Graphics card to replace Radeon 9800 Pro

[imported_Salamander]

I just upgraded my daughter's desktop to Windows 7. The current 9800 Pro card is not compatible with WIndows 7. I'm looking for a replacement AGP card that is compatible with Windows 7, can handle Aero, and uses no more power than the 9800 Pro. I also want the card to throw off no more heat and noise than the 9800 Pro. Less power, heat, and noise would be even better. Any suggestions?

 

[Schmide]

From another thread here.

Originally posted by: Schmide
Probably not. If you're in for $50+ shipping spend the extra $10 and get a new ~$70+ 4650

 

[toyota]

agp? ouch. is the rest of the pc actually decent? if so then go with something a faster like a 3850. I dont know if sinking 90 bucks into an old agp makes sense though. of course I would not have even spent money on Windows 7 for an old pc like that though in the first place. if all you want is something cheap to replace it then look in the fs section. heck I have a perfect condition 6600 256mb you can have for the cost of shipping.

EDIT: yeah that 4650 Schmide suggested would probably be a better choice than 3850 since its about the same performance but 20 bucks cheaper than 3850.

 

[bryanW1995]

win 7 family pack is, what, $40 or so per computer? add in the cost of a new vid card... why not just keep using the 9800pro? is it holding you back (snicker) on any games? specifically, what games do you play, what res, what monitor, system specs, etc.

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
win 7 family pack is, what, $40 or so per computer? add in the cost of a new vid card... why not just keep using the 9800pro? is it holding you back (snicker) on any games? specifically, what games do you play, what res, what monitor, system specs, etc.

he said it wasnt compatible with Windows 7. I am not sure what makes it not work since I havent really checked into it though.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: Salamander
I just upgraded my daughter's desktop to Windows 7. The current 9800 Pro card is not compatible with WIndows 7. I'm looking for a replacement AGP card that is compatible with Windows 7, can handle Aero, and uses no more power than the 9800 Pro. <<I also want the card to throw off no more heat and noise than the 9800 Pro. Less power, heat, and noise would be even better. Any suggestions?

Less power, heat, and noise,about equal performance= 7600gs 512mb (is windows 7 compatible).
But it gonna cost ya. 80$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814143069

 

[bryanW1995]

I feel like I'm stealing toyota's thunder, but you should probably just upgrade the whole system if you want to replace the oc and gpu. I realize that the os is a sunk cost, but if you're happy with the system and/or don't want to hassle with replacement of the whole thing then you might be better off saving the win 7 copy for the future or selling it now while it's hot.

 

[Schmide]

It works just not as well. The requirements are WDDM 1.0 compatible card Pixel shader 2.0 in hardware. For Window 7 and all the aero features you need a WDDM 1.1 compatible card for which many of the lesser drivers are not up to code for. I know ATI is only at the 1.0 level for legacy drivers. I can't find anything about nVidia's previous generation.

Edit: This information for nVidia is absent from the latest 190 release notes but can be found in the 185. (annoying)

This is a WHQL-Certified driver supporting GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, and 200-series desktop GPUs and ION. This driver package installs WDDM v1.1 for GeForce 8, 9, and 200-series (DirectX 10) GPUs and WDDM v1.0 for GeForce 6 and 7-series (DirectX 9) GPUs.

So I guess Geforce 6 and 7 are WDDM 1.0.

 

[imported_Salamander]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
I feel like I'm stealing toyota's thunder, but you should probably just upgrade the whole system if you want to replace the oc and gpu. I realize that the os is a sunk cost, but if you're happy with the system and/or don't want to hassle with replacement of the whole thing then you might be better off saving the win 7 copy for the future or selling it now while it's hot.

I am not interested in upgrading the whole system, just the graphics card.

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: Salamander

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
I feel like I'm stealing toyota's thunder, but you should probably just upgrade the whole system if you want to replace the oc and gpu. I realize that the os is a sunk cost, but if you're happy with the system and/or don't want to hassle with replacement of the whole thing then you might be better off saving the win 7 copy for the future or selling it now while it's hot.

I am not interested in upgrading the whole system, just the graphics card.

well depending on how much you paid for the OS you might have been better off just buying a brand new $350 pc from Best Buy for your daughter then getting a $45 4650 if the integrated graphics didnt work for her/you. you could then just sell that old pc on craigslist for 100 bucks. so really in the end that route would be about the same cost but your daughter would have a brand new pc thats way faster, runs cooler and uses less power.

 

[SonicIce]

Are you sure it is not compatible? There is a driver on the ati site

 

[imported_Salamander]

Originally posted by: SonicIce
Are you sure it is not compatible? There is a driver on the ati site

It's a legacy driver, and it clearly did not work. As I recall, the ati site warns there may be issues.

 

[Concillian]

4650 is roughly equivalent power usage (which will aslo mean similar heat). Don't know about noise, that's all about HSF design. It also happens to be one of the cheaper AGP cards that would handle Aero, definitely one of the fastest and reasonably current so support and Aero performance should all be non-issues.

It's like the win-win win7 card for AGP upgrades.

 

[California Roll]

I have a 9800 Pro in an old Dell SC400 that I turned into a desktop. It works perfectly fine with Win7. I did not use the ATI drivers. I let Win7 install the drivers during install/update and it works great.