Need advice for an AGP card

gghoma

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Mar 3, 2006
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I've been looking to upgrade my videocard for a long time now.

I've heard many suggestions to upgrade my whole computer but i dont have the money to do it, so i want to upgrade just my videocard.

My system specs:
Pentium 4 2.8ghz northwood
Asus P4P800-E Deluxe
some Antec case and powersupply
and for my horrible graphic card:
AGP GeForce 4 MX 420

yea uh... i feel like that crap card seriously ruins my gaming experience on a tight budget.

Whats a good card going up to about $200?

I've considered 6600, 6600GT, 6800GS and many other cards, but i just cant seem to decide.

I want to know which card would be the best match for my computer, cause i know a 7800GS would just get wasted on my machine.

Thanks in advance ^.^
 

pengwin

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Feb 25, 2006
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as always u will see me recommend this card

6600GT

it slike 130 bucks + shipping it pwns u have an AGP slot u will need to buy a new mobo with PCI-e soon so dont waste 200 bucks get a 6600GT it'll run all ur games just fine

if u are righ

go for the 6800GS but thats over 200 i believe

yah i would choose the eVGA 6600GT but if u got th emoney and feel like spendin go for a 6800GS
 

iLLz

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Nov 14, 2003
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I have the same board as you, although I have a 3.4 Prescott OC to 3.5 while getting my FSB up to 250. To do that I used CPULock Free.

But I had orginall put a 2.53 Northwood in here and then a 3.06. To be honest, as gaming goes, all of these processors are fine. The only thing holding you back is the Graphics card ( or lack thereof ).

If you can afford it, go for and EVGA 7800GS SuperClock. Its the best AGP Card out there and will carry that nice machine you have for quite a while longer. It has SM3.0 support for games that support it and more will in the future.

The SuperClock is a bit more money but is clocked faster and has a better cooling solution for the card so further OCing would be possible. Also EVGA has other 7800GS clocked less that cost less. Try Zipzoomfly.com as they have like 4 variants of the EVGA card.

Well thats my recommendation. Hope all works out well for you.

iLLz
 

twall

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You shouldn't spend 200 dollars for an agp video card.

I upgraded mine from a 9600 Pro to eVGA 6600 GT.

When I bought mine there was a $20 Rebate so it was a good upgrade for the price. Only 110 something dollars. It doesn't have that rebate now, newegg price is 134 something. But Aopen 6600 GT has a 30 dollar rebate, so 143-30=113 dollars + shipping. That's not a bad upgrade for that money.

If you hate mail in rebate system, you can get an eVGA 6600 LE or a regular ASUS 6600 (which seems like a better option) for 98 dollars.

Although i agree with morganand iLLz, i dont think you should spend more then 150 dollars for an agp card. Instead open up a free checking account and deposit some money everytime you save some money. And make that your "computing fund." If you buy a 6600 card, any model, you should but 150-200 dollars in that fund. And you are only about 500-600 dollars away from your new computer.

Ok. That was totally stupid. But still, i don't think you should waste money on a 7800 GS, while 6600 GT can get the job done.

My final answer: Go with 6600 GT.
 

fainis

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Feb 10, 2006
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consider this on agp 6600gt, x800gto
if you want to spend more ...x850 or 7800gs on agp
not to worry your sistem will not slow down either of them.....
as far as i know x800gto (agp) has the best price/performance ratio
 

Lan

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I was in the same boat you are now. P4 2.8 Northwood with HT, 2GB Ram, 120GB Hard Drive, but needed a new video card. Most of the consensus (sp?) was that I shouldn't bother spending on an agp card, there isn't a point. So I decided to upgrade.

The choice is yours, but I am going to recomend an upgrade. Save enough for a cheap Motherboard, and CPU that way you can get PCI-express. You've lasted this long, and if you can last a little more you would be better off.

Although now that I think about it, perhaps you could e-bay some of your old stuff and use the money to finance an upgrade. Just a suggestion. Anyway, if you are dead set on not upgrading, I would say try and spring for the 7800GS. It would carry your machine long enough for you to upgrade to PCI-express.
 

Dekkard

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Jan 19, 2006
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Whatever you can afford, realistically I wouldn't anticipate getting an AGP card for any money that is going to offer you enough of a boost in gaming performance to last more than a year (even the 7800GS). In reality, top games already realistically want a 3Ghz processor (or equivalent) and I can't see your 2.8Ghz really cutting it beyond that 1 year window (sorry, I do think that's a more than adequate CPU for now though). So, do you really want to spend $300 for one year of use? If so, just get the 7800GS. However, the performance gain over the 6800GS/GT cards is not as much as you'd expect from a 7 series card. If you want to get below that $200 mark, the X800GTO has to be a good choice, the 6600GT will probably also serve you well for a card nearer to $100. My tips are as follows:
Try to get 256 bit interface.
Try to get 256MB VRAM - I would avoid sub $200 cards with more than 256MB though as you'll be losing a lot of performance in other areas!
If you can, get a 12 (or higher) pipe card with SM3.0.
Shop around.
Don't pay $230 for a 6800GS (I have one and it is a good card, but they aren't worth that much over $200 unless you have a successful unlock and can overclock the crap out of it). Whatever you choose, even a good $120 card will give you a really nice performance boost.
 

PX7800GT

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Feb 20, 2006
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OK , The Best AGP Card Right Now is XFX 7800GS Extreme Edition with 440 MHz Core Clock (The Standard 7800GS Works on 350MHz Core Clock)
Go To Guru3D and you Can See That this Card is The Best AGP Card on The Planet !!
Dont Waste any more time , Go Buy One !! :wink:
 

bweir

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Feb 22, 2006
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That MX420 is more of an.....um.....video adapter. It can't rightfully be called a Graphics Card because it can rarely handle even mid-level frame rates on games that are a couple years old. But that will be old news soon....right?

I've been seeing X850XT cards on sale this week for around $170, which is a pretty good deal for one of the fastest AGP cards left on the market. You could also upgrade the memory as well for pocket change, depending on what you already have. Just get that system up to 1Gb of memory, upgrade the video card, and for about $250, you'll feel like you just got a whole new system.

You could even reimage the whole damn thing and be amazed at the difference once done.
 

Dekkard

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Hey Bweir, I think you might be confusing PCI-E with AGP pricing on the X850XT - the AGP versions are still $350+ on Pricewatch....of course if you HAVE seen the AGP versions for the sub $200 prices then please, please, please, please post so we can all go empty our savings or max out our credit cards!
 

bweir

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Feb 22, 2006
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My fault, I got so excited when I saw the prices that I neglected to check out the specs. Thats so lame selling the AGP version of the same card for twice the price. Let me see what I can dig up....
 

s4fun

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I was able to fetch a x850xt from Microcenter for $250 with $50 mail-in rebate about a month ago. It looks like they are well past sold out now on those and may not be looking to stock them anymore.
 

fainis

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good thinking from our friend dekkart..mind the address width ...there must be at least 128...be sure is 256......
the best choice for you agp lovers in x800gto, gto2 or gto3 if there is something like that (i`ve seen it only in pci express version)
 

Dissolved

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Mar 5, 2006
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Keep in mind that the x800 series can have pipes unlocked as well.

Overall, MSI/ASUS/BFG 6600GT is all great cards. This assuming if you're not a graphics whore, if so then the 6800GS or an x800 card would be a better idea.

Or just build a new PC :p