upgrade older system with somewhat newer videocard

[sonoma1993]

Few years ago, i built my stepbrother a computer just using some spare parts I had lying around the house. It has an AMD Athlon 3800 X2, MSI K8N Neo2 Nforce3 motherboard and 2GB of ram. It has an ATI 9800 non-pro AGP 8X videocard

My stepbrother wants to update the videocard so he can play some newer games on his pc. he a 12 years old. I found a sapphire 3850 512MB AGP on newegg that would be a nice upgrade for his computer. But my dad doesnt want to spend $90 for the videocard. His budget is somewhere around $50-$60. Any suggestions on what videocard to get that'll perform a little bit better or just as well as this anicent ATI 9800 non-pro videocard?

Oh and the monitor is an 17in CRT, i think the resolution on it currently set at 1024x768

 

[heat901]

I would say... save your money and wait till you build him a newer computer with more random parts laying around .

 

[jvroig]

At that low a resolution, you can do pretty well with a 4670. If you can't get it within your budget, go for the 4650.

EDIT: Whoops, didn't notice you were stuck with AGP. Too bad, no luck there.

 

[Keysplayr]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102814

This will be about the best you can do for that price range.
ATI 3650 512MB GDDR2 128 bit.
There are cheaper cards, but I don't really know how much of an improvement they'd be over a Radeon 9800.

These days, AGP cards carry a premium. An equivalent PCI-e card can be had MUCH cheaper.

You might try the FS/FT forum here, or eBay to try to find a used 3850 or better for around your price range.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Is this Socket 939? Get a new mobo from 3btech.net for $40, and then you can drop in any PCI-E video card you want.

Edit: Nevermind, I just checked 3btech.net, and they're all sold out of 939 mobos. That was quick.

 

[Keysplayr]

Is this Socket 939? Get a new mobo from 3btech.com for $40, and then you can drop in any PCI-E video card you want.

That leaves him about 10 to 20 bucks for a vid card if he has to stick to his budget.