New cards worth it in a 4x agp system?

[Citadel535]

I have a 3.2ghz Pentium 4, 1GB ram, and an agp 4x slot. I am looking at getting a new video card but was wondering would something like a geforce 6200/6600 would even be worth getting since my agp bus is the bottleneck?

I am currently looking at a:

CHAINTECH Geforce 6600 256MB 128-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card
http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814145112

Or am I better off getting just a decent, last generation 4x agp card?

Thanks!

 

[Schadenfroh]

a 6600 (non ultra) should not come anywhere near saturating the 4X agp bus.

 

[BobDaMenkey]

Cards haven't really maxed out the 4x AGP bus yet. There might be a 1 or 2% performance difference on the highest cards at the highest settings from it. It's really not going to hinder you as much as chip makers would like to make you think.

Go get yourself a 6600GT, it will be a great upgrade for your computer and won't max out the bus.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Considering that the 8x AGP specification is nothing more than a marketing gimmic, you'll be fine with 4x.

 

[Doctorweir]

Copy that...4x is more than sufficient (also from my 16x standpoint )...but consider upping your budget a bit and get a 6600GT with 128mb

 

[Citadel535]

I was actually just going to get a 6200, the 6600 is me upping my budget

 

[ScrewFace]

Originally posted by: Citadel535
I was actually just going to get a 6200, the 6600 is me upping my budget

I guess you're not a gamer. A 6200 isn't going to run any of the good games like STALKER, Doom3, FarCry, and Half-life2.

I scrimp on almost anything when I build my computers but 1 thing I don't scrimp on is the videocard as it's the most important part in your computer.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

What card would you need for Halflife2 if you were a cheapskate and only wanted to play at 600 x 800 without AA and AF?

Would a Radeon 9550 cut it? How about a Radeon 9600 XT or a Geforce 6200?

 

[keeleysam]

A 9550 and 9600XT shoudl cut it, but a 6200 WON'T. I would get an MSI 6600GT AGP. It's like 190 bucks @ newegg.

 

[Citadel535]

Originally posted by: ScrewFace

Originally posted by: Citadel535A 6200 isn't going to run any of the good games like STALKER, Doom3, FarCry, and Half-life2.

My fx5600 that died ran them just fine. I cannot see why the 6600 I ordered wouldn't run them.

 

[imported_douglas]

keeleysam,
Are you saying that the GeForce 6200 is slower than the Radeon 9600? I didn't think that was the case.

To the original poster it seems that for the AGP versions of the cards, the 6600 doesn't cost much more than the 6200. The pricing is quite different than for the PCI-E versions, not sure why.

 

[jonesthewine]

I bought the same card a month or so ago, put in it the computer in the family room (Barton XP at 2.2GHZ, A7N8X-X and a gig of Corsair Value Select RAM) and it runs far Cry like a champ at 12 x 10, medium detail everything but water, which is high detail. Ditto HL2, runs sweet and smooth at 12 x 10, with lots of eye candy. You can get the core to 450 MHz no prob, but the memory has no headroom to OC.

 

[frx218]

I would get a 9800 pro or a 6600 GT

Save up get one

 

[keeleysam]

Originally posted by: douglas
keeleysam,
Are you saying that the GeForce 6200 is slower than the Radeon 9600? I didn't think that was the case.

To the original poster it seems that for the AGP versions of the cards, the 6600 doesn't cost much more than the 6200. The pricing is quite different than for the PCI-E versions, not sure why.

The 6200 (either version) is a peice fo crap. I wouldn't take one if you paid me. It's like a Geforce2 MX 400 with shoddy DX9 support.

 

[OnEMoReTrY]

Heck even my 9200se plays HL2 at 1024x768 everything lowest pretty well...

 

[bcoupland]

Originally posted by: keeleysam

Originally posted by: douglas
keeleysam,
Are you saying that the GeForce 6200 is slower than the Radeon 9600? I didn't think that was the case.

To the original poster it seems that for the AGP versions of the cards, the 6600 doesn't cost much more than the 6200. The pricing is quite different than for the PCI-E versions, not sure why.

The 6200 (either version) is a peice fo crap. I wouldn't take one if you paid me. It's like a Geforce2 MX 400 with shoddy DX9 support.

actually, the 6200 series is based on the NV40 architecture and a non-turbocache 6200 should perform about as well as a 9600XT, maybe not as well in HL2. It's a capable budget card. Even the turbocache ones don't perform that bad.