Recommend me a dependable 512mb AGP card

[WHAMPOM]

Gigabyte P4 Titan, 2.8 cpu, 1GB mem, 4x-8x AGP, 200g drive, XP Pro.

I have a new Samsung 244t LCD {Samsung 24"LCD & Viewsonic 20" LCD to replace 21" CRT}I want to use in a dual monitor setup. The cards I have researched seem to have a lot of driver, heat, and incompatible chip problems.

Give me some good cards to check out.
{I havn't researched video cards since AGP came out, not much of a gamer}

{edits}{better late then never}

 

[Lithan]

If you plan to game, you might as well slot $350 minimum and upgrade your whole rig. It's a waste of money to try and turn a 478 rig into a gaming machine these days. If you just want a dual DVI card, I'd look at that low end 6xxx and 7xxx series nvidias or ati's equivelent. Just make sure it supports dual monitor.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Hd 3850 or HD 2600, YMMV with all AGP cards.

 

[Lithan]

yeah HD3850, but it costs $250... You could buy a bottom of the barrel 775 rig for that and get better performance. ~$50 cpu, ~$30 mem, ~$25 psu (earthwatts 380 ~ this price atm I think), ~$60 Mobo (The ip35 was here last week), That's $165, leaves you $85 for gfx, and if you're willing to drop another $30 into that, you'll have much better performance than the agp rig would have ever given ya.

ATI REAAAAAALY needs to drop the price on that card <$175.

edit: NM, price is down to $190, that's more reasonable.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102730

 

[webada]

Since you didn't mention the purpose of your new rig, I'm going to assume you won't be gaming much with a P4. I would recommend ATI HD2600 Pro or XT, they will run much better than 6xxx or 7xxx with HD decode.

Its hard to find AGP cards now these days... I was able to locate a 2600XT 512mb AGP for $45 at bestbuy (local store only) and 2600 Pro for $25 if you can find them.

There is a massive thread going on in fat wallet about it. Some with success some without.


EDIT: forgot to mention the brand is VisionTek. Solid from all i've read, the fan is pretty stand, loud. Some had troubles installing the AGP drivers, I didn't. Use the 8.3 from VisionTek website and running win xp sp2. MB is ASUS P4s533

 

[webada]

Originally posted by: Lithan
yeah HD3850, but it costs $250... You could buy a bottom of the barrel 775 rig for that and get better performance. ~$50 cpu, ~$30 mem, ~$25 psu (earthwatts 380 ~ this price atm I think), ~$60 Mobo (The ip35 was here last week), That's $165, leaves you $85 for gfx, and if you're willing to drop another $30 into that, you'll have much better performance than the agp rig would have ever given ya.

ATI REAAAAAALY needs to drop the price on that card <$175.

edit: NM, price is down to $190, that's more reasonable.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102730

exactly my train of thoughts on my P4 machines (shifting to HTPC) until I found the bestbuy deal.

 

[WHAMPOM]

Hay! Thanks for the feedback, I will check out the cards you recc'm'ed.

 

[Auric]

Originally posted by: webada
Since you didn't mention the purpose of your new rig, I'm going to assume you won't be gaming much with a P4. I would recommend ATI HD2600 Pro or XT, they will run much better than 6xxx or 7xxx with HD decode.

Its hard to find AGP cards now these days... I was able to locate a 2600XT 512mb AGP for $45 at bestbuy (local store only) and 2600 Pro for $25 if you can find them.

There is a massive thread going on in fat wallet about it. Some with success some without.


EDIT: forgot to mention the brand is VisionTek. Solid from all i've read, the fan is pretty stand, loud. Some had troubles installing the AGP drivers, I didn't. Use the 8.3 from VisionTek website and running win xp sp2. MB is ASUS P4s533

I got a VisionTek HD2600 Pro 256MB AGP six months ago and have been very pleased -the HD decode performance and quality are excellent.

As to drivers, the only caveat is not to bother trying to install the main Catalyst package as-is upon release. It can be modifed to install or else we can wait for the AGP hotfix to be released shortly afterwards as has been the practice or ditto the package from VisionTek (or other AIB) instead.

There are a few niggly registry edits necessary to enable DXVA on a secondary display, allow full resolution from HD disc, and optionally expand SD colour levels to match those of HD.

I did find the fan noisy too so slowed it down with a hardware controller however a subsquent release of RivaTuner appears to allow software control so you may want to check that or perhaps better yet the latest ATI Tray Tools or ATI Tool.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: Lithan
yeah HD3850, but it costs $250... You could buy a bottom of the barrel 775 rig for that and get better performance. ~$50 cpu, ~$30 mem, ~$25 psu (earthwatts 380 ~ this price atm I think), ~$60 Mobo (The ip35 was here last week), That's $165, leaves you $85 for gfx, and if you're willing to drop another $30 into that, you'll have much better performance than the agp rig would have ever given ya.

ATI REAAAAAALY needs to drop the price on that card <$175.

edit: NM, price is down to $190, that's more reasonable.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102730

Lithan, while it's true AMD could reduce the price of the AGP 3850, why "should" they?
They have the top performing AGP card bar none. They can charge what they want.

And secondly, why tell this OP to go for a "garbage bin" upgrade? The cheapest components one could find? Who would want that? At lease tell the OP to hold off a bit, save some more cash, and do it right.

Also, the AGP 3850 can be had for 189.99 without rebate and 7.00 shipping here.

 

[ManWithNoName]

If you do not wish to upgrade to PCI-E and are into gaming, then your best choice is the HD 3850 for $190. Fastest AGP card on the planet at a decent price and it will be able to drive that 24" LCD no problem. The X1950 Pro and 7950GT were the last great AGP cards and it took forever for them to drop to this price point. As far as driver issues go you can use any of the curent ATI driver sets by doing a manual install of the driver, no big deal really and then use something like Rivatuner or ATI Tray Tools in place of the Catalyst Control Center. If you are looking for only a HTPC setup then the 2600XT as others have suggested.

Good luck

 

[evolucion8]

Don't forget the X1950XT

 

[sutahz]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

And secondly, why tell this OP to go for a "garbage bin" upgrade? The cheapest components one could find? Who would want that? At lease tell the OP to hold off a bit, save some more cash, and do it right.

Whats wrong with the components he suggested? It's an Intel processor (not a Kroger or Vons brand.. not that they make cpu's), an Abit mobo. Im sure the Antec PSU is good enough, not some off brand like DragonPower or something. As for ram, there is brand name 2x1GB kits for $35 or so........ Nothing is "garbage bin".

As WHAMPOM replied "Hay! Thanks for the feedback, I will check out the cards you recc'm'ed" I assume he's not after gaming and the $25 2600Pro is right up his ally.
Some assume he's after HTPC, some assume he wants to game. Without direct feedback from WHAMPOM we may never know.

 

[Lithan]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: Lithan
yeah HD3850, but it costs $250... You could buy a bottom of the barrel 775 rig for that and get better performance. ~$50 cpu, ~$30 mem, ~$25 psu (earthwatts 380 ~ this price atm I think), ~$60 Mobo (The ip35 was here last week), That's $165, leaves you $85 for gfx, and if you're willing to drop another $30 into that, you'll have much better performance than the agp rig would have ever given ya.

ATI REAAAAAALY needs to drop the price on that card <$175.

edit: NM, price is down to $190, that's more reasonable.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102730

Lithan, while it's true AMD could reduce the price of the AGP 3850, why "should" they?
They have the top performing AGP card bar none. They can charge what they want.

And secondly, why tell this OP to go for a "garbage bin" upgrade? The cheapest components one could find? Who would want that? At lease tell the OP to hold off a bit, save some more cash, and do it right.

Also, the AGP 3850 can be had for 189.99 without rebate and 7.00 shipping here.

By bottom of the barrel I mean quality components without extra/modern features. Not junk... You'll notice I was pricing antec psu and abit mobo. Not noname crap. And the reason I'd recommend it is that for just barely above the cost of the gfx upgrade, he'd get a whole system upgrade that will be MUCH easier and cheaper to upgrade further in the future... and have a ridiculous performance advantage.

Basically, paying more than $150 for an agp card is damn silly these days. $197 isnt as bad as the $250 it was selling for 2 weeks ago, but it's still too much.

To break it down: (some deals expired, but this is an example)
380 earthwatts $25
Abit p35 $60
e2160 $70
2x2gb mushkin/corsair/etc ram $50
9600gt $110

Thats $120 more for a better gfx card, 4 times the ram, dual core, and a platform upgrade that may last another cpu and certainly will last another gfx upgrade.

I dont know many gamers who wouldn't consider that a worthwhile investment.

Now, if you dont want all the extra's shave $30 off the ram, $20 off the cpu, $10 off the mobo.

Hey it's only $60 more now, he's getting twice the ram, STILL a platform upgrade, still faster gfx, still faster proc (not dual core).

Now suppose he has a strong 12v on his current PSU... that's another $25 off and we're down to $35 difference for ram/cpu/platform/gfx upgrade.

Starting to see why a $200 agp card isn't a good buy?


Of course, if it is the fastest agp card to come out... idiots on ebay will probably pay $350+ for one a year or two down the road, so it's got that going for it.

 

[ManWithNoName]

Google Link discount on the Sapphire HD3850 AGP 512MB at EWiz.com.. If you do a direct search form the site, the card is priced at $181, using Google link....

$165.83 plus shipping

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php...6dd3bee75e8262e4c34813

I'm about to spread the word, so those interested should jump on it.

Edit: Sorry, too late. Price now raised to $179.

 

[Lithan]

That's a lot better. At that price I could see people buying it.

 

[chinaman1472]

Investing money into AGP is a terrible idea across the board. I'd have a hard time recommending any AGP card assuming you are ready to shell out $200, which would be the HD3850 512MB. At the $165 price tag it ain't too bad, but still a bit tough to recommend. Chances are if you're using AGP, the rest of your rig is pretty outdated and if you're gaming, it's much better do get a new system.

The 2600XT for $100 isn't too bad if you just need the computer to work though.

 

[krnmastersgt]

AGP is a dying breed indeed, also I thought someone mentioned that the 3850 is going to be bottlenecked by any pre-Core2 cpu? In any case, for the performance and price I'd say go with a 2600 or 1900XT.

 

[v8envy]

I bit the bullet and upgraded AGP->PCIe for no performance gain late in 2005. At the time the performance AGP cards carried a huge price premium because the PCIe boxes, while newer, had the same CPUs. And the graphics card makers knew it was hard to justify an entire platform switch just to get a different form factor graphics card slot.

I was glad to have done it for one reason -- I can *STILL* use the video card out of that box today, for testing or light HTPC work. The AGP card will be completely useless when your box finally gives up the ghost (which could be any second now). PCIe, not so much. Relying on e-bay is a gamble too. The number of people with AGP slots interested in high end gaming yet with enough money to pay a premium for your card while not having enough to upgrade the whole system is... small.

So $25 2600Pro or upgrade the whole box.

 

[Auric]

Let's not get crazy. There's nothing wrong with upgrading an AGP card to add features (including aforementioned decode), increase quality, and optionally increase 3D performance.

Chances are, those still using AGP systems value longevity so replacing the whole system with dead-end components such as PCIe 1.x and shortly even LGA775 could potentially be a mistake. Yes, new systems are cheap but time is not. If simply replacing a card can prolong useabilitiy or even give it a whole new life as an HTPC then bully, I say.

 

[ManWithNoName]

Originally posted by: Auric
Let's not get crazy. There's nothing wrong with upgrading an AGP card to add features (including aforementioned decode), increase quality, and optionally increase 3D performance.

Chances are, those still using AGP systems value longevity so replacing the whole system with dead-end components such as PCIe 1.x and shortly even LGA775 could potentially be a mistake. Yes, new systems are cheap but time is not. If simply replacing a card can prolong useabilitiy or even give it a whole new life as an HTPC then bully, I say.

Well said. There are still a ton of AGP systems out there that can make use of this card and I had one of those Rigs as of 9 months ago.

 

[evolucion8]

Originally posted by: chinaman1472
Investing money into AGP is a terrible idea across the board. I'd have a hard time recommending any AGP card assuming you are ready to shell out $200, which would be the HD3850 512MB. At the $165 price tag it ain't too bad, but still a bit tough to recommend. Chances are if you're using AGP, the rest of your rig is pretty outdated and if you're gaming, it's much better do get a new system.

The 2600XT for $100 isn't too bad if you just need the computer to work though.

Why? There's benchmarks around the web that shows that a Core 2 Duo running at stock 2.13GHz and above, shows very little performance gain in most scenarios, that even at 1.86GHz provides enough performance for gaming even though there's little CPU bottleneck. In simpler words, after 2.13GHz, the performance gains are minimal, most modern games are GPU limited, because today were not dealing only with geometry or Physics, we're dealing with heavy shader/texture loads that simply puts a nice load on the GPU.

CPU dependency in games is overrated, a nice Athlon X2 4200+ or more, Pentium M or an hybrid ASRock C2D mobo benefits of an AGP card like this, even people with lowly Pentium 4 at 2.8GHz got a nice performance boost coming from X1950PRO (The performance gains are gonna be less notable of course). The AGP market is getting smaller, but still there. I would be surprised if there's another faster card released in AGP though.

 

[WHAMPOM]

OK, I have read through your replies and found a new chaintech hd2600 with dual DVI ports/VGA adapter that should work out well. No I am not into gaming that requires a video card capable of Star Trek holo-deck quality, though the old favorites I still play would look great with the upgrade.
What i am replacing is a Viewsonic P810 crt and and the MS98 era card.

My power supply is 500 w. so power should not be a problem.

I will remove the old video drivers before installing the new card.

Anything else I should know?

 

[imported_wired247]

Originally posted by: Lithan
If you plan to game, you might as well slot $350 minimum and upgrade your whole rig. It's a waste of money to try and turn a 478 rig into a gaming machine these days. If you just want a dual DVI card, I'd look at that low end 6xxx and 7xxx series nvidias or ati's equivelent. Just make sure it supports dual monitor.

I agree. In fact that's what I did, but you can see my rig cost a little more than $350

 

[SpeedEng66]

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2176107&enterthread=y

165 for 3850 agp

 

[webada]

Yep, I got my 2600xt AGP connected to 1080p 46" LCD via DVI-HDMI cable. no problems there.

But, I agree with posters that says if you going to spend $200 on AGP card, then might as well get a new rig for a little more.

now if you spent $25-$50 for 2600PRO/XT, that's a different story.