Looking for the cheapest semi-decent AGP 8X 3d card

[boran]

Hi,

I am looking for an AGP 8X 3d card for this guy.

He lives in Delaware, USA
It has to be an AGP 8X card because of his older mobo. We are talking about adding some 3d functionality. but it does not need to be earth shattering. If he gets Intel HD4500 performance it will be great.

the rest of the specs:
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3300+
MEMORY: 1 GB

I have been looking at this page on newegg. Are those prices decent ?

EDIT: for craps sake. Why does anandtech screw up the newegg links ? this one works
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...CE&PageSize=20

I do not know what the budget will be, but I doubt it will be over $50 (much more would not make any sense either)
Which of those cards would then offer the best value for the money ?
Or are there better options than newegg (I do not shop much in the US )

 

[dug777]

If I lived in the US you'd be welcome to my 6800GS for postage, but unfortunately I don't

Maybe post in the FS/FT forum and see what comes up?

If you wanted an AGP card with a fully up to date feature set (minus dx-11 of course, but that's not going to be an issue!), there's a 4650 for $60USD after rebate:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-851-_-Product

 

[boran]

A 4650 for $60, that is crazy. Isnt this a bit overkill compared with the rest of the system ?

I will not go into second hand stuff. I am mainly trying to make a reccomendation. I need to figure out where the sweet spot lies within this ultracheap segment.

It seems all nVidia AGP cards are very very old cards, and ATI is still making quite recent models in AGP varieties.

 

[dug777]

You don't get great value for money dropping below that, at least from the selection of cards on the 'egg that I can see. New just doesn't offer the value you can find in used AGP cards out there unsurprisingly at this stage in AGP's lifecycle (or should that be 'undeadcycle'? )

You could go a 3450 for $50m but the extra $10 gets a card that would comfortably smash it to oblivion and back, even on a machine that old.

I have a 3450 somewhere, and it's about comparable to a 9800 pro or 6600GT without AA, but it gets thumped with AA thanks to the massive lack of memory bandwith (not that you'd be using AA in anything ~2004 onwards with that card at pretty much any resolution.

People were happily pairing x800 series cards and 6800 cards on those cpus, weren't they? It suddenly seems a long time ago!

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

A 4650 for $60, that is crazy. Isnt this a bit overkill compared with the rest of the system ?

I will not go into second hand stuff. I am mainly trying to make a reccomendation. I need to figure out where the sweet spot lies within this ultracheap segment.

It seems all nVidia AGP cards are very very old cards, and ATI is still making quite recent models in AGP varieties.

$60 for that level of performance is not crazy at all, if you are unwilling to go into the "second hand" market.

Glancing at the "A how-to on increasing FPS in Minecraft" guide, it looks like Nvidia 6600GT on up would be good.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

People were happily pairing x800 series cards and 6800 cards on those cpus, weren't they? It suddenly seems a long time ago!

I had my X850 paired with an Opteron 165; the X850 wouldn't unlock, but OC'd very well, and the Opty OC'd by 50% :biggrin:

Good times... :thumbsup:

 

[dug777]

I had my X850 paired with an Opteron 165; the X850 wouldn't unlock, but OC'd very well, and the Opty OC'd by 50% :biggrin:

Good times... :thumbsup:

I had a 9800 pro, and then a 6600GT (replacements after three 9800pros started artifacting on me, Aus heat was too much for them!), and then a 6800GS (the later, native PCI-E core with the HSI bridge, overclocked well past 6800U specs) all on a 2000+ Athlon XP tbred-B@2.1Ghz

Good times indeed :thumbsup:

I finally stepped up to my Q6600/4850 in 2008, and was suitably blown away Now packing a 5850 and I can see that I will do something similar with this CPU/Mobo/RAM again

 

[boran]

$60 for that level of performance is not crazy at all, if you are unwilling to go into the "second hand" market.

Glancing at the "A how-to on increasing FPS in Minecraft" guide, it looks like Nvidia 6600GT on up would be good.

I did not mean crazy in a negative way.
that is very cheap for such a level of performance.

In the end it is not for me to decide what the best action would be.
I would recommend getting that 4650 and another GB of memory. then he has a 3300+, 2 GB of ram and a 4650. which is a rather more decent setup than I tought was achievable.

My GF runs on a 3500+, 2 GB of ram and a GT 240 and this would be comparable. That runs minecraft very decently.

 

[Sickamore]

I have a sapphire hd 3850 512mb wish i could get rid of it.