Good agp upgrade for my system?

riptide

Distinguished
May 18, 2008
18
0
18,510
I have an AGP system and I was thinking of upgrading my graphics card. I have a p4 3.2 ghz cpu, a p4c800-e deluxe mobo, 1 gig of dual channel ocz ram and I currently have a geforce 5900 ultra graphics card.

I have been looking at getting this card:
Sapphire Radeon HD2600 XT 512MB GDDR3 AGP VGA DVI-I HDCP HDTV Out DIRECTX10 Video Card

I really just use my computer to watch some movies here and there and for gaming. I currently play TF2 sometimes but was hoping this new card would let me play crysis.

Would this be a good upgrade or does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks
 

Aaron1719

Distinguished
Mar 19, 2003
20
0
18,510
idk. i personally hate the idea of buying a new AGP card as its a dying platform. I'd personally build new but then again that may not me an option. As for crysis? no clue; if thats your primary goal and if others say it'll work then i guess go for it but i think its time for a new build...

OH!!! i almost forgot. Something else to consider is that ATI has been letting their AGP drivers slip now for about a year. They ran a good 7 months with a fatal flaw in their drivers which killed AGP cards. I'm not sure what the current story is as that particular system blew on me but its really seriously not worth the headache.

Quote from THG "Be forewarned that it’s been reported that the official ATI drivers don’t work with the AGP version of this card, but that the modified Omega drivers work fine."

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card,1923-6.html
 

fransizzle

Distinguished
May 16, 2008
17
0
18,510
That 2600 should handle most newer games fairly well, but I wouldn't recommend it for Crysis. Even the newest and fastest cards struggle with that game once you turn the settings up even moderately high. You might be able to get away with some medium settings at low resolutions, but I wouldn't count on it.
 

bushmastertd

Distinguished
May 4, 2008
136
0
18,680
Pros: Excellent performance. I upgraded from a 6800 ultra; playing the Crysis demo was like watching a slide show (on the lowest settings). This card gives a smooth framerate on medium to high settings. I can finally play Oblivion with everything maxed, heh.

That was a review on that card, if you want to play crysis may want to wait a while and do a big upgrade.
 

riptide

Distinguished
May 18, 2008
18
0
18,510
Thanks for all of the replies. I just don't have the money right now to upgrade my whole system so I'm looking for a quick fix. Because I live in Canada, I can't order from newegg and from other places I can't find that 3850 for less than $200 right now. Any Canadians have suggestions for places to order from? I've used NCIX but their prices on that card are above $200 as well. Thanks
 

theTHiiiNG

Distinguished
May 4, 2008
58
0
18,630
The ATI 3850 will give a good boost but ...

You will definitely need to upgrade to at least 2GB of RAM to even come close to Crysis. Even then your system will struggle to reach any playable FPS IMO.

Crysis destroys even the most powerful of systems out now at the highest settings.
 

riptide

Distinguished
May 18, 2008
18
0
18,510
Ok I've given up on Crysis....would the card I listed in the original post be a decent upgrade to simply improve my performance on non-high performance games? like TF2, starcraft 2 when it comes out, maybe call of duty 4, etc.
 

theTHiiiNG

Distinguished
May 4, 2008
58
0
18,630
Its hard to tell with a game like Starcraft 2 as its not out yet, but its should breeze through TF2 and to a lesser extent COD4 at medium settings.

But, I still say that RAM needs to change as well.