Radeon X1600 PRO 512MB AGP opinions

[WilliamRLBaker]

I got an old computer in the house but it has an new mother board (Kw7) in it, am looking to upgrade the old computer as a backup.

Specifically looking to upgrade the graphics right now it has an radeon 7200 in it. in actuality its a radeon 64mb vivo i purchased it about 5-6 years ago before ati started adding the numbers to radeons.

My price range is 50-150 dollars, I'm basically looking for the cheapest but best upgrade from the 7200.

I'm citing the 1600 pro because at the ati site they offer it for 150 dollars if i use the trade up program, and i've seen it via pricewatch.com for 120 dollars-150 dollars.

As well any alternatives are welcome Beside nvidia products I will not use nvidia products. SO any thing ATI or ati powered as an alternative would be fine.

thanks for your time
any help is much appreciated

 

[kaotao]

What will this be used for? Specs?

 

[smartel7070]

If no gaming is planned with the pc then go for it, if you plan to do some gaming stay away from the x1600 pro as it sucks with games, just do a search in the forums on x1600 pro you will find lots of posts to confirm this !

 

[Anoobis]

As well any alternatives are welcome Beside nvidia products I will not use nvidia products.

That's too bad, really.

Here's a smoking deal on an XGI Volari V5.

:roll:

 

[4745454b]

The others are right. If no gaming, then its ok. If you want higher frame rates, then you need to get a x800 something. If I was looking for a gaming AGP card however, I'd take a look at Nvidias 7600GT. Just north of $150, but can be found new. Considering how well that card performs, it might be worth it.
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html?modelx=33&model1=529&model2=568&chart=212

 

[ElAssassin]

MAybe Im doing something wrong here but maybe someone can enlighten me. I just upgraded to a Visiontex Radeon X1600XT 512mb and a Intel D955xbk Motherboard, 1 gb 5300 DDR Mem and a D930 3.0 pentium. Sounds Good???? Well my Games run much Slower(frame rates) than when I had my Radeon 9800 pro 128mb Vidoe card in a older system, but with similar specs. After triing to play any FPS the computer seems to just slow right down. Maps take long to load ect ect.

Battlefield 2 , Half life{slow fpm} , Flightsim 9 { 6 fpm} all are basically unplayable. With BF2 I get a ping of 77 online but the frames per minute seem to be about 10 ! Whats wrong???? Help!! Is it the X1600XT? Whats slowing down my system to a crawl?

 

[WilliamRLBaker]

Sorry guys I should have added what i'd be using it for.

midrange gaming,net,email,messaging, maybe some dvd authoring,music playback and ripping...ect thats about it.
so no new games like F.E.A.R,halo, half life 2...ect
The game I wanna play at its highest settings with a big resolution and 32bit color is empire earth.

as well i'm not sure about specs because this is an old computer with a new mobo (abit kw7, had to get a new one after my kg7 died) I'm gonna be going with the highest rated sempron 32bit processor this mobo will support at 200 fsb, so i can slap in 2 gigs of pc3200 at 400mhz

AS well geting a sound blaster for sound probly an audigy 4 or an x-fi.
as well i have an View sonic Ultrabrite a91f+ monitor.
Like i said 50-150$ for the above needs is what im looking for

So basically just looking for 50-150$ dollar ati graphics card or ati powered graphics card (it can be saphire or another powered by) on a kw7 motherboard, with 2 gigs of pc 3200 at 400mhz with a 3000+ or higher sempron with 200 fsb.
it will be used for midrange gaming, I.E empire earth,C&C the first decade,age of empires 3...ect


Anoobis:i'm sorry man but i was burnt too much by nividia back about 6 years go when i still had my voodoo 2 machine when i went to buy a new machine I got an nvidia because they had purchased 3dfx and i had never had any problems with my voodoo graphics cards.

I picked up a geforce 3 not sure on what model and I put it in a new mobo (at the time i cannot remmeber mobo name) it worked for about a week and it blew my mobo power surge...ect
returned mobo to store and they thankfully allowed me to return it for same.... I didn't give up on the gefroce 3 I sent it into nvidia and it turned out something had happend to the card in transit or so they said and they sent me a new one, It lasted 3 months before dieing, thankfully not taking my mobo with it.
I put off geting another geforce and just got my money back in refund from the place i purchased it from.

I stopped puting my computer together then and went ahead and kept using my older computer with the voodoo 2 in it.
when the geforce 4 came out I decided to try then and used my mobo i had purchased it didn't start up. returned it, got another it started up and lasted for about 6 months before dieing a horrible death of fire (it literally burned i.e some thing inside wasn't voltage right and the thing literally got so hot it burned)

then and there i never purchased another nvidia cause I tried out the Radeon 64mb vivo and it worked great (after replaceing the mobo from the geforce 4 firey death) The radeon 64mb was a r100.

Thats why i never use nvidia products

 

[Anoobis]

You're limiting yourself severely here. An AGP 7600GS would be a much better purchase than the X1600Pro. What you just described can happen to ANY graphics card and at most, would be related to the manufacturer and not the designer of the chipset. No offense, but I wouldn't rule out operator error here either.

The AGP 7600GS would fit your needs perfectly and it will outperform an X1600Pro.

If you must get an X1600Pro, then don't waste your money on a 512MB version. Find a cheaper 256MB X1600Pro. The difference between a 512MB card and a 256MB card at this level is nil.

 

[oz42]

Umm, I don't know about the deals you get locally, but here in Canada Ati X800XLs are litterally falling off trucks at sub $100US prices.

Granted they're mostly pci-express, but they run everything but oblivion at decent frame rates / details.

I will second the fact that the x1600 serves no usefull purpose in the universe. Might aswell buy a x1300 and forget gaming if you plan on buying a x1600....

x800/x850s are great and getting cheaper, though AGP is not worth investing in anymore (IMHO).

I almost went the 7600GS AGP route, but opted to dump my 2 agp boards (P4 478 prescott now in Asus P4RD1-MX and 754 venice in DFI NF4X. Kept everything but the sucky AGP cards.

 

[WilliamRLBaker]

the only time u rule out operator error is when you follow all the instructions to the letter from the manufactuer, The mobo and graphics cards we're both purchased from the manufactuer and not from a local store, I followed all instructions when installing them, including making sure to work on a hard flat clean surfice and to ground myself every 1 or 2 minutes.

and oh well if i'm limiting my options then i'm limiting my options, I only want an ATI card, you guys seem to keep being fixated on the whole x1600 thing no offense, I've said many times either give me opinions on the x1600 or give me alternatives to it either ATI or ATI powered.

I can't lay it out any simpler then i have.
I need a graphics card upgrade from a radeon 7200.
kw7 mother board with a Sempron 3000+ or higher processor with a 200mhz fsb, 2 gigs of px3200 400mhz ram.
Will be used for email,chat,web,and mid range games. Nothing fancy mostly games created before 2 years ago, I'm not looking to run the games at 120fps at 2048x1536 with all eye candy turned on such as AA and such...
Price Range 50-150$
it doesn't have to be a x1600 it can be any ati card as long as its an upgrade compared to the 7200 and is between 50 and 150 dollars...

 

[ElAssassin]

Here you go my friend. I found this for as little as $ 88 bucks online. I had one and its a very good card. ATI RADEON® 9800 Pro (128 MB) AGP Graphic Card .

http://www.compuvest.com/

 

[oz42]

just trust us when we say the x1600 is not something anybody should ever consider buying.

the cards you want are 256bit ati cards. the 9800pro is a great upgrade for your system, though you'd really get quality game play from any of the x8xx series (x800xl, gto, x850, etc).

those cards all deliver quality gaming performance. Whereas x1600, x1300, x700, x600, x300, etc are all a waste of money if gaming is a consideration of your purchasing.

< $100 = 9800pro = top card in its day (well 9800xt, but whatever)
> $100 = any R520/R580 = X800 -> X850. gto is probably easiest to find

That pretty much sums up all your ati options.

I'm really trying not to mention nvidia, but, you should know that nvidia offers more 'bang for buck' with cards like the 7600gs, gt and 7900gs and gt. Plus these cards use significantly less wattage than their x1800 or x1900 opponets. Not much of that stuff is found in AGP, so its kinda pointless to mention. Just know that bad experiences with products from the 'long long ago' shouldn't stop you from considering all your options.

Hell, since your upgrading from decade old tech, you might be pretty pissed once you meet the new bloatware that is the new ati catalyst driver. its not nearly as nice/clean/efficient as the forceware drivers.

After searching around I can't find a x800/x850 agp for less than $180, so maybe the 9800pro is the winner for your system.

 

[smartel7070]

I have to agree with oz42 when he talks about the ati catalyst driver. I actually had a ati x1600 pro (bought the day it came out, so believe me when I say it sucks) and ONE of the reasons for getting rid of it was the driver, huge mem hog for no reason.

As for nvidia cards, over the past ten years I had cards from both ati and nvidia, both companies have had their problems regarding quality in the past and even recently for some nvidia card makers (evga's 7900gt). that will never stop me from buying one brand over another since I try and stick with companies with good reputation so if something goes wrong I can get a replacement card. you were talking about geforce4 ..... what brand did you buy? I had an asus gf4 ti 4200 128mb ... oc to 4600 speeds and i kept that card 4 years in my system, never one problem.

 

[SilentKiller5]

Umm, I don't know about the deals you get locally, but here in Canada Ati X800XLs are litterally falling off trucks at sub $100US prices.

Granted they're mostly pci-express, but they run everything but oblivion at decent frame rates / details.

I will second the fact that the x1600 serves no usefull purpose in the universe. Might aswell buy a x1300 and forget gaming if you plan on buying a x1600....

x800/x850s are great and getting cheaper, though AGP is not worth investing in anymore (IMHO).

I almost went the 7600GS AGP route, but opted to dump my 2 agp boards (P4 478 prescott now in Asus P4RD1-MX and 754 venice in DFI NF4X. Kept everything but the sucky AGP cards.

Holy sh*t, where'd you see a price like that? Lowest I saw was $120 Canadian on an AIW X800XT after using the trade-up program... it was a hell of a deal while it lasted.

But recently I haven't spotted any major low prices on X800s in the US or Canada... so don't get your hopes too high.

 

[Dahak]

then buy the x1600pro 512.i've read mixed reviews where some say it's crap and others say it's ok.i would say it sits around the 6600gt range in performance,much better than the old 7200 you have.so ya go for it because it does play most games moderately well.just not at high resolutions.goodluck whatever way you go.

Dahak

EVGA NF4 SLI MB
X2 4400+@2.4 S-939
2 7800GT'S IN SLI MODE
2X1GIG DDR400 MEMORY IN DC MODE
WD300GIG HD
520WATT PSU
EXTREME 19IN.MONITOR
3DMARK05:11,582

 

[bourgeoisdude]

The mobo and graphics cards we're both purchased from the manufactuer and not from a local store, I followed all instructions when installing them, including making sure to work on a hard flat clean surfice and to ground myself every 1 or 2 minutes.

Since NVIDIA does not manufacture ANY graphics cards...well, nothing I will say would matter here anyway, would it?

I used to think the same way you did--except with ATI. My experiences with ATI since 1998 were--horrific to say the least. Now I found that the x700Pro beats the GeForce 6600 in performance--and it was only $47 USD at the time--thus, ATI has won the day. My first ATI card I have bought since my old ATI All-in-Wonder Pro 128 32MB AGP card in late 2000. I missed out on the good deals with ATI because I was a blind, ignorant fool who ignored a graphics card vendor because I was so full of sh*t. That's just me though. :lol: :lol:

 

[SciFiMan]

For your needs you'll be fine with a x1600Pro, but I agree just get the 256MB version. Probably pretty cheap now. I have the 512MB from newegg.com last April for $135. Don't buy direct from ATI as they have higher prices so as not to compete with their resellers. And it's a great card for an older pc. I can play FEAR, BF2, HL2 just fine with med-high settings at 1024x768, and your spec's are a little above mine. It plays movies great, and I edit home movies of my kids activities to burn on DVD. Works fine, so don't listen to some of these kids. Don't step down to a x1300, it's a lot lower powered than a 1600, if you want to play something like AOE3.

As for nvidia, while I'm an ATI fan myself, I did buy a 6800GS for my son's system as I knew it was a bit faster and it will be longer before his pc gets replaced. It's working great, so you might consider it, or a 7600. Although from posts here and elsewhere, it does seem to me that people have more trouble with nvidia drivers. Where as I can load every ATi driver on release day and have never had a problem.

 

[oz42]

Well it changes from day to day but:

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=007594&cid=999.243

ati brand x800xl 256mb pci-express for $130 canadian (right now), and they've got a few hundred in stock in ontario.

plus ncix.com had a bunch for $150 cdn but there sale might be over now.

as I previously mentioned (to keep this slightly on topic), I was considering x1600, and 7600gs, and 7600gt for 2 AGP system I had. But finally go smart and dumped the 2 (nice) old boards (p4p800se k8n-e dx)

Now every video card I buy will work in my next 10 computers. Be they core2, core3, am3, s1207/rev f, etc, etc.

No matter how attached you are to a board, it makes ZERO sense to waste money on any agp card (ati, nvidia, etc).

Just find a board that has pci express (DFI NF4X infinity if s754 is what you want), then you can keep you s754 chip, ddr1 ram, and everything else but the agp, which everybody should keep saying, is a waste...

 

[Anoobis]

He's running a Socket 462, i.e. Athlon XP not an Athlon 64.

 

[SciFiMan]

William, are you in Indiana? I have two Radeon 9600Pro 128 cards sitting in a drawer, if you want one. It played movies and was strong enough to run Far Cry and BF2 in an okay way. PM me with your address and I'll send it if you want it. If it works okay, send me a couple bucks to reimburse for shipping. If not, toss it. Be aware that the the newer CAT drivers don't support it anymore, but I can send along a CD with later drivers that work well.

 

[lunyone]

William, are you in Indiana? I have two Radeon 9600Pro 128 cards sitting in a drawer, if you want one. It played movies and was strong enough to run Far Cry and BF2 in an okay way. PM me with your address and I'll send it if you want it. If it works okay, send me a couple bucks to reimburse for shipping. If not, toss it. Be aware that the the newer CAT drivers don't support it anymore, but I can send along a CD with later drivers that work well.

Now there's a cheap upgrade if I've ever seen one!! Unfortunately I don't have a better upgrade than he is offering. My newest video card (that isn't being used) is a Voodoo 3 2000 16MB (PCI) or a Voodoo Banshee 8MB (I think it's a PCI one too)!

I think the consencious is that a x8xx something if you can find a good price or the x1600 pro 256mb, if I'm understanding the reply's right.

 

[bourgeoisdude]

Get the Radeon x1650, it is actually much more bang for the buck: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102057

 

[Anoobis]

Nice find bourgeoisdude. I wasn't aware that the X1650Pro's were available at Newegg yet. What a mess though. Some are DDR2 (bad) and some are DDR3 (Good). People are going to need to be very thorough when considering them.

The X1650Pro is a very close cousin to the X1600XT which duked it out with the 7600GS. It won't touch the 7600GT AGP, but they look like they have the potential to edge out the 7600GS in this price range. A very good deal if the GDDR3 models outperform the 7600GS.

nVidia better do something quick as they are quickly losing ground all over the place.