New AGP card - Worth bothering?

[Geoff]

As part of my struggle to work out which monitor to buy (wide or not),
I'm going to be faced with buying a new graphics card in the near future
(apparently my current ATI 9000 Pro will drive a widescreen monitor but
not very well in 3D). I realised yesterday that the latest thing is
PCI-E, but I only have AGP. So I have 2 questions.

1) If I was to buy a fairly cheap AGP graphics card (like one in the ATI
MX1300 range), would it be adequate for 'so so' gaming (mainly Flight
Sims) on a 1440x900 or 1680x1050 monitor? I'm not looking for top frame
rates but it needs to be at least a LOT better than my 9000 Pro. If it
was as good or better than my 9000 Pro is on my current 1024x768
monitor, that would be fine.

2) Is it even worth getting an AGP card? Should I struggle without much
3D capability for now until I can afford a new mobo and PCI-E card?
(could be a while to wait!).

Thanks,
Geoff.

 

[Clint]

Perhaps find someone who's doing the PCI-E upgrade, and is dropping their
9800Pro or XT. I just did that upgrade, and got rid of my card for $90
(Canadian). I was happy, and I think the other guy was too. He didn't
dicker on the price, anyway.

Clint

 

[Geoff]

Perhaps find someone who's doing the PCI-E upgrade, and is dropping their
9800Pro or XT. I just did that upgrade, and got rid of my card for $90
(Canadian). I was happy, and I think the other guy was too. He didn't
dicker on the price, anyway.

Clint

Hmmm...Not a bad idea. I guess I'd have to use ebay for that. I did buy
a used card on ebay once before from someone who obviously hadn't heard
of taking anti-static precautions! I will have a look around Ebay
and see what there is. Ta for that.

 

[Gordon Scott]

As part of my struggle to work out which monitor to buy (wide or not),
I'm going to be faced with buying a new graphics card in the near future
(apparently my current ATI 9000 Pro will drive a widescreen monitor but
not very well in 3D). I realised yesterday that the latest thing is
PCI-E, but I only have AGP. So I have 2 questions.

1) If I was to buy a fairly cheap AGP graphics card (like one in the ATI
MX1300 range), would it be adequate for 'so so' gaming (mainly Flight
Sims) on a 1440x900 or 1680x1050 monitor? I'm not looking for top frame
rates but it needs to be at least a LOT better than my 9000 Pro. If it
was as good or better than my 9000 Pro is on my current 1024x768
monitor, that would be fine.

2) Is it even worth getting an AGP card? Should I struggle without much
3D capability for now until I can afford a new mobo and PCI-E card?
(could be a while to wait!).

Thanks,
Geoff.

I'd get a 9800 pro for $100 and wait till your forced into pci-e next.

 

[Barry Watzman]

Do not buy a new AGP video card at this point. It is a waste of money.
Your next motherboard will use PCI-Express. AGP is essentially dead.

 

[Tod]

You can get a used 9800 PRO 128MB off EBay starting around $70
Or ordered a new X1600 256MB AGP for about $125

 

[Travis King]

I have an X1600 PRO with 256MB GDDR2 RAM (AGP 8x). Mine's manufactured by
Sapphire. It's a pretty good card. Bought it also for $125 on newegg.com.
There's not a big difference between AGP 8x and PCI-E x16 yet IMHO. The
X1600 PRO is also future-proof for pixel shaders and such. It does require
a 350-watt PSU though. Worked okay on my 400-watt PSU, but that PSU had
some issues such as me getting shocked whenever I would touch my computer's
chassis. Got a new 430-watt ThermalTake PSU and haven't been zapped since.

Specs:
Asus K8N (socket 754) motherboard
AMD Sempron 64 2800+ OC'd to 2GHz (250FSB)
768MB of RAM
Ati Radeon X1600 PRO AGP 8x 256MB GDDR2
Creative Audigy soundcard
Thermaltake 430-watt PSU (20/24 pin main connector)
WD 80GB IDE HD 2MB cache
WD 120GB IDE HD 8MB cache
Lite On DVD Drive (16x)
Memorex 52x32x52 CD-RW drive
3 1/2" floppy drive
Aspire X-Infinity case (black)
3 case fans

 

[Tod]

At newegg the sapphire X1600 cards have not had as many good reviews as
other brands.
I paid a few extra dollars and got the HIS brand, it is $125 with a $15
rebate.

 

[AAvK]

At newegg the sapphire X1600 cards have not had as many good reviews as
other brands.
I paid a few extra dollars and got the HIS brand, it is $125 with a $15
rebate.

That one is a good choice, two full games came with it, right? And a nice large cooler on
it. It's a good deal. My po' neighbor is borrowing my old Ti4600 (4 pixel pipelines) so
he can play doom3, he needs to buy that card.