Your advice on which AGP 4x card please

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Wilson
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John Wilson

I will be purchasing a video card soon. I am going with an AGP it I need 4x.
Here are the three I am looking at:

1) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814153012

2) http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustRatingReview.asp?Item=N82E16814103159

3) http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustRatingReview.asp?Item=N82E16814123150

I am a little worried about the first one because I know nothing about the
company. Is there anything else I should think about before I buy one of
these cards? Do you know of any better under $150?


My MOBO: http://www.baber.com/baber/411/asus_p4s533-mx.htm
 
John said:
I will be purchasing a video card soon. I am going with an AGP it I need 4x.
Here are the three I am looking at:

1) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814153012

2) http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustRatingReview.asp?Item=N82E16814103159

3) http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustRatingReview.asp?Item=N82E16814123150

I am a little worried about the first one because I know nothing about the
company. Is there anything else I should think about before I buy one of
these cards? Do you know of any better under $150?


My MOBO: http://www.baber.com/baber/411/asus_p4s533-mx.htm
Click to expand...
For under $100 you can get a "new" 9700 Pro on E-Bay. The 9700 Pro is a
faster card than the 9600 XT. NewEgg also list several 9800 Pro video
cards for under $150. This card is faster than the 9700 Pro.
 
I will be purchasing a video card soon. I am going with an AGP it I need 4x.
Here are the three I am looking at:

1) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814153012

2) http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustRatingReview.asp?Item=N82E16814103159

3) http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustRatingReview.asp?Item=N82E16814123150

I am a little worried about the first one because I know nothing about the
company. Is there anything else I should think about before I buy one of
these cards? Do you know of any better under $150?


My MOBO: http://www.baber.com/baber/411/asus_p4s533-mx.htm
Click to expand...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102362

Bill
 
How about this one?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814145107

I'm not a fan of "Tom's Hardware", but this may be the most relevant
comparison:

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050705/index.html

The 128 MB Geforce 6600GT is faster than the Radeon 9600XT for gaming. I
don't know whether any game for which either card would be a good
performance match would benefit from the extra memory on the 9600XT. I worry
that the extra memory might be useful only at resolutions where the card is
not be fast enough to be useful, but I don't know for certain.

(I'm not an nVidia fanboy. My current card is a 6800GT, but my previous one
was a Radeon 9700 Pro. They were both good cards in their day.)


Address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.
 
Bill, I noticed you sent me a link to one with 128mb 256-bit DDR. The three
I posted had 256mb 128-bit DDR. I shouldn't care about the difference
between 128mb and 256mb?

Thanks.
 
Glen said:
An Nvidia 6800 Ultra will blow the doors off any current ATI
AGP card.
Click to expand...

Yes, but I believe that tacks on another $100 to the price.

Thank you just the same.
 
John said:
I will be purchasing a video card soon. I am going with an AGP it I need 4x.
Here are the three I am looking at:

1) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814153012

2) http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustRatingReview.asp?Item=N82E16814103159

3) http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustRatingReview.asp?Item=N82E16814123150

I am a little worried about the first one because I know nothing about the
company. Is there anything else I should think about before I buy one of
these cards? Do you know of any better under $150?
Click to expand...

Better for what?

For 2D, I'll take the NOS Matrox G450 dual head I bought recently ($20)
over any of the above, regardless of price.

P2B
 
Now if I could just find one of these. Newegg is sold out. It is about $25
more than what I originally stated, but it is obviously worth it.

SAPPHIRE 100136 Radeon X800GT 256MB 256-BIT GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X Video Card
 
John Wilson said:
SAPPHIRE 100136 Radeon X800GT 256MB 256-BIT GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X Video Card
Click to expand...

Oops. I just noticed it was DDR3. I guess that is why it is so cheap.
 
Bill, I noticed you sent me a link to one with 128mb 256-bit DDR. The three
I posted had 256mb 128-bit DDR. I shouldn't care about the difference
between 128mb and 256mb?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Why do you need 256MB ram on the card? Any game that needs that much
ram will probably run like a dog on the 9600XT. The 9800 PRO beats the
pants off of a 9600XT. Which games are you going to run that needs
256MB of video ram?

Bill
 
P2B said:
For 2D, I'll take the NOS Matrox G450 dual head I bought recently
($20) over any of the above, regardless of price.

P2B
Click to expand...


Hi P2B!



For 2D Performance is Matrox a very good choice.

I have the Parhelia 512 a while. I could not imagine that 2D Speed ;-).

The G450. I used it for a long period... even with D3D and OpenGL Games
:-). Great Card with good 2d Performance and crystal cLEAR picture.




Best Regards,

Daniel Mandic
 
Is the 256mb spec on the card (not the 256bit) just for people who don't
have enough memory installed in their comp? I have 1gig of ram so is it
likely that I do not even need a video card with 256mb memory?

Thanks.
 
<<< Why do you need 256MB ram on the card? Any game that needs that much
ram will probably run like a dog on the 9600XT. The 9800 PRO beats the
pants off of a 9600XT. Which games are you going to run that needs
256MB of video ram?>>>

I was thinking about the future, and I also thought watching TV would have
something to do with the cards coming out with so much memory now. None of
the games I have now need 256mb.

Thanks.
 
<<< Why do you need 256MB ram on the card? Any game that needs that much
ram will probably run like a dog on the 9600XT. The 9800 PRO beats the
pants off of a 9600XT. Which games are you going to run that needs
256MB of video ram?>>>

I was thinking about the future, and I also thought watching TV would have
something to do with the cards coming out with so much memory now. None of
the games I have now need 256mb.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

As far as I know, attatching a tv to the card has little to do with
the memory, no doubt someone will correct me if I'm wrong. I used to
have a TV attatched to a Matrox 400 with 32MB of ram.

You'll be more future proof by buying the latest card you can afford.
I would be giving a serious look at this card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814145107

as previously mentioned.

Or for a few dollars more:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102619

Bill
 
Is the 256mb spec on the card (not the 256bit) just for people who don't
have enough memory installed in their comp? I have 1gig of ram so is it
likely that I do not even need a video card with 256mb memory?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

The more ram on the card means less time is spent accessing slower
system ram. At least that's the theory. But if your not using more than
128MB of video ram in the first place, having 256MB of video ram does
nothing for you.

The wider the path (64 bit< 128 bit< 256 bit) means the data is moved
in bigger chunks per clock cycle, so that all other things being equal,
X amount of memory using a 256 bit bus will be faster tha X amount of
memory on a 128 bit bus since it's moving more data per clock cycle.

Bill
 
John said:
I will be purchasing a video card soon. I am going with an AGP it I need 4x.
Here are the three I am looking at:

1) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814153012

2) http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustRatingReview.asp?Item=N82E16814103159

3) http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustRatingReview.asp?Item=N82E16814123150

I am a little worried about the first one because I know nothing about the
company. Is there anything else I should think about before I buy one of
these cards? Do you know of any better under $150?


My MOBO: http://www.baber.com/baber/411/asus_p4s533-mx.htm
Click to expand...
And watch for GT800GTO and 6800GS AGP cards which should be available
soon. They may be at a price point that is acceptable.
 
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