Hey guys. Just wanted to say this is a hot forum! I need some help on picking a video card. I currently have an ATI all in wonder 7500 card but it uses the agp pro interface (the one with 3 connectors). I am in the process of getting parts for a new system I'm gonna put together. I am looking as the asus A8V Deluxe wireless edition or the msi K8N Neo2 Platinum, both are socket 939 boards. I am going to put in 512 megs of ddr ram and use an amd64 3500 cpu. I think both of the motherboards I am looking at do not support agp pro but just the regular agp. Thus, I will have to end up buying a new video card. I think I will get an ati pci tv tuner card and just get a seperate agp graphics card. I want to be able to play dvd movies and have some pretty good gaming performance. I am not hardcore gamer yet, but kinda getting into gaming becuase of my friends. I don't really wanna spend an outrageous amount of money or a video card, since there is always a new model coming out. I will be using this PC for a variety of things, not just strictly gaming. Does anyone have suggestions on what kind of video card I should get that would be compatible with the mobo/cpu I picked. Thanks so much in advance. Any advice would be appreciated.
Suggestions on an AGP Video Card
- Thread starter skadoo323
- Start date
GullyFoyle
Diamond Member
- Dec 13, 2000
- 4,362
- 11
- 81
Not that you can't get an answer here, but there's a Video forum where guys hang out just waiting for this kind of question...
well i wanted to keep a budget of $80 for the tv tuner, and maybe around $150 maybe $250 max for the video card. Yeah I noticed the video forum but wasn;t sure how to get the thread moved over. Well I havent really played any new games recently on PC at all. My friend is really into them and I'm trying to get back into it as well. Thanks.
GullyFoyle
Diamond Member
- Dec 13, 2000
- 4,362
- 11
- 81
ATI Tuners that are not All-In-Wonders do not have a good reputation.
What does a have a good reputation as a tuner card, is the Leadtek WinFast TV2000 XP Deluxe. Only $44 shipped from Newegg.
With the rest of your money, stretch your budget a little and get a ATI 9800Pro card. Or, if you're not willing to stretch that far, an Nvidia FX 5900XT.
What does a have a good reputation as a tuner card, is the Leadtek WinFast TV2000 XP Deluxe. Only $44 shipped from Newegg.
With the rest of your money, stretch your budget a little and get a ATI 9800Pro card. Or, if you're not willing to stretch that far, an Nvidia FX 5900XT.
dandeighan, thanks for the info! i checked out the leadtek tv tuner and i think i may jump on that deal. i saw an msi 9800 pro agp video card for $193, any thoughts on that video card or any other video card suggestions? thanks again everyone.
Schadenfroh
Elite Member
- Mar 8, 2003
- 38,416
- 4
- 0
SneakyStuff
Diamond Member
- Jan 13, 2004
- 4,294
- 0
- 76
I hear that stuff goes for $50 to $75 dollars!
One day of light-headedness = many months of video card bliss (But the 9800 Pro is a fine choice if that's "not your bag")
RussianSensation
Elite Member
- Sep 5, 2003
- 19,458
- 765
- 126
I thought some of these suggestions could prove to be useful if you didnt order the components yet...
CPU
I would first suggest getting Athlon 64 3400+ 2.4ghz 512kb socket 754 cpu instead for $288
This cpu will be actually faster than the 3500+ which is only clocked at 2.2ghz and features the same 512kb cache but duel channel supposedly adds the increase in the speed rating. Of course in reality this only amounts to 3-4% maximum. Now going from 2.2 to 2.4 already gives you 9% increase and office apps as well as gaming respond better to increased mhz speed. Bottom line: Faster performance at almost $100 less than 3500+ Since this chip comes at 2.4ghz, it should have more overclocking room as well if you need it.
MOTHERBOARD
This would imply going with a 754 socket motherboard, which are again cheaper.
Something for $80-100 should fit the bill. Motherboard Roundup (socket 754)
If you dont need all the bells and whistles, Chaintech VNF3-250 board has everything from SATA, to 100LAN, and onboard audio, except firewire. It only costs $75 and is an excellent board. This would save you another $50 on your motherboard purchase. Socket 754 and socket 939 boards both have the excellent nforce 3 250 chipset with a working agp/pci lock and perform identically besides the dual channel difference.
RAM
Since latency is not really important for A64, got with cheap PC3200 ram unless you intend to overclock (then go with PC3500 or higher). I recommend getting 1 gig. Maybe something like Corsair Value 512mb PC3200 C2.5-3-3-8 - $79 x 2
This should save you more $$$ on more expensive RAM. You shouldn't get 512mb in 2 sticks of 256 now because then if you have to get 512 more you will use up both channels and have to use 2T memory timings, which have about 2-9% additional performance loss for a dual channel A64 (so you'll actually be even more slower than by going with 1 gig socket 754 platform) This is a minor issue if you are gonna get 1gig in the first place if you went with socket 939 however.
VIDEOCARD
Isnt AGP Pro another way of saying AGP 8x? Maybe I am wrong but it sounds like a marketing gimmick to sell AGP 8x boards back in the days claiming they are 2x as fast as agp 4x.
Anyways since you'd save at least $150 by going with socket 754, buyign a better videocard shouldn't be as hard on the wallet. I think you should get something DX9 compliant at least, so at least you could upgrade to Longhorn operating system in 2006/7 which will require DX9 videocard. I am not sure if you want AIW again or not but 5900xt is a good recommendation. However ATI cards are much faster in PS2.0 and are better with AA/AF enabled than the 5xxx series. This 9700 is $150, for 10% faster speed you can get 9700Pro for $173 and for an additional 10-15% performance you can get MSI 9800Pro $193, which can be flashed into a 9800xt card (or overclocked). If you want AIW package, 9700AIW is $199.
9700/9700pro/9800pro/5900xt review - this is an old review but somewhat useful.
Fastest Cards of Summer 2004 - this is a more extensive, recent review (you can gauge the performance of the 9700Pro cards by looking at - 10-12% of 9800Pro's performance.
Bottom Line: I'd probably get 9700 card for $150 since you even said you dont care much about gaming performance and that card will last a long time. If you are gonna spend near $200, get 6800 like others said (ie. EVGA for $285 which comes with a copy of Far Cry)
NOTE: The reason why I think socket 754 is better is because 939 dual channel barely gives any performance advantage while being priced a lot less favourably. Since right now A64 doesnt support PCIe for videocards, chances are that next time you upgrade you'll have to replace the motherboard. Besides even if you dont ugrade the videocard by then, most likely with a new cpu you'll get a new motherboard. But that's my opinion...
CPU
I would first suggest getting Athlon 64 3400+ 2.4ghz 512kb socket 754 cpu instead for $288
This cpu will be actually faster than the 3500+ which is only clocked at 2.2ghz and features the same 512kb cache but duel channel supposedly adds the increase in the speed rating. Of course in reality this only amounts to 3-4% maximum. Now going from 2.2 to 2.4 already gives you 9% increase and office apps as well as gaming respond better to increased mhz speed. Bottom line: Faster performance at almost $100 less than 3500+ Since this chip comes at 2.4ghz, it should have more overclocking room as well if you need it.
MOTHERBOARD
This would imply going with a 754 socket motherboard, which are again cheaper.
Something for $80-100 should fit the bill. Motherboard Roundup (socket 754)
If you dont need all the bells and whistles, Chaintech VNF3-250 board has everything from SATA, to 100LAN, and onboard audio, except firewire. It only costs $75 and is an excellent board. This would save you another $50 on your motherboard purchase. Socket 754 and socket 939 boards both have the excellent nforce 3 250 chipset with a working agp/pci lock and perform identically besides the dual channel difference.
RAM
Since latency is not really important for A64, got with cheap PC3200 ram unless you intend to overclock (then go with PC3500 or higher). I recommend getting 1 gig. Maybe something like Corsair Value 512mb PC3200 C2.5-3-3-8 - $79 x 2
This should save you more $$$ on more expensive RAM. You shouldn't get 512mb in 2 sticks of 256 now because then if you have to get 512 more you will use up both channels and have to use 2T memory timings, which have about 2-9% additional performance loss for a dual channel A64 (so you'll actually be even more slower than by going with 1 gig socket 754 platform) This is a minor issue if you are gonna get 1gig in the first place if you went with socket 939 however.
VIDEOCARD
Isnt AGP Pro another way of saying AGP 8x? Maybe I am wrong but it sounds like a marketing gimmick to sell AGP 8x boards back in the days claiming they are 2x as fast as agp 4x.
Anyways since you'd save at least $150 by going with socket 754, buyign a better videocard shouldn't be as hard on the wallet. I think you should get something DX9 compliant at least, so at least you could upgrade to Longhorn operating system in 2006/7 which will require DX9 videocard. I am not sure if you want AIW again or not but 5900xt is a good recommendation. However ATI cards are much faster in PS2.0 and are better with AA/AF enabled than the 5xxx series. This 9700 is $150, for 10% faster speed you can get 9700Pro for $173 and for an additional 10-15% performance you can get MSI 9800Pro $193, which can be flashed into a 9800xt card (or overclocked). If you want AIW package, 9700AIW is $199.
9700/9700pro/9800pro/5900xt review - this is an old review but somewhat useful.
Fastest Cards of Summer 2004 - this is a more extensive, recent review (you can gauge the performance of the 9700Pro cards by looking at - 10-12% of 9800Pro's performance.
Bottom Line: I'd probably get 9700 card for $150 since you even said you dont care much about gaming performance and that card will last a long time. If you are gonna spend near $200, get 6800 like others said (ie. EVGA for $285 which comes with a copy of Far Cry)
NOTE: The reason why I think socket 754 is better is because 939 dual channel barely gives any performance advantage while being priced a lot less favourably. Since right now A64 doesnt support PCIe for videocards, chances are that next time you upgrade you'll have to replace the motherboard. Besides even if you dont ugrade the videocard by then, most likely with a new cpu you'll get a new motherboard. But that's my opinion...
TRENDING THREADS
-
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)- Started by DisEnchantment
- Replies: 24K
-
Discussion Intel Meteor, Arrow, Lunar & Panther Lakes Discussion Threads
- Started by Tigerick
- Replies: 19K
-
Discussion Intel current and future Lakes & Rapids thread- Started by TheF34RChannel
- Replies: 23K
-
-
Facebook
Twitter