looking for AGP for moderate gaming

[vacuumtube]

Hi,

I have a computer with following specs and I'm looking for AGP video card to play some descent games.

Specs:
AMD Athlon XP 2500+
Asus Motherboard
1 GB DDR 400
Radeon 9200 128 MB (<<-- this needs to change)
80 GB HD 8 MB Cache

As you can see this is 3 year old system. I'm not willing to move out to PCI-express just yet. I need a video card that can play some of the modern titles on medium settings. What are my options for AGP? I'm willing to buy new or used but my budget is MAX $130 CDN.

I was considering:
6600 GT
7600 GS
X1900 Pro

Haven't found a deal yet. Please help me find one.

 

[Rottie]

what is your power supply? if it is less than 300 watts then you might be better with GeForce 7600GS. and Athlon XP 2500+ is like 6 years old cpu might be bottleneck with GPU.

 

[vacuumtube]

No it has a 450 Watts power supply from Antec.

 

[Stumps]

hmmm, you're a bit CPU limited, but upgrading to a 7800GS or 7600GT or even a X1950GT would provide a huge jump in performance.

maybe if you can afford it you could go all the way to a X1950Pro...but this would be overkill for your system.

 

[John]

http://www.ncix.com/products/i...3AUDE3&manufacture=XFX

 

[Denithor]

I would only say, spend as little as possible on an AGP card because a complete refresh is not very expensive and opens the pci-e door to cheaper video cards.

You might consider looking on the for sale threads here on the forums for a used AGP card like these:

9800pro $50
x700 $32

 

[happy medium]

or this 6800gt for 50 bucks

http://forums.anandtech.com/me..._key=y&keyword1=6800gt

 

[soccerballtux]

Def CPU limited; because I am and its bad. Wow sucks in shattrath, Couldn't play Portal at higher than 800x600 resolution, etc.

 

[ArbysOvenMitt]

CPU limited or no, it's not a dead end system and a $50-70 GPU upgrade would add CONSIDERABLE life to the system. I have similar specs (AXP mobile 2600+ slightly OCed), and for years I rolled with a 9800 pro. About 2 months ago I upgraded to an x850xl and I went from playing Oblivion on Low/Medium settings at *640x480* all the way up to 1024x768 on pretty much everything mid-highish (AA, decent grass/foliage rendering, great textures). For $50 I couldn't believe the performance bump, and coming from a 9200 it will have an even greater impact.

I do agree you shouldn't spend much more than $70 though, it's getting to the point where AGP is a dead end and this will likely be the last upgrade ever for the system. That being said, if you can find a decently OC'd 6800GT or x850xl/xt for cheap gaming will go from suck to damn fun. Just don't do what I did and upgrade from a 15" LCD to 20" widescreen a week later!

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: ArbysOvenMitt
...I upgraded to an x850xl and I went from playing Oblivion on Low/Medium settings at *640x480* all the way up to 1024x768...

Just don't do what I did and upgrade from a 15" LCD to 20" widescreen a week later!

Yikes! 1024x768 on a 20" LCD?!? :Q Welcome to suckville!

 

[ArbysOvenMitt]

Originally posted by: Denithor

Originally posted by: ArbysOvenMitt
...I upgraded to an x850xl and I went from playing Oblivion on Low/Medium settings at *640x480* all the way up to 1024x768...

Just don't do what I did and upgrade from a 15" LCD to 20" widescreen a week later!

Yikes! 1024x768 on a 20" LCD?!? :Q Welcome to suckville!

Nah, more like from 15" 1024x768 to 1680x1050 and back to terrible settings! It's preferable, but certainly not ideal...