AGP Not Yet Dead Says Gigabyte

[ColMirage]

I recently got a HD 3650 AGP for cheap in my system to replace a dying 9600 Pro and it works great . Really happy with it. Yes AGP is still sufficient for some people out there.

 

[blackened144]

[citation][nom]omario[/nom]Daughter's machine: Asus p4pe, P4 3.6Ghz, 2Gb ddr400 @426Mhz,powercolor HD3850 AGP (82$ on newegg), 500W ps :Crysis, farcry2, assasins creed, Dirt, Grid, NFS, FEAR, etc etc all play on very reasonable settings with nice detail smooth as butter on 1680:1050. Super PI 1M in 45sec. Absolutely sufficient and problem free ! As for the 4650 agp above - it's a con job for the uninitiated as it only uses ddr2 !!! all the AGP haters out there, get a clue...[/citation]
Did you just say "HD3850", "1680x1050", "Crysis" and "smooth as butter", all in the same comment? Are we supposed to take you seriously?

 

[Guest]

Given that most AGP systems are 32bit cpus, the 1GB of ram on this graphics card will use up a lot of addressable 4GB memory space. Add up the AGP Aperature and other memory addresses, the motherboard would probably only recognize 2GB of DDR RAM installed.

 

[ta152h]

Most of the people that say AGP isn't sufficient really have no understanding of what they're talking about. A good video card should run fine on the AT-bus.

The only time the interface matters to any significant degree is if you don't have enough memory on the video card, and you have to use main memory to hold some of the data. If you don't do that, you could run it on any bus you want, since the only traffic is getting commands. That's why AGP didn't show any improvement over PCI, and PCIe doesn't show any improvement over AGP. Again, unless you don't have enough memory on the card, but at that point you're running degraded anyway.

AGP is fine, but what comes with an AGP system may not be.

 

[omario]

yep, it's called 'advanced' tab in system settings, not everything has to be set on high to give you a woodie, calm down and take the time to actually see what the options do and most of all use a 'optimized' XP by the LAST XP team. sory for double post. and it really plays smooth...

 

[tenor77]

[citation][nom]ta152h[/nom]Most of the people that say AGP isn't sufficient really have no understanding of what they're talking about. A good video card should run fine on the AT-bus. The only time the interface matters to any significant degree is if you don't have enough memory on the video card, and you have to use main memory to hold some of the data. If you don't do that, you could run it on any bus you want, since the only traffic is getting commands. That's why AGP didn't show any improvement over PCI, and PCIe doesn't show any improvement over AGP. Again, unless you don't have enough memory on the card, but at that point you're running degraded anyway.AGP is fine, but what comes with an AGP system may not be.[/citation]

Perhaps you don't understand what a bottle neck is. If you place a powerful card on a dated motherboard that only supports a dated processor and a max of 1 or 2 gig of memory then it's a waste.

 

[eyemaster]

What's wrong with AGP? It might not be the fastest but it's out there. My home computer is still my gaming machine, has an Athlon CPU at over 2.2Ghz and an AGP ATI x1950 or so card. Runs all my games fine.

Upgrading my computer at this point would cost me a whole new system and my RAID array wouldn't work on the new system either, so include a whole new OS build as well.

Some people have more than one hobby to spend money on, we can't all blow our budgets on computers. It is very nice to be able to still upgrade old computers.

 

[blackened144]

[citation][nom]eyemaster[/nom]What's wrong with AGP? It might not be the fastest but it's out there. My home computer is still my gaming machine, has an Athlon CPU at over 2.2Ghz and an AGP ATI x1950 or so card. Runs all my games fine.Upgrading my computer at this point would cost me a whole new system and my RAID array wouldn't work on the new system either, so include a whole new OS build as well.Some people have more than one hobby to spend money on, we can't all blow our budgets on computers. It is very nice to be able to still upgrade old computers.[/citation]
I admit this would be a decent card if you were building a brand new AGP system right now. But no one is building a new AGP system right now. Buying this to put in an existing AGP system I would equate with putting 20" chrome wheels on a pos car that could break down at any second. And not only that, they would be wheels that you will never ever be able to put on another car in the future. If I still had my old AGP machine and my card died, I would not spend $150 on a new AGP card.. I would spend that $150 on a new cpu/mem/mbd w/ integrated video, and build out a new system.

 

[hixbot]

I bought a HD3850 AGP last summer. Love it. There's a market for this card, or they wouldn't make it.

 

[tipoo]

*meekly raises hand*

Uh guys? I'm still on AGP.


*meekly walks away shamefully*

 

[sanctoon]

Back on AGP too, since my AM2 system got some alco..uhm water damage, saving up for a new system though

 

[mavroxur]

For moderate and light gaming AGP 8x is more than sufficent. Of course you're not going to be running anything hardcore on a socket 478 system anyhow, but a nice 3ghz+ 478 with a good AGP card will run a lot of games at descent resolutions with effects set mid-range. Built a system for my son out of spare parts I had at work (p4p800 deluxe, prescott 3.0 oc'ed to 3.78 on air, 2gb ram, bfg 7800gs oc, 2 36gb raptors in raid 0) and it runs pretty damn good. If you've got a good quick 478 system and don't have the cash to build a new rig, a fast AGP card isn't completely absurd. With the economy where it is, sometimes you have to make due with what you have and can afford. If you have the expendable income, then by all means lose the AGP rig. I just picture this card having an absurd price when it hits the streets though.... And crossfire? That should be a wierd setup on AGP....since 99% of all motherboards that have AGP either have 1) no PCI-e or 2) aren't the weirdo server boards with multiple AGP Pro slots. What would you crossfire it with? a PCI video card? *rolls eyes*

 

[noobinberg]

Well I have an aging system myself I thought my box was maxed out with 2 gb of ddr2 and an ati 9550 video...but this new card will breathe new life into my system. Once I install the card (only $99 at NewEgg) my system will truly be maxed out....thanx Tom's for the review.

 

[Guest]

.....and there aren't any AGP/PCI-e hybrids either..... Yes there are. http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=939Dual-SATA2&s=939

 

[jwl3]

ta152h

You have no idea what you're talking about. There are numerous benchmarks that show that at this point, a PCI-E slot is significantly faster than AGP and an AGP 8x slot is faster than an AGP 4x slot. If that were the case, why in the world would video card makers, motherboard mfrs. all migrate to this new standard?

Putting this 4650 card into an AGP system is like putting $1000 Pirelli P-Zero tires on a rusting 40-year-old VW beetle. Why???

 

[Guest]

lol, i've been talking about this at http://www.techmostwanted.com since few weeks back, now only Toms got the news.

 

[tipoo]

[citation][nom]JWL3[/nom] Putting this 4650 card into an AGP system is like putting $1000 Pirelli P-Zero tires on a rusting 40-year-old VW beetle. Why???[/citation]

Thats not true, there are plenty of dual-core AGP systems that would benefit from this upgrade. And many people would rather spend 100 bucks to get a decent gaming rig than hundreds or thousands to get a top of the line one.

 

[xeensd]

This would be nice for my old Shuttle 865G based XPC
as long as the HDMI works... Just wish ATI would get
done with it's "cuda" competitor... 1080P MKV's crap out
on a p4 3.4 and 2ghz of DDR-1

 

[waikano]

Drivers....I want to know what people are saying about the Drivers!! Is AMD/ATI supporting AGP on their newer drivers?

 

[royalcrown]

All you haters are full of crap, an agp system can play games like F.E.A.R, Company of Heroes, Supreme Commander and many other games that aren't '09 just fine. A good Athlon XP and 2 gigs will even run Vista reasonably well.

The biggest thing is not having 2 or 3 gigs of memory and an OOOLD agp card, If you take care of those problems there is still lots of good older games you can run.

An athlon 2800+ with 7600gs will run those games just fine on a 17 to 19 inch monitor, even with a lot of settings on medium to high. 70fps, no..playable average of 25 to 30 yes. Put away your epeens.

What is the point...How about not being an A.D.D. riddles douche bag who is always asking their mom for 50-60 dollar games and new cell phones every week and try getting some older stuff for 10 bucks off ebay, or getting 6 games instead.

 

[maximiza]

we need benchies compairing it to to other AGP cards. Thiss might be the cadallic of AGP video cards you know.

 

[Guest]

Wow, lots of serious comments on this one, I have for one built more than a few Pci builds since AGP, but thats what I do for a living, AGP is not dead, and more than half of the upgrades I do for customers are still running Agp boards!

Bear in mind these kinds of users do not encode huge HD files, nor render 3D or run web servers on their home machines, they surf the net, listen to music and make a few documents, look at their photos they have snapped with their digital cameras and possibly game a few light titles.

They do not care about running the latest and greatest Graphics card and probably wouldnt be able to tell the diference between the advanced settings in most modern games or even be able to find the advanced tab to change them , and even more they wouldnt care less to be fair!

So as such, yes running a 4650 on Agp system will have its issues and will cost more than the current Pci cards, but for someone not at the edge of cutting technology who just wants to play some newer games once in a while without replacing the rest of the PC because they dont buy into throwing away working machines then yes, If they will pay I will install them by the dozen.

Business is business, thats the reality of it, so go Gigabyte.

Ps, my second system is still P4 3.0Ghz @ 3.7 and 1950 Pro and it still rocks and even plays crysis at med settings 1280x1024 smoothly (ave 30fps) and rips any MMorg apart with ease (Its main use)

 

[tipoo]

[citation][nom]maximiza[/nom]we need benchies compairing it to to other AGP cards. Thiss might be the cadallic of AGP video cards you know.[/citation]
Agreed! This calls for an article!

 

[grieve]

Just to keep the string going...

But can it blend?

 

[Master Exon]

[citation][nom]chripuck[/nom]I call BS.[/citation]

Don't be so quick to judge. I know a guy who builds a new computer every 6 months. He sells the old ones at fair used prices and takes price in his distribution of gaming materials to the public.