What's the difference between these AGP cards?

[shlemielo]

In hopes of giving my old rig a couple more years of life, I'm looking to replace my Geforce 3 (my 9700pro died) with something like a 2600XT. It needs to be AGP, obviously. I found these three on Newegg, but I can't really figure out what the difference between them is besides the heatsinks...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814161208

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102718

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814161207
(why is this one so much more expensive?)

I don't really want to drop 199 on a video card, so if the other two are basically the same thing, I'm going to go with one of those. I'm a little wary of the bad ratings though.

I'm running a 3200+ socket 754, 2 gigs of RAM. Is my CPU too slow to use one of these cards fully? Would I be better off getting a 7600GS? I'm planning on doing some medium gaming, mostly Half-Life 2 and Starcraft 2 when it is released. Thoughts?

 

[qbfx]

There's absolutely NO point in paying $190 for a 2600XT ... They stuck this big p-o-s on it to be commercially more attractive. Get one of the other two.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

the sapphire one looks to be a good deal.

 

[Belles Toaster]

The 2600xt is on its way to liquidation heaven. Too bad there were some after X-mas deals notably a Visiontek 512mb ddr3 for $99. Cdn.@ FS and a 256mb Diamond ddr3 for $67. Cdn after rebate. The price scale is over crowded with too many versions (generations) in the $100-$200 price bracket. There are new AGP 3850 coming on the scene shortly this should clear up the insanity and backlong of unsold cards when price cuts reflect reality.

 

[ManWithNoName]

As the Inspector said, the Sapphire would be the way to go if you want one of these cards. Expect perfromance level to be around the same as the X1650GT and the EVGA 7600GT GDD2 based card. As far as the difference between the cards you selected goes, it seems they're only seperated by Cooler and Clock rates. The HIS Cooler is nice, but I don't think it's worth the price premium.

As far as the HD3850 goes, it will likely sell for $200-$250 when it appears. This will be the fastest card available and will eat the the 2600XT for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It all depends on how much you want to spend.

 

[shlemielo]

I went with the HIS 2600XT because it was slightly cheaper after rebate and also because the 9700pro that died on me was a Sapphire. Not saying they're an unreliable company, but y'know.

 

[Ashen Shugar]

I was in a similar situation and ordered the HIS version last week... it's pretty much the same price as the Sapphire after rebate. The main reason I preferred this one is that it has 2 DVI ports and has a HDMI adapter included which the Sapphire doesn't.