Replacement for AGP Radeon 9800 Pro 256 <$100

[bobross419]

Hi folks,

I've been searching through the forum trying to figure out what a good replacement card for my old AGP ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB would be. My price range is <$100 (no way my girl will let me spend more than this, so don't even suggest it). I know there are already a number of posts regarding this same sort of thing, but frankly reading through them just got me really confused.

I don't know what my system specs are but the gist is AMD Athlon 1800+, 768 MB Ram, no clue what the mother board or PSU are... and I don't have time while I'm home to actually check them. Anyways, the 9800 ran great, if a little hot, for 2 or 3 years on this system before I started getting a nasty purple line running vertically down my screen. I would like to get another one, but they are still over $200 just about everywhere that I've seen. I might consider getting one used, but when I got the purple line I had done some research and it seemed to be a fairly common problem with these cards.

I don't play any really high end games, but it will be used mainly for playing games. Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries, Freelancer, Diablo, and Star Wars Galaxy at War (or whatever the RTS Star Wars game is called) are about the extent of what I'm looking at playing. Maybe Empire Earth II, but it was really taxing on the 9800 so I don't think I'll be able to play it anyways and don't have my hopes set on it. I'm not too concerned about running it at max resolution with max settings, but medium/medium would be nice for me.

I'm really sorry that I'm asking the same question that plenty of people have already asked, but when it comes to hardware (and video cards in particular) I just can't keep up.

I've seen some suggestions about the 7600GS and some other post where someone was selling a 9700 pro (I think) here on the boards. To be honest until I started researching it a little I never realized how hard it could be to decide on a card.

I appreciate your patience with another hardware noob, and thank you all in advance for any help/suggestions you can provide.

If any other information is needed please ask. I might be able to get the hardware specs, but lately my freetime at home has been pretty full

Thanks,
Bob

 

[swtethan]

7600GT

or maybe a used x1950pro if you can find one.

 

[bryanW1995]

or you can buy my used 9800 pro agp here: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...key=y&keyword1=x1950xt

that was probably me they were referring to btw.

 

[Rockhound1]

Since you are looking for a replacement for your 9800PRO, then you are looking for a card that still uses the AGP 4x/8x slot. That will be a limiting factor as far as bang for your buck. I also assume you are not running Windows Vista, so a DX10 capable card is not warranted.

In that price range (<$100), you are going to be limited to a 7600GS (nVidia) or a X1650PRO (AMD). You might be able to find a 7600GT if you look hard enough and are lucky.

 

[Stumps]

being severly CPU limited, going any higher than a 7600GS or X1650Pro would just be a waste of money and extreme overkill.