AGP Video Card Question....

[YoursShrewly]

Hello all, here is my rig (old but its still kickin')

Motherboard: Asus A7V8X-LA (Kelut) (An AGP board of course)
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3000+
RAM: 1 gig
HDD: 120 gig
Graphics: None...

Well I was looking for a decent AGP card for my system to play some older games and I came across this in the motherboard's manual, "Install only +1.5V AGP cards on this motherboard!" What does this mean? Do any places carry these (Newegg, Tigerdirect, etc.)?

It shows a picture of a card where the interface looks like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage.aspx?CurImage=14-161-152-03.jpg&Image=14-161-152-07.jpg%2c14-161-152-02.jpg%2c14-161-152-03.jpg%2c14-161-152-04.jpg%2c14-161-152-05.jpg%2c14-161-152-06.jpg&S7ImageFlag=0&WaterMark=1&Item=N82E16814161152&Depa=1&Description=HIS+Hightech+Radeon+9250+H925H128E1TOAN+Video+Card

But most cards interface looks like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage.aspx?CurImage=14-131-039-03.jpg&Image=14-131-039-07.jpg%2c14-131-039-02.jpg%2c14-131-039-03.jpg%2c14-131-039-04.jpg%2c14-131-039-05.jpg%2c14-131-039-06.jpg&S7ImageFlag=0&WaterMark=1&Item=N82E16814131039&Depa=1&Description=POWERCOLOR+Radeon+X1550+X1550+256%2f64+AGP+Video+Card

So in order to have a working card in my system I have to buy one like that first one? Or am I misunderstanding this?

Thanks a lot all

 

[4745454b]

1.5 is the signaling voltage for AGP 4x. AGP2x uses 3.3V, 4x uses 1.5, and 8x uses .8.

The A7V8X was a good board. (I'm not sure of the LA variety...) Any AGP 8x card should work, as they are backwards compatible with 4x. It appears with your board that it will work at 4x speeds only, so don't get the newest/fastest AGP card on the market, as it will be severely bottlenecked. A 7600GS should be fine.

 

[Guest]

LA is for OEM specially manufactured motherboards, usually used in Compaq/Hp computers

 

[YoursShrewly]

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16814102073
Would this work with my system?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121064
Or would this one be better?

If it'll help, this is a list of the games I would like to be able to run decently.
The Sims 2
Age of Empire III
Black & White 1 &2
Civilization IV
The Movies
Sid Meier's Pirates!
(Maybe) Sins of a Solar Empire (probably on low settings though)
Spore (But I hear that Will Wright said that if you can run Sims 2, you can run Spore)

Any advice is very much appreciated!

 

[caamsa]

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16814102073
Would this work with my system?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121064
Or would this one be better?

If it'll help, this is a list of the games I would like to be able to run decently.
The Sims 2
Age of Empire III
Black & White 1 &2
Civilization IV
The Movies
Sid Meier's Pirates!
(Maybe) Sins of a Solar Empire (probably on low settings though)
Spore (But I hear that Will Wright said that if you can run Sims 2, you can run Spore)

Any advice is very much appreciated!

I would check the specs on those games before doing an upgrade. You don't want to get a card only to find out the games need more horse power than your system can handle.

 

[YoursShrewly]

Ok well here they are (Sorry guys, I'm not that experienced with all of this so any help is appreciated!)

The Sims 2:
* OS: Windows 98/98 SE/Me/2000/XP/Vista
* CPU: 800 MHz
* RAM: 256 MB
* Disc Drive: 8x CD-ROM/DVD drive
* HDD: 3.5 GB free space
* Video: 32 MB DirectX 9.0 and T&L compatible
* Sound: DirectX 9.0 compatible

AOE3:
Windows XP, 1.4 GHz Processor that supports Streaming SIMD Extensions, 256 MB RAM, 64 MB video card capable of Hardware TnL, 2 GB free hard disk space (PC)[2]

Black & White 2:
Windows 2000/XP,
Intel-compatible 1.6 GHz CPU,
512MB RAM,
3.5GB hard drive space,
8x DVD-ROM,
DirectX 9.0c compatible hardware,
and a 64MB video card with 1.1 Pixel Shader support.

Civ 4:
Windows® 2000/XP
1.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor or equivalent
512 MB RAM
1.7 GB Free
4X Speed
128 MB Video Card w/ DirectX 8 support (pixel & vertex shaders)
DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card

The Movies!
C: Windows 98SE or later
800 MHz CPU
256MB RAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible sound and video card.

Pirates!

Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP
1.0GHz Pentium or higher
256MB
4x speed
DirectX version 9.0b (included) or higher
98/ME/2000/XP compatible sound card
1.2GB



Sorry about all of that...

But anyways, do you think either the Radeon or Nvidia card will work with my system? Also, do you all think that these games will work decently? Thanks a lot all!

 

[4745454b]

Either of those cards should be fine. I personally would buy the first one, simply because its cheaper. I think the x1650pro and 7600GS are the same performance wise, I doubt you'd see any difference. None of the games you listed are very demanding, either card is enough. (my wife plays Sims 2 on her computer, and that has a 9700pro in it.)

 

[zigonneux]

Go for this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130099

Better performance and NVidia driver working perfectly compare to ATI on AGP bus.

 

[crusoe74]

If you do go the ATI route:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102718