Low profile AGP graphics card, recommendations?

[Cyberus]

I was given, yes given, an IBM NetVista 8303-15 last week. Anyway, it has a low profile 4x AGP slot. I was recommended that I get a Sapphire gfx card by a friend, perhaps this one :
http://www.casetech.co.uk/product.php?productid=17657&cat=0&page=1

because I don't have a lot of money. What do you guys think? Also, I seem to have real difficulty finding the word 'low profile' in a lot of graphics card descriptions. Is it because there aren't that many, or because the MFRs just neglect to mention it?

Cheers, Adam

[blobrana]

Hum,
It’s just a question on how much room it leaves.

If the air flows and it doesn’t make contact with anything then it’s probably ok....

What voltage is it? 3.3v?
Can the mobo take that? (it should, cos it’s `standard`)

Remember that for that £30 you can get a geforce fx5200 , 128mb ram and is  dx9 compliant....(they all use just one driver too....)

 

[Cyberus]

well, the case is a wee desktop one


like this:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-42767.html?up=unknownuser

hence the need for a low-profile card

my requirements for the card, are that it is DirectX9 compatible and under say, 45 quid including postage.

[45 quid = approx 65 Euro/$]

[Speelgoedmannetje]

To save yourself a lot of trouble, go Nvidia
've a hell of a lot trouble with my Radeon9200

[mendark]

I have to say that my Radeon 7000 works like a charm. Passively cooled, so no extra noise and low in power consumption.

I'm willing to sell it because I found out i'm actually liking games on the PC *shame on me* and that this R7000 is'nt capable enough for 3D games.

For 2D, low power consumption and small dimensions it's perfect

[whabang]

Speelgoedmannetje wrote:
To save yourself a lot of trouble, go Nvidia
've a hell of a lot trouble with my Radeon9200

My Radeon 9200 works perfectly. On the other hand, so did my trusty ol' TNT2.

[Cyberus]

The only one I seem to be able to find that's low profile, or at least, visibly so from specs etc, is the Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9200SE....

I've been looking for Powercolor ones as well. Just wondering what you guys think of the Radeon 9200?

I've seen low-profile Sapphire Radeon 9600s advertised on US sites, but is it worth the extra cash?

My main requirements, are that I want to be able to play Dawn of War, Day of Defeat (when the source is released for HL2) and perhaps World of Warcraft...

Thanks in advance

[AdMartin]

The thing is, even if the card itself is low profile, it still uses a high profile bracket to fit all the connectors. Get a low-profile card without a DVI connector, so that it also has LP bracket, like this one. It's also DX9 compliant, which the 9200 isn't.

[Piru]

Low profile 9250s are nice. Even if they use high profile bracket, many come with two low profile ones: The first one for the card itself with DVI and TV-Out connectors, and the second one for the VGA-connector.

So, there really is no need to get card without DVI.

[Cyberus]

Thanks for your replies.
You can fit a low profile bracket to the Sapphire 9200SE, AFAIK.

@ Piru
I was under the impression that a lot of the **50s were worse for performance than the corresponding **00, as they were later cost reduced models [Can anyone confirm this?]

[AdMartin]

I went to the product webpage of the card I recommended. It seems to come with a full-size bracket, but as it has no DVI connector you can easily fit a LP bracket for a quid or two.

[Cyberus]

Thanks for the heads up, AdMartin.

The thing is, I'm finding it hard to tell what cards are low-profile and which are not. Like, where does it say that the card you mention is low profile?

[AdMartin]

The 9250 is better than 9200, 9250 SE is better than 9200 SE, but 9250 SE is worse than 9200.

The 9550 is worse than both 9500 and 9600, but better than 9600 SE. 9550 SE is worse than 9600 SE, but better than both 9250 and 9250 SE.

Does this clear things up or does it only make you more confused? :lol:

Anyway, if you have space for two brackets and on a tight budget I'd recommend this one, as it's about the same price as the 9200s and 9250s, but faster and DX9 compliant.

If you wanna spend more you could go for a 9600, but most (all?) low-profile 9600 are the SE version, which are only marginally better than the 9550 SEs that I've recommened and not worth the extra money. It sometimes/often says just '9600' on shops' websites even though they really are 9600 SEs.

Note: SE models have a 64-bit memory bus instead of a 128-bit bus, halving memory speed.

[AdMartin]

Cyberus wrote:
Thanks for the heads up, AdMartin.

The thing is, I'm finding it hard to tell what cards are low-profile and which are not. Like, where does it say that the card you mention is low profile?

Check out the product webpage that I linked too and look at the pictures!

[Cyberus]

AdMartin wrote:
Check out the product webpage that I linked too

I did!

and look at the pictures!

Ahh, I was expecting to see the words 'low profile'. TBH, this is the first PC I've owned (well, apart from a laptop) and I haven't got a clue just by looking at gfx card if its smaller than normal or not!