Best new AGP graphics card

caspol

Hi all, my venerable Radeon 9700pro is on its last legs - artifacts at start-up, random crashes due to card, etc. - so I think I am looking at a new card. I am not in a position to upgrade to PCI-E yet as I have a small-form factor PC that requires complete replacement. Any recommendations for the best replacement for this in terms of price/performance considering I do need it to play the odd game of HL2, COD2 and other games? Any help appreciated, thanks

wolfman

You should be able to pick up something like a GeForce 6800GT (AGP version) for a reasonable price.

I got mine (before giving it to my brother recently) about a year and a bit ago, and it cost me £165. It can easily handle HL2, Far Cry, COD2, Battlefield 2 etc... although may struggle with the newer games due out. Actually struggle is the wrong word, it can probably handle them, although you'll need to start dropping some of the graphical settings down a bit.

MercilessKiller

hmmm wouldnt quite recommend the GT version. If anything the Nvidia 7 series at the same type of price would prob be better due to updated hardware... the 6 series is getting rather old so the 7 series at a similar price will last longer

You get what you pay for though... If you go out and buy dual pci-e SLI cards, it may cost you over £500 but it;ll be the best around.

Or you can get a good Nvida 7xxx (higher range ones) for around £200 to £250 and it will last you a long time as well... the longer time goes on the lower settings you;d have to put games etc...

I would personally wait a while though as DX10 is soon to make a big release with the next version of unreal tournament (february ish).. once that happens tehre will prob be many hardware changes thus you dont want your card to become redundant too quick if your spending over £200

HTH

nickmack

The best Nvidia AGP card you can get is the GeForce 7800 GS.

It's the only 7 series that's available in AGP.

wolfman

Ah cool, ok. Yeah then one of the 7 series would be better. I'm not really up on the newer GeForce cards, wasn't sure if they still came in an AGP version.

caspol

Thanks for all your replies. I was hoping to spend less than £100 if at all possible as now reduced to living on a student income!! I'm surprised no one has mentioned ATI cards at all, as I usually tend to go for them??

wolfman

Lol, ok, maybe have a look on eBay for "AGP 6800GT". You should be able to pick one up for under £100.

In that kind of range nVidia are generally the card of choice. I'm currently on an ATI, but things are different in the £200-300 range.

Lorian

My 9800pro died last week. I replaced it with a saphire X800GtO, being one of the cheaper "reasoable performance" AGP cards available. It was £108.

My 3dmark05 score went up from 2600 with the 9800pro to 4700 with the X800GTO.

The other thing to watch is power supply requirements. Some other cards make much bigger demands on your power supply. The X800GTO only uses 1w more power than the 9800pro.

MercilessKiller

caspol wrote:

Thanks for all your replies. I was hoping to spend less than £100 if at all possible as now reduced to living on a student income!! I'm surprised no one has mentioned ATI cards at all, as I usually tend to go for them??

Avoid ATI

At the moment Nvidia are slaughetring them hardware wise Get what you pay for really...

Wolfman's right.. ebay 6800GT... make sure its an ebay shop and u have some warranty