New GFX

[UnderMiner]

My setup:

Motherboard - Tyan Tiger MP S2460
Processor 1 - Athlon MP 2000+
Processor 2 - Athlon MP 2000+
Cooler 1 - ThermalRock with heatpipes/92mm fan
Cooler 2 - ThermalRock with heatpipes/92mm fan
RAM - 4X512Mb Kingston ValueRAM PC2100CL2.5 (KVR266X72RC25/512)
Graphics - N/A (4X AGP port)
PSU - Chill Innovation CP-520A3 520W (Peak 550W)
Harddiscs - 1 60GB, 4 120GB
RAID Card - ITE IT8212F ATA
optical - NEC AD 5170A
Floppy - Alps DF354H
Case - No idea... think it's an old AT With extra holes drilled into it

I need a new GFX for this PC. I know I should build a new one but I can't afford it.
What's the best choice of GFX for this. I obviously don't play many games on it, only Babo Violent and other small games but I'd like to be able to play Nexuiz on it too.
The 2 cards I've been looking at are:
1: Sapphire RADEON HD 4650, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 128-bit, 600MHz
2: Sapphire RADEON HD 3850, 512MB GDDR3 RAM, 256-bit, 700MHz

They're around the same price here in Denmark and I'm leaning most towards the 3850 but what do you ppl think.
Any input is appreciated.

- UNderMiner

 

[TheViper]

I suggest the HD 4650 actually. It's easier on the PSU, performs about the same in game yet gives you DX10.1 and better video features.

 

[JofaMang]

Either one will do what you need, but I would agree with TheViper, the 4650 gives you more.

 

[zach538467]

I'll throw in a vote for the 3850...I had one and it performed well, from what I read it performs better in benchmarks, even doubling in a crysis bench that Tom's did.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/agp-radeon-overclocking,2395.html

 

[1ce]

I believe the 4670 is available in AGP as well:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131161

Just throwing that out there in case you're interested.

 

[UnderMiner]

Keep your opinions coming, they are much appreciated from me. HD4670 is also available as AGP cards but as I've mentioned earlier, price is really an issue here but, nice of you to notice and post a link for it.
What I've concluded is that 4X AGP runs at max. 1.06GB/s whereas 8X AGP runs 2.1GB/s, I just haven't been able to find any info on the transfer speed of either card. As far as DirectX goes, they both support 10.1.

- UnderMiner

 

[capt_taco]

I just went through exactly the same dilemma updating my old Pentium 4 machine with an AGP interface. From everything I read, the 3850 is the better card, but uses a lot more power ... so I went with the 4650 because I was REALLY getting nervous that I was pushing up against my power supply's limits.

I think the main advantage of the 3850 is that it's 256-bit and the 4600 series is 128-bit. GDDR3 is nice to have too.

The cards should all be 8x AGP these days. And if your AGP slot is only 4x, you probably won't gain much from one card over the other -- the transfer speed itself will be the limiting factor.

But bottom line, it's hard to go wrong with any of these three cards.

 

[UnderMiner]

Just as I suspected, the transter speed will be the limiting factor here as well as the rest of the setup. New GFX and old CPU, RAM, North-/South-bridge and so on won't be the best combination.
As far as the PSU goes, I've got a 1200watt, from a server lying around that I don't use, which fits the case so I'm not really worried about that, besides I'd think that my PSU can handle an extra pull of 75W from a GFX

- UnderMiner