP ?
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Comments

  • lolfighterlolfighter Snark, Dire Join Date: 2003-04-20 Member: 15693Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1665513:date=Dec 29 2007, 12:22 AM:name=Browser_ICE)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Browser_ICE @ Dec 29 2007, 12:22 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1665513"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->[...]I would like anything to be at least 1280x768 at max setigns on everything[...]<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    Anything? You mean including modern, ridiculously resource-hogging games like Crysis? On AGP?
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  • NeonSpyderNeonSpyder &quot;Das est NTLDR?&quot; Join Date: 2003-07-03 Member: 17913Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1665513:date=Dec 28 2007, 06:22 PM:name=Browser_ICE)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Browser_ICE @ Dec 28 2007, 06:22 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1665513"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I am currently starting to get limited on games with my ATI Radeon 9600XT and it is about the next one in line to get discontinued at ATI. Regretably, I have very little money until I can find a better job (been looking for a while). The thing is, I am starting to feel pressure as stores have 95% of the times PCI cards where my motherboard is AGP 4x/8x only and the longer I wait , the less chances I will have to find an available AGP card. I seriously do not think I will find the money to go PCI (I would have to buy a new MB, new CPU, new memory).

    So considering my PC specs below, what would you guys recommand for a decent AGP card that gives me roughly 2x more power then my 9600XT ?

    - in ATI cards (Catalyst driver stuck on my PC at 6.4 beause of installation bug existing for one year now (VIA chipsets on my MB) )
    - in GeForce cards
    - any 3rd pary cards using either ATI, GeForce chipsets
    my PC :
    AMD Athlon 3000+ XP
    Win XP Pro
    DirectX 9.0c
    2Gb memory
    plenty of HD space
    Motherboard is an MSI-6712 KT4VL (on Board Lan)
    I believe my monitor is a CRT Compaq S700
    I would like anything to be at least 1280x768 at max setigns on everything
    Living in Canada

    P.S. : should I go away from ATI and head to GeForce because of AGP ?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    You're computer is better then mine, yet I have a PCI-E card. You need to suck it up man and get with the times.
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  • Kouji_SanKouji_San Sr. Hινε Uρкεερεг - EUPT Deputy The Netherlands Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
    edited December 2007
    Buying an AGP card right now would be a sure way to dissappointment for future games, if you want this max settings thing. Besides for games released currently or fairly new games, the rest of you pc is also not going to cut it if you want max settings... Also res is not everything, I still play every game, I can easily run @ max everything, on 1024x768...

    X850 to X2600 or something comparable from Nvidia are your best bet, I guess. They are cheap and can run a lot of stuff currently released. Heck going from 9600 to 9800XT pro would be a helluve increase in performance even (finding these is like trying to find a needle in a haystack though)

    I myself have a Sapphire 256MB X850XT platinum (PCI-E), they are hard to find though and are prolly more expensive then newer cards due to low stock. The rest of my system is up to par without Oc's atm (not needed yet) The card mygrated from my old system which could hold its own currently, but the mobo died <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
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  • douchebagatrondouchebagatron Custom member title Join Date: 2003-12-20 Member: 24581Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
    you could find a pci motherboard that has the same processor slot for your current processor and uses the same memory.


    theres also a handful of motherboards that have pci express as well as agp slots, i have on right now. perhaps one of those supports your cpu and ram, then you could use your current video card for now until you get some more cash for a new pci.
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  • IsamilIsamil Join Date: 2003-11-25 Member: 23552Members, Constellation
    I put together a new computer recently with an AGP motherboard to use with my Radeon X850 XT.

    It's shader model 2.0, which makes me unable to play games such as(and maybe only such as) Bioshock, because they made the very stupid design decision to only accept SM 3.0.
    For other games:
    I ran HL2 EP2 with all regular settings at max, 4x AF and 2X AA.
    TF2 same settings.

    Unfortunately my CPU is much newer than yours, Athlon X2 4800+. You will probably not see results as good as mine.
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  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
    If you don't have much money, a surefire way to get less is to spend it on an AGP card that will be outdated the very next time you need to upgrade. Better to wait until you can go PCI express so that it's not a waste of money. If you're not willing to do that, we need to know what kinds of games you'll be playing; with AGP there's no reason to get anything that's even slightly more powerful than you need, because that thing is going to be obsolete before you even install it.
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  • ZigZig ...I am Captain Planet&#33; Join Date: 2002-10-23 Member: 1576Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1665539:date=Dec 28 2007, 05:04 PM:name=TychoCelchuuu)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TychoCelchuuu @ Dec 28 2007, 05:04 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1665539"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->If you don't have much money, a surefire way to get less is to spend it on an AGP card that will be outdated the very next time you need to upgrade. Better to wait until you can go PCI express so that it's not a waste of money. If you're not willing to do that, we need to know what kinds of games you'll be playing; with AGP there's no reason to get anything that's even slightly more powerful than you need, because that thing is going to be obsolete before you even install it.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Cold hard truth is cold, hard.
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  • CrispyCrispy Jaded GD Join Date: 2004-08-22 Member: 30793Members, Constellation
    My advice: <a href="http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/" target="_blank">TomsHardware</a>
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  • Browser_ICEBrowser_ICE Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6944Members
    I'm getting exited. I am looking at my MB specs but I do not recall what is the model number exactly but it looks like I might have PCI slot after all !!!

    I know its an MSI-6712 but do not recall if it is a K4TV or K4TVL

    I know I have an "On-Board Ethernet 10/100". I think the K4TV doesn't. I just have to find the specs for the K4TV to confirm.

    So far, the <a href="http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=KT4VL&class=mb" target="_blank">K4TVL</a> specs says :

    Chipset

    • VIA® KT400 chipset (552 BGA)
    - FSB @200/266/333 MHz
    - <b>AGP 8X and PCI advanced high performance memory co</b>ntroller.

    • VIA® VT8235 chipset (376 BGA)
    - High Bandwidth V-link Client controller
    - Integrated aster Ethernet LPC
    - Integrated Hardware Sound Blaster/Direct Sound AC97 audio
    - Ultra DMA 66/100/133 master mode PCI EIDE controller
    - Integrated USB 2.0 Host Controller
    - ACPI

    Slots

    • One AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) slot.
    - AGP specification compliant
    - Supports AGP 2.0 4x/8x.
    • <b>Six 32-bit PCI bus slots (support 3.3v/5v PCI bus interface).</b>



    I had my MB for so long, I had forgotten about this. It also reminded me that every times I used to read the specs with tools like Sandra, it was telling me both about PCI and AGP.

    If I truelly have a PCI slot, I need to know the difference between PCI and PCI Express to find out what is available to me for PCI cards.
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  • ThaldarinThaldarin Alonzi&#33; Join Date: 2003-07-15 Member: 18173Members, Constellation
    PCI-E = 16x bandwidth
    AGP = 8x bandwidth
    PCI = 1x (if you can call it that?)

    So clearly PCI-E is superior.
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  • Browser_ICEBrowser_ICE Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6944Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1665626:date=Dec 29 2007, 10:54 AM:name=Thaldarin)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Thaldarin @ Dec 29 2007, 10:54 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1665626"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->PCI-E = 16x bandwidth
    AGP = 8x bandwidth
    PCI = 1x (if you can call it that?)

    So clearly PCI-E is superior.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->


    Doh !

    So I guess this rules out using plain PCI. Back to the old drawing board ...
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  • lolfighterlolfighter Snark, Dire Join Date: 2003-04-20 Member: 15693Members
    Yah. AGP was actually introduced because PCI was no longer keeping up. Only PCI-e rectified that.
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  • Browser_ICEBrowser_ICE Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6944Members
    While looking at other AGP cards on the ATI site, sadly, I found that my card is now discontinued and most probably not supported. It wasn't the case a couple of months ago.

    I will wait until around March-May. At that time, I will be either gone from contract to being hired, not renewed and without a job or hopefully at another job following interviews I did or will do. So my financial situation for the year 2008 will be determined at that point. Getting a decent and secured $20/hr minimum computer related job is more difficult then 5 years ago.
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  • TykjenTykjen Join Date: 2003-01-21 Member: 12552Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited December 2007
    I got the nvidia 7900gs agp with 512mb ram the other day. Didnt think it would let me play etqw and sourcemods with everything maxed+2x antialiasing with no slowdowns. Previous card was 6600gt, and in benchmarks the 7900gs outblows it with 5 times the score on most tests.

    edit:

    <a href="http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php" target="_blank">http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php</a>

    A very comprehensive gpu comparison site. Oughta be helpful
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  • lolfighterlolfighter Snark, Dire Join Date: 2003-04-20 Member: 15693Members
    I'm looking at an 8800GT 512MB. Should be okay. I hope so.
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  • Browser_ICEBrowser_ICE Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6944Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1665747:date=Dec 30 2007, 07:16 PM:name=Tykjen)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tykjen @ Dec 30 2007, 07:16 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1665747"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I got the nvidia 7900gs agp with 512mb ram the other day. Didnt think it would let me play etqw and sourcemods with everything maxed+2x antialiasing with no slowdowns. Previous card was 6600gt, and in benchmarks the 7900gs outblows it with 5 times the score on most tests.

    edit:

    <a href="http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php" target="_blank">http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php</a>

    A very comprehensive gpu comparison site. Oughta be helpful<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->



    Cool site. This is going to help. Thx.
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  • LazyEyeLazyEye Join Date: 2005-01-06 Member: 32959Members, NS1 Playtester
    I just bought a new motherboard, an AMD 64 X2 4200+, 2 gigs of ram, a 8600 GT(a dx10 card), and a 250 gig SATA hard drive for $375 after rebates on newegg. This is a major upgrade from my old p4 agp only board. My last upgrade was a X800 AGP card and a new power supply to power it. Those two things alone cost about as much as my new computer.

    I would say screw agp, get a new motherboard, and buy a pci-e card. It will be better in the long run.
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  • Browser_ICEBrowser_ICE Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6944Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1666351:date=Jan 4 2008, 10:44 PM:name=LazyEye)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(LazyEye @ Jan 4 2008, 10:44 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1666351"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I just bought a new motherboard, an AMD 64 X2 4200+, 2 gigs of ram, a 8600 GT(a dx10 card), and a 250 gig SATA hard drive for $375 after rebates on newegg. This is a major upgrade from my old p4 agp only board. My last upgrade was a X800 AGP card and a new power supply to power it. Those two things alone cost about as much as my new computer.

    I would say screw agp, get a new motherboard, and buy a pci-e card. It will be better in the long run.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->


    Your rebate, was it a mail in rebate you had to ship out once you got your MB ?

    Are the prices in US ?

    How long did it take to get it once you paid for it Online ?

    How much are the shipping costs ? COD ?
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  • LazyEyeLazyEye Join Date: 2005-01-06 Member: 32959Members, NS1 Playtester
    <!--quoteo(post=1666424:date=Jan 5 2008, 11:17 PM:name=Browser_ICE)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Browser_ICE @ Jan 5 2008, 11:17 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1666424"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Your rebate, was it a mail in rebate you had to ship out once you got your MB ?

    Are the prices in US ?

    How long did it take to get it once you paid for it Online ?

    How much are the shipping costs ? COD ?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->


    The total was $405 + $8 3 day(no weekends) UPS shipping, the shipping is paid for when you order your products. My entire order was only seven pounds so if you order something like a case expect it to go up.

    For rebates you print out a rebate forum, fill it out, then send the forum, a copy of the invoice that is e-mailed to you, and the UPC codes that is on the box of the item. All rebates are listed on page of the product, not everything has a rebate.

    I bought everything on newegg.com, they only ship to the us. I ordered everything on the 1st, the order was sent out on the 2nd, and ill get it on the 7th becuase the shipping doesn't cover weekends.
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