Best price/performance ratio for an AGP card?

[redrumloa]

I'm looking to upgrade my AGP video card for a faster one. My personal PC is the fastest in the house and my oldest has been using it to play any high end games he has, as it's the only one with the horsepower to handle it. Sadly even my system chokes on Quake IV, it's embarassing! I refuse to do yet another full system build at this time, so I am focusing only on the gfx card. Here's the current system specs.

Soyo Dragon Ultra MB(KT400 something something, from memory)
1.5GB DDR400
AthlonXP 3200
Sound Blaster Live!(old f*'ing sound card)
GeForce FX 5700LE AGP
Catweasel MK4(Hey, this is a retro site :-P )

I havn't been following developments in hardware for ~1-2 years too closely so suggestions on the best price/performance ratio would be appreciated. I'm eyeballing this video card. Thoughts? I'd prefer not go far over $200, as in 1 year it will be obsolete junk like my current Geforce FX :lol:

[kd7ota]

You actually need a pretty beefy machine to run that game. You seem to have everything else good, but even to run quake 4 decent, a friend had dual Geforce 6 6600GT cards in SLi mode, and that could handle it ok.....

If your board can do SLi, then id recommend just spending alittle over $200 to buy two 6600GT PCI-e cards and rock out.  :-)

[Etho]

I'd probably go with the 7600GT models there pretty bloody good cards. But you could also have a look at the X850 Pro 256MB AGP varients which I've heard good thngs about.

[drewz21]

I've got an ATI 850.  It's a very nice card for a good price.

The GeForce 6800 is a good one too.

Anything "current" will cost in the $400 - $600 range.

[Rob]

@ Red

My friend has An athlon 2800 1GB ram and radeon 9800 pro 128MB.  It copes plays Quake 4 smoothly at 640*480.
I'd recommend getting a Geforce 6600 GT as these are more powerful than the Radeon 9800, unless of course you can get a deal on something faster.  From what I've heard an AGP 7600 won't necessarily mean better performance than the 6600 Gt

[Star69]

By far the best value for money at the moment is the 6600GT.  If you go for one with 256MB video ram (for those games with hooj textures like quake...), it performs better than a stock 6800 with 128 MB...

it's also worth looking for a good brand as well - like Leadtek, BFG, XFX.... - because not all 6600GTs are made the same and the few extra pounds are worth it.

Incidentally, it's getting harder and harder to find anywhere with the better cards in stock - they're all moving on to pci-e

 :-D

[paulvm]

I know these are refurbished but sometime you can get a very good deal. My own opinion its better to buy the best single card now and later you can always add another when the price is cheaper. I use to own a athlon 3000, their a small bug that seem like lag in the direct x driver. If you upgrade to athlon 64 for the same speed their a 40percent performance boost. Is your motherboard socket a or 775. socket 775 you can upgrade to a 64 with just replacing the cpu. A another thing to check agp card are way more expensive than pci express. In my case it was cheaper to buy a new mb and pci express card than it was to buy it in agp card. my best advice wait for socket M in july (athlon quad core support) in ether case should cause older mb prices to go down alittle.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=list&SubCategory=48&type=Refurbished

[tonyvdb]

Graphic cards are always the most exspencive singal peice of hardware in a computer. In my opinion get a card that has 256mb of ram that has been out for about a year. The newest cards are almost all PCIe and the AGP cards are being fazed out slowly. You will save a bundle going this route sometimes more then 50%. The one you like is a great card but in your machine you may not see a difference between it and a card thats a bit older that still has 256mb of memory.

[nex4060]

Since you only has got a APG port, I think the best thing you could do is to get a ATI850 AGP. Even the AIT800XTPE is much faster see: http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/10/04/vga_charts_iv/page5.html

I would recommend that you buy a new motherboard with PCIe simply because "all" AGP cards are too slow for the new games.

[Tomas]

I havn't been following developments in hardware for ~1-2 years too closely so suggestions on the best price/performance ratio would be appreciated. I'm eyeballing this video card. Thoughts? I'd prefer not go far over $200, as in 1 year it will be obsolete junk like my current Geforce FX

I have the same card on my ahtlon 3500+ and i am perfectly happy with it. But keep in mind that this version in your link is the pci express version and that wont work with a mobo with an agp port. I think there might exist a agp version of it though, but i am not sure..

But i think it is best to also upgrade the motherboard to one with pci express and sli, like the previous poster suggested. AGP is now kinda outdated and the day you decide to upgrade the motherboard, you will also have to get a new gfx card since the agp one does not fit in a newer motherboard with pci express.

[billchase]

Here are my recommendations: Slowest to Fastest:

Geforce 6800 (vanilla) ~ $165 (generally faster than 6600GT due to better memory bandwidth)
Radeon X800GTO ~ $170
Radeon X800XL ~ $180 (generally faster in HL2 vs 6800GT/GS)
Geforce 6800GS ~ $200 (almost equal to the 6800GT due higher freqs)
Radeon X850XT ~ $370 (not worth it)
Geforce 7800GS ~ $290 (generally faster than X850XT, but barely)

All of these prices are just averages based on newegg's stock of cards.  Speed
comparison of cards are just from my personal research, someone else's experience
may be different. Some have mentioned SLI, this is not supported by AGP version
of the cards.

Worthy consideration:
X800XT AIW at Newegg ~ $290 (one of the fastest cards just under the X850XT.)

C Snyder

[Waccoon]

I recomend the X800 GTO.  I got the one from Saphire, which comes with a copper cooler.  Not only is it very fast, but it's very cool paired with my P4 2.4c, so I still have a silent system.  It runs much, much quieter than my Dad's X800 XT.  :-)

The GTO is a hybrid card, so to speak.  They're all a bit different, but in the same performance bracket.  You might get a really good one and be able to overclock it like crazy.

I was under the impression that the nVidia cards still have some visual quality issues with pixel shaders.  This ATI card is the best looking thing I've ever seen, especially with older games.

[paulvm]

The card you have listed is a pci express "PNY Technologies GeForce 7600GT 256MB DDR3 PCIe" and will require a new motherboard. If you decide to go for pci express you might want to look at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102013R
REFURBISHED: SAPPHIRE 100155 Radeon X1800GTO 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - OEM
$211.29

or agp card
REFURBISHED: Leadtek A400 GT TDH Geforce 6800GT 256MB GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X Video Card - OEM $189.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122195R

REFURBISHED: SAPPHIRE 100148L Radeon X1600PRO 256MB GDDR2 AGP 4X/8X Video Card - OEM $112.09
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102666R

REFURBISHED: SAPPHIRE 100117SR Radeon X800 256MB AGP 4X/8X Video Card - OEM $160.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102532R

[motrucker]

I am torn between nVidia and ATI. ATI make better hardware, BUT the drivers for nVidia cards are usually much better (try to find a driver for ATI cards that will work well with linux).
Having said that, I currently use an ATI 850 XL, slightly overclocked. My system is not far off yours, (I have an Asus mobo but the rest matches) So far The 850 kicks but with games (Eats up DOOM 3, Far Cry, etc., etc.) and handles all of the graphics work I throw at it. I bought it about three months ago, for well under $200 from newegg.