I have an OLD video card...

[Bu B3ar]

My rig was built 5 years ago, and everything in it has been replaced except for the processor and vid card:
-2.4 ghz AMD 64
-AGP Radeon 9550 (bad news bears :frown
-2 gig DDR2
-460w power supply
-500gig and 120gig hd
-MoBo is 2.5 years old, can't remember what it is off the top of my head though

I just replaced the power supply and master HD a week ago and reformatted, and the rig is running like new...except that new was half a decade ago and the vid card is no longer cutting the mustard. I can run CS:S on low-mid settings, but it struggles to play L4D, and forget about anything really new.

Processing wise it is still fairly powerful, but a new video card would help greatly. I've looked around on Newegg, etc. for a new AGP card, but most of them have recieved a lot of negative reviews for bad compatability.

Can anyone recomend an AGP card that will extend the life of my rig for a little while? I don't have the $$ to drop on a new one right now...

 

[happy medium]

I'll sell you my 7800gs for 60$ shipped? It plays CC:S on high settings and Left for Dead played just fine on low /med settings.

If not I think a 4650 would be good for ya.

 

[alyarb]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002G...reativeASIN=B002GHBW52

 

[Bu B3ar]

Originally posted by: alyarb
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002G...reativeASIN=B002GHBW52

Is this personal experience, or just recomendation?

 

[happy medium]

You are limited to a small number of high end AGP cards.

Fastest to the slowest.

1. hd4670
2. hd3850
3. hd4650
4. x1950pro
5. 7900gs
6. hd3650 or 7800gs
7. 7600gt or 2600xt

Buy the way you will be cpu limited with anything more then the 1950pro unless you play at 1900x1080 resolution.

In any event there all at least 2x as fast as your card.

 

[alcoholbob]

AMD64 2.4GHz (3700/3800+ IIRC) is as fast as the single cores go...that said, I hope you don't actually mean 2400+ CPU, which I think is 1.66GHz

I think you might even have to drop the res to 1024x768 for L4D to get playable performance. That said, any game up to ~2005 should run fine with that setup + a new AGP card.

 

[sciwizam]

Originally posted by: Astrallite
AMD64 2.4GHz (3700/3800+ IIRC) is as fast as the single cores go...that said, I hope you don't actually mean 2400+ CPU, which I think is 1.66GHz

I think you might even have to drop the res to 1024x768 for L4D to get playable performance. That said, any game up to ~2005 should run fine with that setup + a new AGP card.

Might also be a socket 754 Newcastle 3400+

 

[Athadeus]

The 4650 linked should be a good video card, you shouldn't worry about it so much.

I am curious what kind of performance increase you'll see, since I still have one computer running a P4 and 9800pro, but the processor is at the same freq and it's netburst lol.

Also, not to thread hijack, but I just ordered a 4770 as an upgrade from an X1800XT to go with my bad-axe, e6300@2.8ghz, and 2Gb 800mhz ram at 5-5-5-12. How well would you guess L4D and SC2/D3 in the future will run? It will not be my primary gaming system in the future, but I'd really like if it could run those okay for guests.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: Athadeus
The 4650 linked should be a good video card, you shouldn't worry about it so much.

I am curious what kind of performance increase you'll see, since I still have one computer running a P4 and 9800pro, but the processor is at the same freq and it's netburst lol.


Also, not to thread hijack, but I just ordered a 4770 as an upgrade from an X1800XT to go with my bad-axe, e6300@2.8ghz, and 2Gb 800mhz ram at 5-5-5-12. How well would you guess L4D and SC2/D3 in the future will run? It will not be my primary gaming system in the future, but I'd really like if it could run those okay for guests.

A pent 4 @ 2.8/3.0 and a 9800pro to a higher end agp gpu like my 7800gs, you will see a major increase. I went from a ti4600 to 7800gs.
Right now I'm cpu limited @3.2 with the 7800gs. 3,331 3d mark 06.

My 8800gt with a e5400 @2.7 runs Left 4 Dead at high settings smooth as butter @1280x1024. A 4770 should have no problems at all.

 

[Athadeus]

Originally posted by: happy medium

Originally posted by: Athadeus
The 4650 linked should be a good video card, you shouldn't worry about it so much.

I am curious what kind of performance increase you'll see, since I still have one computer running a P4 and 9800pro, but the processor is at the same freq and it's netburst lol.


Also, not to thread hijack, but I just ordered a 4770 as an upgrade from an X1800XT to go with my bad-axe, e6300@2.8ghz, and 2Gb 800mhz ram at 5-5-5-12. How well would you guess L4D and SC2/D3 in the future will run? It will not be my primary gaming system in the future, but I'd really like if it could run those okay for guests.

A pent 4 @ 2.8/3.0 and a 9800pro to a higher end agp gpu like my 7800gs, you will see a major increase. I went from a ti4600 to 7800gs.
Right now I'm cpu limited @3.2 with the 7800gs. 3,331 3d mark 06.

My 8800gt with a e5400 @2.7 runs Left 4 Dead at high settings smooth as butter @1280x1024. A 4770 should have no problems at all.

The P4 computer I was talking about is a Dell and it's locked at 2.4 or 2.5 and the memory, chipset, etc suck. I also had a 2.8ghz P4 @ 3.1 which is the one that originally had the 9800, but I sold the system minus the video card.

I wanted to upgrade that card pretty badly, but there were only seemingly poor performing cards on the market that were overpriced to boot. I seem to recall an AGP X1850 at $180+ being the best choice when I looked last, even though AMD was well into the HD3xxx series. That system isn't worth another cent to me anymore though.

I think the 4770 would be too much if I played at 1280x1024, but I like to play at 1680x1050 and the best image quality I can get with decent min frame rates.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Bu B3ar

Originally posted by: alyarb
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002G...reativeASIN=B002GHBW52

Is this personal experience, or just recomendation?

around that level is what you want. your cpu is a bottleneck, it pretty weak by todays standards, esp with single core.
so a video card under 100 dollars should do fine. any such card is way way way faster than your old card. u dont want to spend too much on a dead end agp card.

 

[0roo0roo]

http://www.tomshardware.com/re...erclocking,2395-5.html
as u can see, ur cpu will definitely be the bottleneck. and those are x2's not single core.

 

[Barfo]

AGP is a money pit, can't you upgrade your CPU and motherboard as well and get a PCI-E card that will be much better than any AGP?

 

[Bu B3ar]

Originally posted by: Barfo
AGP is a money pit, can't you upgrade your CPU and motherboard as well and get a PCI-E card that will be much better than any AGP?

If I'm doing that, I'm building a whole new system, and i dont have $1500 to drop right now. I'm just looking for a cheap extension on my rig until i have the loot to drop on a new build; i know my baby is at the end of her life

 

[Bu B3ar]

Originally posted by: Astrallite
AMD64 2.4GHz (3700/3800+ IIRC) is as fast as the single cores go...that said, I hope you don't actually mean 2400+ CPU, which I think is 1.66GHz

I think you might even have to drop the res to 1024x768 for L4D to get playable performance. That said, any game up to ~2005 should run fine with that setup + a new AGP card.

No, i know it's at least a 2.something speed processor. It's been so long since i've bought it i couldn't tell you specifically what it is though =/.

 

[Malak]

Originally posted by: Bu B3ar

Originally posted by: Barfo
AGP is a money pit, can't you upgrade your CPU and motherboard as well and get a PCI-E card that will be much better than any AGP?

If I'm doing that, I'm building a whole new system, and i dont have $1500 to drop right now. I'm just looking for a cheap extension on my rig until i have the loot to drop on a new build; i know my baby is at the end of her life

I built my system, from case to OS, for less than $600. If you are building it yourself, it won't be $1500.

 

[PingSpike]

I know you want to squeeze some more juice out of your current system, and many people were far to quick to toss AGP in the trash heap when PCI-E first came out...but that was a different time.

I would encourage you to either:
1) Buy a decent motherboard and plop a cheap CPU in it (which will likely still be faster then your current system) with intent to upgrade in the future if need be. And get a graphics card at the same time. (Virtually any $50-60 card will destroy your current one)
2) Save up and do it all at once

 

[Bu B3ar]

Originally posted by: Malak

Originally posted by: Bu B3ar

Originally posted by: Barfo
AGP is a money pit, can't you upgrade your CPU and motherboard as well and get a PCI-E card that will be much better than any AGP?

If I'm doing that, I'm building a whole new system, and i dont have $1500 to drop right now. I'm just looking for a cheap extension on my rig until i have the loot to drop on a new build; i know my baby is at the end of her life

I built my system, from case to OS, for less than $600. If you are building it yourself, it won't be $1500.

If i'm going to build my own again, i want it to be up-to-date for as long as possible, i7 processors cost almost as much as your whole rig. I have a laptop that probably runs equivalent to the system you built.

 

[Bu B3ar]

Originally posted by: PingSpike
I know you want to squeeze some more juice out of your current system, and many people were far to quick to toss AGP in the trash heap when PCI-E first came out...but that was a different time.

I would encourage you to either:
1) Buy a decent motherboard and plop a cheap CPU in it (which will likely still be faster then your current system) with intent to upgrade in the future if need be. And get a graphics card at the same time. (Virtually any $50-60 card will destroy your current one)
2) Save up and do it all at once

This isn't a bad option...i will have to seriously consider this.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Originally posted by: Bu B3ar

Originally posted by: Barfo
AGP is a money pit, can't you upgrade your CPU and motherboard as well and get a PCI-E card that will be much better than any AGP?

If I'm doing that, I'm building a whole new system, and i dont have $1500 to drop right now. I'm just looking for a cheap extension on my rig until i have the loot to drop on a new build; i know my baby is at the end of her life

Two example builds:

Intel Pentium E3200, Dual Core, 2.4GHz, 1MB L2 Cache - $53
ASRock G31M-S mATX - $44
2GB Corsair DDR2 667 - $30
Sapphire HD 4670, 512MB - $67
Total: $194


Intel Pentium E5200, Dual Core, 2.5Ghz, 2MB L2 Cache - $68
Gigabyte EP45-UD3R - $120
2x2GB Corsair DDR3 667 - $60
Powercolor HD 4850, 512MB - $97
Total: $345

The first build is significantly cheaper, but will also be significantly less powerful. The motherboard has a vanilla ICH7 southbridge, so if you want to get an SSD in the future, you won't be able to enable AHCI for increased performance. The HD 4670 is also significantly slower than the HD 4850. Either way, it will be more powerful than what you're using now.

With either build, you'd need to make sure your power supply is up to the task and has the right connectors (PCI-E, 4 or 8 pin EPS12V, 24 pin main connector, etc.). If not, figure in another $60 or so for a quality 350-500w unit with PCI-E connectors (Corsair, Antec, Seasonic, BFG, and PC Power & Cooling are all good choices; avoid cheap brands which will likely blow up and could damage other components).

Just something to keep in mind.

 

[Malak]

Originally posted by: Bu B3ar

Originally posted by: Malak

Originally posted by: Bu B3ar

Originally posted by: Barfo
AGP is a money pit, can't you upgrade your CPU and motherboard as well and get a PCI-E card that will be much better than any AGP?

If I'm doing that, I'm building a whole new system, and i dont have $1500 to drop right now. I'm just looking for a cheap extension on my rig until i have the loot to drop on a new build; i know my baby is at the end of her life

I built my system, from case to OS, for less than $600. If you are building it yourself, it won't be $1500.

If i'm going to build my own again, i want it to be up-to-date for as long as possible, i7 processors cost almost as much as your whole rig. I have a laptop that probably runs equivalent to the system you built.

i7 is overkill, not futureproof. The proc I got was $100 and can be unlocked and overclocked to 4 cores and 4ghz. And you will never need that much processing power. More expensive doesn't mean better.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Bu B3ar

Originally posted by: Malak

Originally posted by: Bu B3ar

Originally posted by: Barfo
AGP is a money pit, can't you upgrade your CPU and motherboard as well and get a PCI-E card that will be much better than any AGP?

If I'm doing that, I'm building a whole new system, and i dont have $1500 to drop right now. I'm just looking for a cheap extension on my rig until i have the loot to drop on a new build; i know my baby is at the end of her life

I built my system, from case to OS, for less than $600. If you are building it yourself, it won't be $1500.

If i'm going to build my own again, i want it to be up-to-date for as long as possible, i7 processors cost almost as much as your whole rig. I have a laptop that probably runs equivalent to the system you built.

thats silly. it doesn't have to be premium or nothing. as said, 600 is far more than enough, things are cheap now.

 

[Ben90]

Hell; i built my ex-GF a computer for i think $580; and that included monitor+kb+mouse ect., like a year ago and that can run l4d silky smooth

 

[Bu B3ar]

Originally posted by: CurseTheSky

Originally posted by: Bu B3ar

Originally posted by: Barfo
AGP is a money pit, can't you upgrade your CPU and motherboard as well and get a PCI-E card that will be much better than any AGP?

If I'm doing that, I'm building a whole new system, and i dont have $1500 to drop right now. I'm just looking for a cheap extension on my rig until i have the loot to drop on a new build; i know my baby is at the end of her life

Two example builds:

Intel Pentium E3200, Dual Core, 2.4GHz, 1MB L2 Cache - $53
ASRock G31M-S mATX - $44
2GB Corsair DDR2 667 - $30
Sapphire HD 4670, 512MB - $67
Total: $194


Intel Pentium E5200, Dual Core, 2.5Ghz, 2MB L2 Cache - $68
Gigabyte EP45-UD3R - $120
2x2GB Corsair DDR3 667 - $60
Powercolor HD 4850, 512MB - $97
Total: $345

The first build is significantly cheaper, but will also be significantly less powerful. The motherboard has a vanilla ICH7 southbridge, so if you want to get an SSD in the future, you won't be able to enable AHCI for increased performance. The HD 4670 is also significantly slower than the HD 4850. Either way, it will be more powerful than what you're using now.

With either build, you'd need to make sure your power supply is up to the task and has the right connectors (PCI-E, 4 or 8 pin EPS12V, 24 pin main connector, etc.). If not, figure in another $60 or so for a quality 350-500w unit with PCI-E connectors (Corsair, Antec, Seasonic, BFG, and PC Power & Cooling are all good choices; avoid cheap brands which will likely blow up and could damage other components).

Just something to keep in mind.

My laptop is faster than both of these builds.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Originally posted by: Bu B3ar

Originally posted by: CurseTheSky

Originally posted by: Bu B3ar

Originally posted by: Barfo
AGP is a money pit, can't you upgrade your CPU and motherboard as well and get a PCI-E card that will be much better than any AGP?

If I'm doing that, I'm building a whole new system, and i dont have $1500 to drop right now. I'm just looking for a cheap extension on my rig until i have the loot to drop on a new build; i know my baby is at the end of her life

Two example builds:

Intel Pentium E3200, Dual Core, 2.4GHz, 1MB L2 Cache - $53
ASRock G31M-S mATX - $44
2GB Corsair DDR2 667 - $30
Sapphire HD 4670, 512MB - $67
Total: $194


Intel Pentium E5200, Dual Core, 2.5Ghz, 2MB L2 Cache - $68
Gigabyte EP45-UD3R - $120
2x2GB Corsair DDR3 667 - $60
Powercolor HD 4850, 512MB - $97
Total: $345

The first build is significantly cheaper, but will also be significantly less powerful. The motherboard has a vanilla ICH7 southbridge, so if you want to get an SSD in the future, you won't be able to enable AHCI for increased performance. The HD 4670 is also significantly slower than the HD 4850. Either way, it will be more powerful than what you're using now.

With either build, you'd need to make sure your power supply is up to the task and has the right connectors (PCI-E, 4 or 8 pin EPS12V, 24 pin main connector, etc.). If not, figure in another $60 or so for a quality 350-500w unit with PCI-E connectors (Corsair, Antec, Seasonic, BFG, and PC Power & Cooling are all good choices; avoid cheap brands which will likely blow up and could damage other components).

Just something to keep in mind.

My laptop is faster than both of these builds.

:roll: