Best AGP Video Card? ATI? NVIDIA?

[BadLot]

So I'm on my second x850PRO vivo and it decides that its now going to freeze in every operating system from Windows to OSX. I've already sent this one back for RMA a year or 2 ago for the same problem. My geforce ti4600 from years and years ago is still working like a champ after laying on the floor and being in 5 different computers. That's what I'm using right now.

Unless I can figure out what is wrong with my card and fix it (bga rework, etc), I need a new video card. What would be my best bet? I don't just want to ebay another x850pro and have it die in a year. I'm not super obsessed with games but good performance would be nice. My main requirement is a card that has lots of ram and vivo capabilities as I use it to pipe movies to my 60" projection. Don't want an entry level card as they tend to suck. I needs to be better than or equal to the x850.

The computer is an Athlon x2 2.5ghz. KV2Extreme Light Mainboard with 2gb of ram.

Any help would be appreciated! Would be willing to buy someone's used card too once I get the money together.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Since you have a dual core and 2GB of RAM I'd say you can get the HD 3850 which is undoubtedly the most powerful AGP card ever to exist.

 

[BadLot]

Pretty nice. I don't know if it has vivo. Does have outputs though. Anything comparable from nvidia?

 

[Ileader36]

Nvidia stopped bothering with AGP after the 7800gs, I think mainly because their Pci-ex to AGP bridge chip wasn't compatible with the 8800 series.

If You have a Via chipset go for the sapphire HD3850 version, it has better compatibility with a broader range of chipsets.
There are even more major problems with Nforce chipsets.

The PT880pro/ultra chipset has no issues with my Powercolor HD3850, although I had to put a heatsink on the Rialto bridge chip to sort out
Freezing,monitor going off issues to get it stable at higher overclocks, but that has nothing to do with the chipset.

They all have Tv out, but no vivo as far as I know.

Forget about BGA rework, as the equipment is 10's of thoudands of $$$$

 

[BadLot]

So I guess I should forget about vivo then? I'm probably not going to overclock the card as I've had terrible luck with that and ati. The current x850 I overclocked like 6mhz and opened up the extra pipes. But I did this after it started screwing up in everything but windows and not enabling AGP. I hate dumbgart.


As for bga rework, I do it at work with a heatgun and EZReball. I don't if it would even help as its probably the chip or ram actually failing. I'll try reflowing the ram then the gpu anyway.

 

[DaveSimmons]

You say VIVO but are you really using the video IN part?

Most modern cards have VGA, DVI and many have Svideo and component OUT. Some even have HDMI OUT.

What inputs does your TV have?

 

[Stumps]

the ATI 3850 is the most powerful AGP card availible, with your setup only really consider this card.

Nvidia offically stopped at the 7800GS however there are a few manufacturers that released 7900GS, 7900GT's and 7950GT's in AGP, the most note worthy were the Gainward BLISS GS cards all sold as 7800GS's however the 3 major versions featured the higher spec nvidia 7900 GPU's instead, unfortunatly these cards wre released in very small numbers and were damn expensive, with the 7900GT based model selling for more than AU$650 back in 2006 when they were released.

I understand that a few other manufacturers release 7900 series cards as well in AGP, mainly 7900GS's and 7950GT's which I have seen for sale quite regularly on Ebay for around AU$250.

 

[nemesismk2]

The ATI Radeon HD 3850 is the most powerful AGP card availible by FAR!

 

[kevman]

think the 2860 XT is good and pretty cheap ~$65

 

[BadLot]

Yea, I guess I don't use the video in all that much. I have a firewire card for getting video off of my HV20. The tv is old so it only has S-video and the card will output that. Its a bit pricey but in terms of video cards I guess not that much.

 

[xxTurbonium]

Aren't AMD/ATI's AGP drivers really buggy? If so, I'm not sure I would recommend and AMD AGP part, since there's no use in having a lot of horsepower if it can't be put to consistent, reliable use.

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: kevman
think the 2860 XT is good and pretty cheap ~$65

2860 ? never heard of that model before

got any info on that

 

[BadLot]

ATI's agp driver implementation kinda sucks. I've had problems with dumbart before. It always likes to turn off AGP for NO reason. I'd rather have my system freeze so I can solve the problem than to have it default to off and not even know what is going on. Luckily you can now force AGP on in the registry and prevent dumbart from screwing you. But this is the exact reason I asked about Nvidia cards. I'm sick of dumbgart hassling me.

 

[maxcom]

interesting read

 

[Ileader36]

I've never had any issues with Dumbgart (Smartgart), just use the AGP Hotfix drivers (updated every month so far) and
You shouldn't be having too many issues.
I should mention that I do not use CCC at all, just the driver and ATI tray tools, works a treat.
As I mentioned, if You have a k8t800 via chipset, get the Sapphire card, as some have had major
issues with the Powercolor/Club3d cards.

If You want to play later games, don't buy the Nvidia cards, as they are no longer powerful enough.

Alternatively leave AGP for good and upgrade on the cheap. E5200 or E7200, Pciex vid card, cheap mobo, cheap ddr2.

 

[Denithor]

Here's what I would do:

Intel e5200 $83
Asus P5KPL $55
Kingston 2x1GB DDR2-800 $24
Powercolor 4830 $85AR

Total: $247AR

About $100 more than the 3850 typically runs IIRC. And you can probably sell your old cpu/mobo/ram for at least $100, especially if it's a socket 939 setup (since AMD quit making those cpus the value has gone up on the X2 models).

That will beat the fastest AGP card made without any of the AGP issues (drivers, smartgart, etc).

 

[taltamir]

id got for 4GB on the ram, but other than the denithors suggestion is good.
What games do you expect to play with such an old CPU?

 

[Erbster]

Originally posted by: Ileader36
The PT880pro/ultra chipset has no issues with my Powercolor HD3850, although I had to put a heatsink on the Rialto bridge chip to sort out
Freezing,monitor going off issues to get it stable at higher overclocks, but that has nothing to do with the chipset.

Hello! could you please post a picture of the heatsink? I want to see how you did it.
And how are the temperatures after the vmod? Do you still use stock cooling?

Thanks a lot, your posts in this forum helped me a lot with modding my CPU! The video card is next - bios vmod

 

[Paratus]

Just an fyi but it looks like powercolor will be releasing a 46xx card(s) in AGP format, at least according to FUD.

I would be all over this with my P4 3.2E. Who's with me!

Anyone?

[crickets]

Appoppin?



posted via Palm Life Drive

 

[Erbster]

Originally posted by: Paratus
Just an fyi but it looks like powercolor will be releasing a 46xx card(s) in AGP format, at least according to FUD.

I would be all over this with my P4 3.2E. Who's with me!

Anyone?

[crickets]

Appoppin?



posted via Palm Life Drive

3850 will remain the best AGP videocard, unless they release the 48xx for AGP

 

[ther00kie16]

Originally posted by: Erbster

Originally posted by: Paratus
Just an fyi but it looks like powercolor will be releasing a 46xx card(s) in AGP format, at least according to FUD.

I would be all over this with my P4 3.2E. Who's with me!

Anyone?

[crickets]

Appoppin?



posted via Palm Life Drive

3850 will remain the best AGP videocard, unless they release the 48xx for AGP

you sure about that?
if they only release 4650, then you are correct.

 

[Erbster]

Originally posted by: ther00kie16

Originally posted by: Erbster

Originally posted by: Paratus
Just an fyi but it looks like powercolor will be releasing a 46xx card(s) in AGP format, at least according to FUD.

I would be all over this with my P4 3.2E. Who's with me!

Anyone?

[crickets]

Appoppin?



posted via Palm Life Drive

3850 will remain the best AGP videocard, unless they release the 48xx for AGP

you sure about that?
if they only release 4650, then you are correct.

:brokenheart: not anymore

 

[Leyawiin]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814129077

Last one worth bothering with imo. I'd rather not have to deal with an HD 3000 series agp card and their fussy driver situation. On most systems that still need an agp card the performance difference would be negligible anyway.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Originally posted by: Denithor
Here's what I would do:

Intel e5200 $83
Asus P5KPL $55
Kingston 2x1GB DDR2-800 $24
Powercolor 4830 $85AR

Total: $247AR

About $100 more than the 3850 typically runs IIRC. And you can probably sell your old cpu/mobo/ram for at least $100, especially if it's a socket 939 setup (since AMD quit making those cpus the value has gone up on the X2 models).

That will beat the fastest AGP card made without any of the AGP issues (drivers, smartgart, etc).

why not some 2x2gb corsair xms2 for $20 AR?

 

[cusideabelincoln]

You don't have to limit yourself to just the HD3850. You could always pick up a Radeon X1600/X1650, X1950, HD2600, or HD3650 or Geforce 6800GS/GT, 7600, or 7800 AGP card, all of which would be "better" than the X850 Pro.

Originally posted by: Denithor
Here's what I would do:

Intel e5200 $83
Asus P5KPL $55
Kingston 2x1GB DDR2-800 $24
Powercolor 4830 $85AR

Total: $247AR

About $100 more than the 3850 typically runs IIRC. And you can probably sell your old cpu/mobo/ram for at least $100, especially if it's a socket 939 setup (since AMD quit making those cpus the value has gone up on the X2 models).

That will beat the fastest AGP card made without any of the AGP issues (drivers, smartgart, etc).

The 3850 can be found as low as $100, so YDNRC. There's no reason for him to do a complete system upgrade unless he really wants to do so.