Best AGP video card for ard $100-$130

[sidpaul]

Looking to upgrade my Radeon 9800pro into something a little better. I do not want to spend too much money as i do not play that many games. I have a AMD 64+ 3400 with DFI lanparty board and 1.5gigs of OCZ Platinum memory.
For approx $125 which is the best card that can be had.

 

[Piuc2020]

I recently got a 6800XT for around 130$ (there is a deal for one for 110$ on newegg I think), it was defective and the RMA just recently got through so I haven't tested it yet but from what I see its true potential lies within overclocking and pipe unlocking, at stock the 256 bit (be sure you get the 256 bit version) is more or less like a 6600GT (it might edge it out in more memory bandwidth limited games) so that means its slightly faster than your current 9800Pro but if you do unlock an extra quad of pipes and overclock it a bit you have a serious killer right there.

I got this exactly: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a...T=14-150-157&CMP=OTC-pricegrabbermerch

There is also the 7300GT and X1650Pro and 7600GS cards to look at, the 7300GT in my Mac Pro is a poor performer and poor overclocker (and won't unlock for ****) so I wouldn't recommend that but I don't know, I finally decided on the 6800XT because I can play and toy with its performance.

 

[sidpaul]

HOw about the x800pro/X850 pro cards. will they be a better buy than the 6800? Also are the x800 series better than the 6600GT?

 

[Modular]

Originally posted by: sidpaul
HOw about the x800pro/X850 pro cards. will they be a better buy than the 6800? Also are the x800 series better than the 6600GT?

IMO, No. But that is open to interpretation. The 6800XT is going to be your best bang for your buck at this point. The 6600gt is about 20% better than your 9800pro in most games.

There is always the issue of driver performance issues when switching from one brand to another to consider. If you want to play it safe, you are better off getting the X850pro. But as far as performance goes, I would recommend the XT and unlock/overclock it.

 

[MustangSVT]

wow.. they still cost that much... it was a bargain when i got my 6800 2 years ago..(for $150)?

 

[Bill Brasky]

Originally posted by: Piuc2020
I recently got a 6800XT for around 130$ (there is a deal for one for 110$ on newegg I think), it was defective and the RMA just recently got through so I haven't tested it yet but from what I see its true potential lies within overclocking and pipe unlocking, at stock the 256 bit (be sure you get the 256 bit version) is more or less like a 6600GT (it might edge it out in more memory bandwidth limited games) so that means its slightly faster than your current 9800Pro but if you do unlock an extra quad of pipes and overclock it a bit you have a serious killer right there.

I got this exactly: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a...T=14-150-157&CMP=OTC-pricegrabbermerch

There is also the 7300GT and X1650Pro and 7600GS cards to look at, the 7300GT in my Mac Pro is a poor performer and poor overclocker (and won't unlock for ****) so I wouldn't recommend that but I don't know, I finally decided on the 6800XT because I can play and toy with its performance.

Did you have any luck unlocking pipes on that card? Just from google searching, it seems that card has a newer core, nv42, and the pipes aren't unlockable. I just wanted some conformation since my friend has the same question as the OP.

 

[Modular]

Deciding on a card based off of the presumption that the pipes will be unlockable is poor practice in the first place. If the pipes don't unlock or are corrupted, then you will have to be content with living with the speed of the card as it is out of the box. I installed a 6800le in my brother's computer (about 1.5 years ago) and only one of the vertex pipes wasn't corrupted and both of the pixel pipes (most important for any frames per second boost) were corrupted.

There is a reason that these cards come with the vertex/pixel pipes locked out. It's because the cores didn't pass quality testing standards with those pipes unlocked. All the Vid Card manufacturers do is lock the bad pipes and sell the card as an XT instead of a GT or an Ultra...

 

[evolucion8]

You can find in new egg the X850 PRO for about $129, is faster than the 6600GT, 6800XT, Vanilla, GT and a bit slower than the Ultra, but you can unlock it to XT, and will beat any 6800 Series. But I recommend you buying it in Chiefvalue.com because I had found that not all of them in Newegg.com are unlockable, cause they have a newer batch that the ones used in the Chiefvalue.com. And they cost the same and all the ones in there are unlockable. Once you unlock it you will have the fastest AGP Card for now, (After that 7900GT disguised as 7800GS+ Bliss and X1950 PRO of course.)

 

[evolucion8]

Originally posted by: Modular
Deciding on a card based off of the presumption that the pipes will be unlockable is poor practice in the first place. If the pipes don't unlock or are corrupted, then you will have to be content with living with the speed of the card as it is out of the box. I installed a 6800le in my brother's computer (about 1.5 years ago) and only one of the vertex pipes wasn't corrupted and both of the pixel pipes (most important for any frames per second boost) were corrupted.

There is a reason that these cards come with the vertex/pixel pipes locked out. It's because the cores didn't pass quality testing standards with those pipes unlocked. All the Vid Card manufacturers do is lock the bad pipes and sell the card as an XT instead of a GT or an Ultra...

That's why you have to do research, sometimes those cards are locked because there's greater demand on a cheap version of the card than the more expensive one, and since both uses the same GPU, it would be easy to unlock them. That's why you was able to see how easy was able to unlock a X800 PRO vivo, that came in the same PCB and the same memory type timings of the X800 XT PE, so why they would invest in a more expensive memory to a cheaper card? After all because both chips cost the same to manufacture. But not all can be unlocked, some really bad crippled cards like 6800LE, X800SE, that cannot, but those near to the high end version, like the X850 PRO to X850XT, or X800GTO to X800XL, or even the X1800GTO to X1800XL, can be easily done, so why not giving it a try?