The current AGP situation - Availability and whats coming.....

Gibbo · 19 Jan 2006 at 13:28

Hi there

AGP is dead, all NVIDIA and ATI are doing is clearing out old stocks, its a good way of them doing so.

NVIDIA

6800 STD - These have now dried up, only a few left dotting about.
6800 GT - Again all dried up now, but OcUK have a few Leadtek models left.
6800 GS - Already drying up and great value, grab one whilst you can. (BFG, OCUK/POV and XFX still available from OcUK, be quick!!)
7800 GS - Due early February and will be approx £230 - £250 Inc. VAT. (BFG & XFX available on launch)

ATI

X800 GTO - Should start to see more availability soon.

(PowerColor in stock at OcUK)
X800 XL - Drying up now, OcUK has some HIS and Sapphire left but will run out soon.
X850 XT - Again nearly all gone now, OcUK has some X850 XT's still and lots more on the way.

X850 XT PE - All gone now, no more ever again.

So come February NVIDIA will have the best performing AGP part available with 7800 GS and those thinking that prices will drop, well think again, AGP cards are not been massed produced and availability grows poorer by the day so prices will hold steady or increase unless some amazing deals come along.

ZXSpectrum · 19 Jan 2006 at 13:45

its flipping ridiculous that the manufacturers have stopped producing AGP... Good on BFG &XFX for making a card that ppl with AGP motherboards can use... It makes upgrading the GFX card a little easier to swallow... Rather than GFX & Mobo...

Any idea on the performance of the 7800GS? I currently have a X800Pro at XT PE Speeds and get 5800 in 3DMark05... Will i see a nice jump? Where does it compare to GT & GTX? I presume its lower performing than a GT?

valve90210 · 19 Jan 2006 at 13:47

Any idea what the stock levels on the 7800 GS will be, ie will there be many available?? I'm looking to make a seriously overdue upgrade (from a Geforce FX5200...) and am very interested in this card.

Also, any idea what kind of power needs it'll have cos I need to upgrade my power supply too...

Ta muchly

Valve

Phil99 · 19 Jan 2006 at 13:57

Even though there's cards still available on AGP (6800GS & 7800GS) IMO the prices are far too high to be anywhere near worth buying.

£190 for a 6800GS...you can get a 7800GT on PCI-E for the same price
£230-£250 for a 7800GS? Having a laugh aren't they? You can get a 7800GT and PCI-E mobo for that!

I'm not blaming OcUK here specifically as I'm sure either the other e-tailers won't have any stock or be more expensive, but if anyone's upgrading from a 6 series card above the 6600GT there's really no choice but to go PCI-E

Gibbo · 19 Jan 2006 at 13:58

Hi there

Well OcUK is getting more and more exclusive day by day with BFG as you will find were the only company in Europe selling 6800 GS and it should be similar situation with 7800 GS as well.

OcUK has ample 6800 GS left as we have bought all remaining stock from XFX, BFG and POV plus we shall get upto 2000 units of 7800 GS to sell in February too so plenty to go round.

Most Etailors have given up selling AGP cards now but OcUK is still pushing for stock and deals constantly.

lemonkettaz · 19 Jan 2006 at 14:02

you lot should bring out a magazine.

Gibbo · 19 Jan 2006 at 14:03

Phil99 said:
Even though there's cards still available on AGP (6800GS & 7800GS) IMO the prices are far too high to be anywhere near worth buying.

£190 for a 6800GS...you can get a 7800GT on PCI-E for the same price
£230-£250 for a 7800GS? Having a laugh aren't they? You can get a 7800GT and PCI-E mobo for that!

I'm not blaming OcUK here specifically as I'm sure either the other e-tailers won't have any stock or be more expensive, but if anyone's upgrading from a 6 series card above the 6600GT there's really no choice but to go PCI-E

6800 GS are down to £170 now so getting better.

7800 GS will start life at £220 - £250 and who knows it might get to around £200 ish mark, just depends on how easily available product is......

Tooks · 19 Jan 2006 at 15:12

Well, as long as there's a market out there, then it would be strange if companies didn't try to exploit it.

I for one will be buying a 7800GS.

Reason? Well, I've got a socket 478 3.2ghz P4 and a decent motherboard although it's Micro ATX format! So, for me, going PCIE would mean a new board, a new processor, a new case, and ideally DDR2 memory. I've also modded my case, and I don't fancy going through all that again!

Now, replacing my existing kit for similar spec components that would accept the PCIE card, and then adding a PCIE 7800GT but NOT including the DDR2 memory I may need comes to the grand total of £698 :eek:

, a big difference from even £250 on a new card which will keep me going for a year or two.

Plus, there's the hassle factor of changing everything. Ok, so a GS is not as fast as a GT, and eventually I'll have to change, but thumbs up for any company and retailer that enables me to spend £250 instead of nearly £700!

Lanz · 19 Jan 2006 at 15:13

Phil99 said:
Even though there's cards still available on AGP (6800GS & 7800GS) IMO the prices are far too high to be anywhere near worth buying.

£190 for a 6800GS...you can get a 7800GT on PCI-E for the same price
£230-£250 for a 7800GS? Having a laugh aren't they? You can get a 7800GT and PCI-E mobo for that!

I'm not blaming OcUK here specifically as I'm sure either the other e-tailers won't have any stock or be more expensive, but if anyone's upgrading from a 6 series card above the 6600GT there's really no choice but to go PCI-E

Some people really cant be bothered to install all there OS and everything again though, so they will pay over the odds for something with less performance, just for the easy upgrade. It's always been like this. This is why Pentium 3 1.4ghz still go for about £80+ on auction.

Mr Paul · 19 Jan 2006 at 15:35

Oh well AM2 here I come....

valve90210 · 19 Jan 2006 at 15:39

Personally I am looking at the 7800GS for the following reason.

I want to upgrade to a dual monitor setup as I do a lot of work in Photoshop and Quark and having been using a dual monitor setup at work for a few months now I have decided it is something that would make my life much easier. My Graphics card does not support 2 monitors....it is rather rubbish, it's a GeForce FX5200...

Apart from this, issue, my current computer can do everything I want, ie run all the programs I want (including Halflife 2) etc. So I have no need to upgrade anything other than the graphics card.

Ok I could get a new mother board with PCI -Express and a really fasst graphics card, etc etc but it would mean taking everything apart and reinstalling everything and setting it all up, whilst this would have course give me a better system it is totally overkill for my situation, I just want a new graphics card that can do what I want and I might just as well go for the best one I can get at the time.

Valve

modez · 19 Jan 2006 at 16:24

Gibbo said:
Hi there

AGP is dead, all NVIDIA and ATI are doing is clearing out old stocks, its a good way of them doing so.

NVIDIA

6800 STD - These have now dried up, only a few left dotting about.
6800 GT - Again all dried up now, but OcUK have a few Leadtek models left.
6800 GS - Already drying up and great value, grab one whilst you can. (BFG, OCUK/POV and XFX still available from OcUK, be quick!!)
7800 GS - Due early February and will be approx £230 - £250 Inc. VAT. (BFG & XFX available on launch)

Well in this case, they should be more cheaper.

LoadsaMoney · 19 Jan 2006 at 16:32

Jesus £250 for 7800 GS :eek:

, what a rip, you can get a PCI-E motherboard, and a 7800 GT for that price lol.

dale1uk · 19 Jan 2006 at 17:19

yes but it's the people who have to include a cpu upgrade in the price aswell that pay the extra. Most people who have 64bit cpus would get the new mobo and go pci-e and would be stupid to pay over the odds just to stay on agp but not all of us have that option without finding an extra £150 for a new cpu aswell.

Logsi · 19 Jan 2006 at 17:31

Tooks said:
Well, as long as there's a market out there, then it would be strange if companies didn't try to exploit it.

I for one will be buying a 7800GS.

Reason? Well, I've got a socket 478 3.2ghz P4 and a decent motherboard although it's Micro ATX format! So, for me, going PCIE would mean a new board, a new processor, a new case, and ideally DDR2 memory. I've also modded my case, and I don't fancy going through all that again!

Now, replacing my existing kit for similar spec components that would accept the PCIE card, and then adding a PCIE 7800GT but NOT including the DDR2 memory I may need comes to the grand total of £698 , a big difference from even £250 on a new card which will keep me going for a year or two.

Plus, there's the hassle factor of changing everything. Ok, so a GS is not as fast as a GT, and eventually I'll have to change, but thumbs up for any company and retailer that enables me to spend £250 instead of nearly £700!

Same boat on the socket 478 but i resist to buy this now, i wish when i upgraded last summer that i went pci-e, but im gonna wait to see what happens nearer the end of the year or what the x1900xt's are like the i may really consider it.

You could ask gibbo to get you that albatron board thats a socket 478 with pci-e lol, have a look around for that before you consider this.

Emlyn_Dewar · 19 Jan 2006 at 17:47

The high prices reflect the little stock don't they? And also the fact that a premium can be charged for the best performing agp card.
With high prices, more and more people will surely decide it's time to go PCI-e, which is what manufacturers want isn't it?

I know I wouldn't feel comfortable forking out £200 or more for an AGP card.

marc2003 · 19 Jan 2006 at 17:57

Emlyn_Dewar said:
I know I wouldn't feel comfortable forking out £200 or more for an AGP card.

as already mentioned, 250 to give your rig another year of use or fork out several hundred for a new rig now? people with decent s478 setups don't need a whole new rig yet. most games are all about the gpu nowadays and contrary to popular belief, you can still play the latest games on an intel.

jimmy29 · 19 Jan 2006 at 18:33

Looking at some early benchies, the 7800GS keeps up with the X1800XL. The XL does win most of the benchmarks but the margin is always very small.
Now the XL goes for around £240 so this seems a fair enough price for the GS.
Add to that the fact that you can get the best part of £200 for an X800 Pro then I'm very tempted. £50-60 net cost for a latest generation card which performs that well is so worth it imho.

ajgoodfellow · 19 Jan 2006 at 18:43

Hopefully if nVidia do this ATI should too. This should only serve to reduce prices - if nVidia have the exclusive market for high end AGP then they could charge an awful lot

There is also the issue of people with early Opterons or Athlon 64 FXs (the FX-51 is still a nice CPU and fine for gaming) who only have one PCI-E motherboard for Socket 940. It's a Foxconn board for £170 with very limited availability

marc2003 · 19 Jan 2006 at 18:53

ajgoodfellow said:
£170 with very limited availability

yikes...

i'm stuck with the choice of one board if i want to go pci-e with my dothan. it's only 60 notes and easily available. but by time i've factored in the cost of a used s478 cpu just to flash the bios so it will accept my ct479 adapter and cpu and a new psu, it's starting to get rather costly....