Best AGP card?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Craig Coope
  • Start date Start date
Gonzo said:
Mind you that I am a gamer also and I am running an X1300 with an A64
3200.
I still think he should hold on to his system a while longer

When I first starged reading his postings I presumed he had an aging
system because I had not seen the posting with his exact specs. Now that
I have seen them I have changed my mind.

Perhaps I can talk him out of his old and slow 9800XT for cheap LOL.
Click to expand...
The 9800XT is old and slow. It was a great card up until last year. If
you're happy running your games at 800x600 with no AA or AF, and all in game
settings turned down, and you only play older games. But there's games out
now that this card can't play without making major sacrifices in graphic
quality. JLC
 
JLC said:
The 9800XT is old and slow. It was a great card up until last year. If
you're happy running your games at 800x600 with no AA or AF, and all in
game settings turned down, and you only play older games. But there's
games out now that this card can't play without making major sacrifices in
graphic quality. JLC
Click to expand...

No I run at 1024x768 but yes I do turn down most of the eye candy but that
depends on the game. Shadows and HDR is a killer for my X1300.

I still think a 9800 is fast, and I have a loving home for one if you have
one of those POS cards you want to give away LOL.
 
BD said:
Careful before nabbing up the X850. I bought one a few months back. No
complaints about its performance, coming from a 9800 Pro. But, I just
tried to fire up the new Splinter Cell, and discovered that this card
does not support v3 Shaders. Splinter Cell Double Agent requires that
functionality, so it won't run.

I'm gonna see what the X1950Pro AGP looks like, price wise - it's not
quite out yet, but I believe that it is expected to wipe the floor with
all other AGP cards.

I considered getting a new mainboard, but if the X1950Pro is priced in
the $200-$250 area, I think it would be a reasonable 'last kick' at the
AGP cat.

BD.
Click to expand...

That's why I got an X1300 instead of an x800 in that I wanted to have ATIs
new video conversion software and the next generation of shader support.
Really can't complain for a $40 card. It was a stop gap measure before I
take the expensive leap over to a DX10 card in about a year or so.
 
The 9800XT is old and slow. It was a great card up until last year. If
you're happy running your games at 800x600 with no AA or AF, and all in game
settings turned down, and you only play older games. But there's games out
now that this card can't play without making major sacrifices in graphic
quality. JLC
Click to expand...

You are very wrong unless you have a slow CPU...I can run HL2 on full
AA and AF with a res 1048*764...and it works very well....

Oblivion runs well on medium settings...a good draw
distance...obviously the 9800XT doesn't do HDR in Obliv....
 
Let me throw in a question here as I am mulling over the same problem, I
recently bought a Fry's special.....a core 2 duo 1.86 gig with a motherboard
basically thrown in for free, an ECS P4M800PRO-M motherboard. It has the
ability to run DDR1 and DDR2 however NO dual memory support, it also has an
AGP slot, with no ability to run PCIE.
I have about decided to replace the motherboard, actually sell it, it has
not even been opened yet as well as the CPU is still in the box. and get a
better MoBo. with PCIE support, but that means I have to buy new DDR2 memory
also, with it being Christmas, I am strapped for cash and am really at a
loss as to what to do.
Should I just keep the MoBo and my memory and go ahead with what I have or
get a better MoBo, I really don't want to spend more than 100 bucks on a
motherboard, and here is the video kicker, my current agp card is a ATI AIW
Radeon 9000 with only 64 meg. The only game I play is MS flight Sim......but
I do ;ike the ability to watch TV on my PC.

I would like to hear from anyone that can help me pick some inexpensive
components, and advise about what would be the prudent thing to do.
TIA,
Bitsbucket
 
No one said:
Let me throw in a question here as I am mulling over the same problem, I
recently bought a Fry's special.....a core 2 duo 1.86 gig with a
motherboard basically thrown in for free, an ECS P4M800PRO-M motherboard.
It has the ability to run DDR1 and DDR2 however NO dual memory support, it
also has an AGP slot, with no ability to run PCIE.
I have about decided to replace the motherboard, actually sell it, it has
not even been opened yet as well as the CPU is still in the box. and get a
better MoBo. with PCIE support, but that means I have to buy new DDR2
memory also, with it being Christmas, I am strapped for cash and am really
at a loss as to what to do.
Should I just keep the MoBo and my memory and go ahead with what I have or
get a better MoBo, I really don't want to spend more than 100 bucks on a
motherboard, and here is the video kicker, my current agp card is a ATI
AIW Radeon 9000 with only 64 meg. The only game I play is MS flight
Sim......but I do ;ike the ability to watch TV on my PC.

I would like to hear from anyone that can help me pick some inexpensive
components, and advise about what would be the prudent thing to do.
TIA,
Click to expand...

Well just because you got a bundle doesn't mean that MB will work with DDR1
with the Core2Duo chips, which need at lest DDR2 667 RAM. That's the spec,
and you just can't run slower ram with these new CPU's. Ditch the MB and get
yourself a board that is made for the new tech that your CPU represents. I
subject you look at the Asus P5B (basic) which has the Intel P965 chipset.
Newegg is a good place to look for a good price. And yes you'll need to
spend some money on the RAM, but maybe you should have done a little
homework before you bought that combo deal. If you don't want to spend the
cash, take the combo back, and wait tell you can. BTW how much did you pay
for this "deal" JLC
 
JLC said:
Well just because you got a bundle doesn't mean that MB will work with
DDR1 with the Core2Duo chips, which need at lest DDR2 667 RAM. That's the
spec, and you just can't run slower ram with these new CPU's. Ditch the MB
and get yourself a board that is made for the new tech that your CPU
represents. I subject you look at the Asus P5B (basic) which has the Intel
P965 chipset. Newegg is a good place to look for a good price. And yes
you'll need to spend some money on the RAM, but maybe you should have done
a little homework before you bought that combo deal. If you don't want to
spend the cash, take the combo back, and wait tell you can. BTW how much
did you pay for this "deal" JLC
Click to expand...
Didn't need to do much homework as the chip and board from Fry's was less
money than newegg for the chip alone. ($169.00) for both from Fry's I
figured I would sell the board on eBay if it didn't meet my needs and offset
the cost of the chip even more.
Newegg (where I buy all of my stuff normally) as of this minute the chip
alone (where I do most of my buying too) is $181.00 before shipping, so I
got a good deal, discounted chip with a MoBo for free.
Now they do claim that you can run this core 2 duo with DDR1 on this board,
of that I have questions, but ECS "claims" it can be done. I did setup a
similar system for my sister using the older Pentium D chip and it works
well on this board.
Thanks for the advise on the Asus board as that is one I have looked at, and
wondered about. I need to keep the build as inexpensive as possible, for
reasons stated in my earlier post. But I do not want to sacrifice quality.
In the past I have always bought the best board I could, but it seems like
everytime I do that I can never upgrade the chip anyway because of socket
changes. So this time I just want decent overclockable board with less bells
and whistles, but basic functionality is a necessity.
But back to the question at hand too.....what about video? should I go ahead
and get a decent board that will run AGP? or go with the newer PCIE? If I
get an AGP board at least I can still use my ATI AIW albeit not a great card
it does have my TV functions I like. or I could go with a board with onboard
video and upgrade the video later....The only games I play are Flight Sim
games.....
What do you think?
Thanks a million,
 
Bitsbucket said:
..
But back to the question at hand too.....what about video? should I go
ahead
and get a decent board that will run AGP? or go with the newer PCIE? If I
get an AGP board at least I can still use my ATI AIW albeit not a great
card
it does have my TV functions I like. or I could go with a board with
onboard
video and upgrade the video later....The only games I play are Flight Sim
games.....
What do you think?
Thanks a million,
Click to expand...
If you buy a MB that's really made for the chip, you'll have to go
PCI-Express. It's kinda like you're putting the cart before the horse. You
have this new tech chip, and I'm glad you got a good deal on it, yet you
want that great new tech chip to run in some old tech rig. It's like trying
to put a 500HP HEMI into a Pinto, you might be able to do it, but it sure
would be a waste of all that beautiful engine!
Like I said before, save up and get what you need to make this a great rig.
The P5B Basic (I say basic because this MB comes in a number of
configurations) is just the MB you're looking for. It's great for
overclocking (I don't know why you would need to do this with the Intel
chip).
Trust me on this, you don't want to spend a dime on old tech. You have a PC
that works now right?
OK so just relax and start buying the parts as you can afford them. There
should be some great sales after Xmas, even at Newegg (I shop there for
anything PC related) You don't want to have to downgrade just because of
your old video card. You can get a nice PCIe card for less the $100 and a
good TV turner for around $40. And you know what? You'll be a lot happier
with a two card solution for TV then you have been with the AIW. Why because
you'll never have to deal with ATI's flaky AIW driver support again! As for
the RAM just go with two 512MB sticks for now. That way you can run them in
Dual Channel mode. I see right now that Newegg has two 512 sticks of Corsair
DDR2 800 for only $124 with free shipping. http://tinyurl.com/bgqla Prices
on RAM are all over the place, so just keep a look out for a good deal on
DDR2 667. You'll also find that the price between 667 and 800 speed are very
close in price and if you do plan on OC'ing you'll want to go with the DDR2
800 for extra headroom. Just don't buy some crap generic brand. With RAM
running at these speeds it's very important to go with a quality brand.
Crucial,Corsair,Mushkin, and OCZ are all good brands to look for.
Now what about your power supply? The great thing about the new Intel chips
is that they don't suck up as much power as the older P4 and AMD's, but if
you do decide to go for a more expensive video card, you might need a little
more juice. Just got to Antec's web site and they have this cool power
calculator that will tell you how much power you need. And it's fair. It's
not going to tell you that you need 1000watts if you don't need it.
Now comes the last piece of the puzzle your HD I don't know how many you
have, and how much storage you need, but if you do go with the P5B it only
comes with one ATA slot (most new boards only come with one) which you'll
need for your DVD/CD drive. Sure you can run a HD and DVD drive off the same
cable, but it's not the best setup. So you can do two things. But an ATA PCI
card which would allow you to hook up at lest 4 ATA HD's or you can jump in
and buy a new SATA drive. There so cheap it's laughable. You can a Seagate
7200.10 320GB drive for around $95. I like Seagate because they have a 5
year warranty and this model uses the new Perpendicular Storage method and
it's a very nice drive.
Anyway I hope this helps you relax a little, I know exactly how you feel
because I was there just a couple of months ago. JLC
 
Hi JLC,
Thanks a million, I will just sell the motherboard I got from Fry's on eBay,
and shop for the components I need, I am a little impatient to go from my
older socket 939 AMD 64 3000+ to my new chip that just sits there in the
bag/box saying "use me, use me" HAHA,
I will probably order the parts you suggest, the P5B,(sounds like a good
board) as I do want to overclock a bit, not much, but a bit, and I looked at
the memory, you suggested and will probably go with that too,,,(I do already
have a list of parts I have picked on NewEgg) Do you have a suggestion for a
Motherboard that has decent onboard video, that I can use for now and maybe
hold off on the video card? I have an old AIW pci version that I can use for
TV function and the onboard video for games if that is possible...

I had originally picked
Video. Item #: N82E16814102048,
Memory Item #: N82E16820145160,,
MoBo Item #: N82E16813138034

Take a look at those and see what you think, if you would....I would greatly
appreciate it.

Do you have a suggestion for a decent video card? What about the one I did
pick? (for as I said, flight simulator games is about all I ever play)
maybe something around 50 to 80 bucks? I am not a bleeding edge kind of guy,
just want the most bang for my buck, and to keep the price down...but have
decent performance.
Thanks again,
Bitsbucket
PS I am a comp tech and make my living that way, however I am a network guy
and when a customer asks me about computers I just have them order Dells
with the onsite warranty so I don't have to repair or service the boxes,
This machine I am talking about now though, is for me...and I have been out
of the PC build hardware loop for quite a while.AND it is changing so fast
lately!!
Thanks again
Bits
 
Hey JLC,
would you be willing to trade email addys so we could talk about all the
parts and the pros and cons of them?
I usually don't give a real addy on here to keep the spammers away...let me
know,
Thanks,
Bits
 
Bitsbucket said:
Hey JLC,
would you be willing to trade email addys so we could talk about all the
parts and the pros and cons of them?
I usually don't give a real addy on here to keep the spammers away...let
me know,
Thanks,
Bits
Click to expand...
Sure that would be fine. Do you have a web site where I might get your
address from?
JLC
 
Bitsbucket said:
Hi JLC,
Thanks a million, I will just sell the motherboard I got from Fry's on
eBay, and shop for the components I need, I am a little impatient to go
from my older socket 939 AMD 64 3000+ to my new chip that just sits there
in the bag/box saying "use me, use me" HAHA,
I will probably order the parts you suggest, the P5B,(sounds like a good
board) as I do want to overclock a bit, not much, but a bit, and I looked
at the memory, you suggested and will probably go with that too,,,(I do
already have a list of parts I have picked on NewEgg) Do you have a
suggestion for a Motherboard that has decent onboard video, that I can use
for now and maybe hold off on the video card? I have an old AIW pci
version that I can use for TV function and the onboard video for games if
that is possible...

I had originally picked
Video. Item #: N82E16814102048,
Memory Item #: N82E16820145160,,
MoBo Item #: N82E16813138034
Click to expand...

Card looks good, and it should be just fine for what you need it to do.
The RAM I told you about in my last post is a much better deal. It's cheaper
and faster. You'll need faster RAM if you want to OC.
I'd stick with the Asus MB. IMHO it's a much better MB.
JLC
 
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