Advice on mid-range AGP card.

[DBSE_Snake_XE]

Hey everybody,

My system currently consists of the following components:

AMD Barton 2500+ @ 3200+ Speeds
2 x 512MB sticks of Kingston 3200 RAM ( running in dual channel )
ATi Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB AGP card
Jetway N2PAP-Ultra Motherboard ( this has actually been an extremely stable board for overclocking, despite the cheap price )

I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on a nice mid-range graphics card that will keep this system going a little longer. I don't exactly want to be able the latest games at insane resultions; instead, I'd like to dabble around a bit in games like F.E.A.R and BattleField 2 which I've missed over the past year or so. I don't have a preference for ATi or Nvidia, just for the best value for money. However, because of the motherboard, I'm obviously limited to AGP. I'm looking to spend no more than £130, and preferably below that.

Thanks!

 

[semi-pro waster]

Given your budget I'd probably suggest a 6600gt as being the best balance of price/performance, if you can find a 6800series or X800series(not the 'X800se') for under £130 then I would go for them but otherwise the 6600gt is a good card.

 

[Rednut05]

Well you say mid-range AGP but I thought AGP were being phased out quite quickly lately so I'd go the extra yard and upgrade to PCI-Ex or you can still buy a 7800 or slightly cheaper 6800.

But i'm sure they arn't much cheaper than the PCI-Ex alternatives and also not as good.

 

[ACESHIGH]

Alternatives in my opinion are...

X800GTO - if you can find one for under £130 it would be the best card to get (faster than 6600GT)

6600GT - next fastest card & thus can be found in your price range.

X1600 Pro - bit slower than 6600GT again, but can be found for under £100, so offer good value for money.

 

[DBSE_Snake_XE]

Sorry to bump up this thread, but I just wanted to thank you guys for the advice.

I'm going to see if I can stretch to a x800GTO, and if not, I'll see if I can wait a month or two, and re-evaluate my options then.

 

[Dureth]

Looking at the specs surely the 12pipe x1600pro for £99 at OCUK will be faster than the x800gto? It's got the same number fo pipelines but much faster clock speeds.

 

[ACESHIGH]

Looking at the specs surely the 12pipe x1600pro for £99 at OCUK will be faster than the x800gto? It's got the same number fo pipelines but much faster clock speeds.

No. The X800GTO is the faster card.

X800 GTO
- 400MHz GPU
- 256MB 980MHz memory
- Twelve pixel pipelines
- 256-bit quad-channel memory interface

X1600 Pro
- 500MHz GPU
- 256MB 800MHz memory
- Twelve pixel pipelines
- 128bit quad-channel memory interface


Both cards have the same amouint of pixel pipelines.
For the core there is a 100MHz difference in favour of X1600 Pro, but on the memory a 180MHz in favour of X800GTO; so pretty even on the whole.
However the X800GTO has a 256-bit quad-channel memory interface, the X1600 Pro has half that (though the 256-bit Ring-bus appears to help in performance) & this is what gives the performance advantage to the X800GTO.