Need an AGP card recommendation

[Mortac]

A friend of mine is going to update his video card as he's still using a GeForce4 and don't want to buy a whole new computer just yet. He's got a 2.2Ghz P4 and some crappy cheap 350W PSU.

I bet he won't really need a 512MB card since I've heard it's a bit overkill for an AGP card, unless you guys think it's worth it. Otherwise 256MB will probably suffice. He wants a good card for being AGP, but top-of-the-line isn't necessary if it's not worth the extra cash since he'll only be using it for about a year and a half.

Any help, directions or suggestions would be most welcome.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

*sigh* Would be nice to have a price range. Also whats the amperage rating on the +12v line of his PSU ? He'll probably be limited to a Radeon 9600XT or better yet a 6200.

Anyways, this 6800XE is prob one of the best low power AGP card deals atm.

 

[Summitdrinker]

7600gt is about the high end for that system

6600GT new or used, how about a 6800GT new or used

7600GS maybe but it's a weakling

on the ATi side maybe a used x800/x850 pro or xt

better checkout that power supply spec before buying

 

[RussianSensation]

That 6800XE card is seriously crippled due to its 275mhz gpu.

I'd spend $13 more to get X1650.

 

[Mortac]

This is what it says on his PSU:

Deltaco PSU-215
+12V=15A
-12V=0.8A

Does this limit him from any of the suggested cards above?

Price range is hard to give because I'm not American and not so sure where your prices are at. That's why I said top-of-the-line wasn't probably worth his money, but price is not really an issue. I think what he's looking for is the best card relative to the money spent unless there's big performance leap gained by spending an additional $100-200. I'm sure he doesn't want to get anything that is ridiculously overpriced for a small performance gain.

 

[Mortac]

I just noticed that the cards you recommended are quite cheap so price is NOT an issue.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

That PSU will limit you to a 9600XT , 6200 or possibly a 9700 Pro. You need to upgrade your PSU if u want anything faster.

Try this PSU and this X1900GT for a total of $206.5 before MIR and $186.5 after MIR.

Or if u wanna go cheaper, get the above PSU and this 7600GS for a total of $161 before MIR and $146 after MIR. The extra $40 u save isn't really worth it though as the X1900GT would slaughter the 7600GS : /

Oh the CPU would be a limiting factor for the X1900GT though, but it'll allow you to crank up the eye candy with no loss of performance over what you'll get at default with the P4

 

[Mortac]

Thanks, but he lives far away from me so I can't help him install a new PSU and he doesn't know how to do it himself. His CPU is 2.4Ghz and not 2.2Ghz though, but it's a small difference so probably wouldn't change anything.

I guess the 9700 Pro is the best he could get then?

 

[montypythizzle]

How about the nice 256-bit 256MB X800GTO in my FS thread for 75 dollars?
That plus an Xclio 500W PSU for 50 dollars 125 for a PSU that will last past the next build and an AGP card that ROCKS!
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2056410&enterthread=y

 

[Dazed and Confused]

He already stated he doesn't trust his friend to replace his own PSU. And the X800 uses too much power for the one he has. A 9700 Pro is the best that 350w jobbie will do.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: Mortac
A friend of mine is going to update his video card as he's still using a GeForce4 and don't want to buy a whole new computer just yet. He's got a 2.2Ghz P4 and some crappy cheap 350W PSU.

I bet he won't really need a 512MB card since I've heard it's a bit overkill for an AGP card, unless you guys think it's worth it. Otherwise 256MB will probably suffice. He wants a good card for being AGP, but top-of-the-line isn't necessary if it's not worth the extra cash since he'll only be using it for about a year and a half.

Any help, directions or suggestions would be most welcome.

A 7600gs will be fine with a 15 amp ,350 watt psu. Anything more will be cpu bottlenecked anyway.
A 9700/9800 pro uses more power than a 7600GT,so a 7600gs is your best bet.

 

[shortylickens]

If price is not an issue then I would recommend a http://www.newegg.com/Product/...9&bop=And&Order=PRICED
7950GT or a X1950XT.

My personal pick would be the GeForce.
Ignore the X800 for $275.


EDIT:
Assuming of course you dont mind a new power supply, which I see you arent interested in.
In that case I would go with the Radeon 9700.

 

[Summitdrinker]

7600gs it is with that power supply
a 7600 gt maybe too power hunger? unsure

 

[Dazed and Confused]

A 7600gs will be fine with a 15 amp ,350 watt psu. Anything more will be cpu bottlenecked anyway.
A 9700/9800 pro uses more power than a 7600GT,so a 7600gs is your best bet.

I'd love to know where u get that from considering Nvidia says it requires 18a on the +12v with 400 watts.

ATI says u only need 15a on the +12v with 300 watts.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: Dazed and Confused

A 7600gs will be fine with a 15 amp ,350 watt psu. Anything more will be cpu bottlenecked anyway.
A 9700/9800 pro uses more power than a 7600GT,so a 7600gs is your best bet.

I'd love to know where u get that from considering Nvidia says it requires 18a on the +12v with 400 watts.

ATI says u only need 15a on the +12v with 300 watts.

Here.

http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=7&t=9354

 

[Dazed and Confused]

It's nice to see that in the link u provided the there is also a list of the amperage the cards require on the +12v rail . . . . wait. It doesn't.

9700 Pro = best you can get, if your buddy tries a 7600GS your buddy will have a card he can't use and he'll have to buy a new PSU to run the card.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: Dazed and Confused
It's nice to see that in the link u provided the there is also a list of the amperage the cards require on the +12v rail . . . . wait. It doesn't.

9700 Pro = best you can get, if your buddy tries a 7600GS your buddy will have a card he can't use and he'll have to buy a new PSU to run the card.

It's simple math...... most of us here know.
Take 12 x the number of amps (in this case 15) and you get a 180 watt 12 volt rail.
Know matter what way you look at it if one card draws more power (watts) it requires more amps. So simple logic tell me the 9700 pro draws more amps.

Please don't tell me a 9700 pro drawing 45 watts uses less power then a 7600gs at 27 watts or a 7600gt at 36 watts.
It's also known that a ATI card will in most cases will draw more power then a nvidia card.

A 2.4 pent 4 (unless it's highly overclocked) with a normal system (not many hard drives) and a 7600gs will run just fine with a 350 watt ,15 amp 12v rail psu.

EDIT: My system ran with a Dell 250 watt (15amp rail) for three months before I upgraded my psu (so I could overclock) and I have a 7800gs which needs more power then a 7600gt and a 3.06 cpu.
Don't PM me and tell me I'm a noob you moron.

This review site seems to feel the same
http://xtreview.com/review134.htm

Quote:

"the 6600gt has the highest power requirement here this due to that the card was built in old architecture if we take a look to 7600gs witch present better performance we can see the low power for the geforce 7 based card 27 w only .any psu should handle the load from such a card"

 

[dderolph]

I've seen no mention of what he uses his computer for. If it's basically office apps, why upgrade, especially since he'll only be using it for about a year and a half.

Exactly what GeForce4 card does he have? Maybe an ebay item like NVIDIA GeForce4 TI 4200 AGP Graphics Card would be a significant but inexpensive upgrade.

 

[Mortac]

Thanks guys, you've been very helpful!

I've checked some performance tests and the 9700 Pro simply doesn't compare to the 7600GT. I'd guess the 7600GS would end up somewhere in between but I haven't checked its performance anywhere. If what Happy Medium says is true, then I doubt the extra few watts required to run the 7600GT over the 7600GS would be a problem, and the GT is definitely the best performer.

So it looks like I will tell him to go with the 7600GT, but please stop me in time if you think this isn't going to work because he'll order it sometime this week.

Also, is there any reason not to get the 512MB version of this card over the 256MB one? Since I see barely any price difference there seem to be little reason not to get twice the memory.

 

[Mortac]

Originally posted by: dderolph
I've seen no mention of what he uses his computer for. If it's basically office apps, why upgrade, especially since he'll only be using it for about a year and a half.

Exactly what GeForce4 card does he have? Maybe an ebay item like NVIDIA GeForce4 TI 4200 AGP Graphics Card would be a significant but inexpensive upgrade.

He's going to use it mainly for gaming, and since the cards discussed are so cheap today there is little reason for him not to get a more powerful card than a GeForce4 (which he's already using, although I'm not sure exactly which version!).

 

[Summitdrinker]

somebody else give this person some advise, lets hear it

 

[RussianSensation]

Cards below 7950GT and X1950XT don't really benefit from 512mb of ram so no need to worry about that.

 

[Mortac]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
Cards below 7950GT and X1950XT don't really benefit from 512mb of ram so no need to worry about that.

Ok if you say so. But if there are no disadvantages, I still don't really a reason not to get 512MB since there seems to be only a $10-20 difference or so (where I shop from), which is nothing. There must be SOME advantage from that memory at some point?

I will trust Happy Medium that the PSU is enough and go recommend him the 7600GT in the weekend. Like I said though, please stop me if you think it isn't going to work. While I fully respect his opinion, it's still only one person's opinion and that's why I'm still asking for more comments.

 

[betasub]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
Cards below 7950GT and X1950XT don't really benefit from 512mb of ram so no need to worry about that.

True. Low and mid-range cards that carry 512MB vRAM are a marketing gimick (a bigger number on the box = bigger sales). No only is the extra memory on the card unlikely to be useful (gaming will have already slowed to a crawl at the ultra-resolutions that require >256MB), but board-makers often use slower memory to keep the cost down. If you're going for a 512MB card that doesn't cost much more than the 256MB card, make sure you know the vRAM speed for each card.

 

[Mortac]

Originally posted by: betasub

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
Cards below 7950GT and X1950XT don't really benefit from 512mb of ram so no need to worry about that.

True. Low and mid-range cards that carry 512MB vRAM are a marketing gimick (a bigger number on the box = bigger sales). No only is the extra memory on the card unlikely to be useful (gaming will have already slowed to a crawl at the ultra-resolutions that require >256MB), but board-makers often use slower memory to keep the cost down. If you're going for a 512MB card that doesn't cost much more than the 256MB card, make sure you know the vRAM speed for each card.

Thank you for that great explanation! I will keep that in mind.