AGP Card upgrade?

[fizzy]

Hi,

First off - Happy New Year!

I have acquired a shuttle system, an SN95G2, which I have done some maintenance on and upgraded to an AMD X2 3800+ (2.0GHz) and 2GB memory. It came with an Nvidia 6800GT installed (AGP card).

Would I see any benefit upgrading to this card? :- http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-193-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=403

I do intend to do gaming etc, and possibly set it up as a media centre pc.

Anybody any idea how power usage compares between the two? The shuttle only appears to have a 250W psu.....

Thanks.

 

[Devrij]

It's the best agp card you'll find, so you might as well if you plan on gaming with it. Power usage... not sure. I ran an HD2400 agp on a 250W, but they're 2 very different beasts so can't comment

 

[fizzy]

Hmm... not sure if the psu would cope actually. Its a 240W rather than 250W, with only 16A on the 12v rail.

Sapphires website recommends a 450W psu and 30W on the 12v rail. I'm probably pushing the limits of the current psu with a dual core athlon, hard disk, dvd drive and nvidia 6800Gt as it is....

 

[Eddie]

You can pick up a HD3850pro for near enough the same money if you look around.

Only problem is that you would more than likely need a better PSU.

 

[fizzy]

You can pick up a HD3850pro for near enough the same money if you look around.

Only problem is that you would more than likely need a better PSU.

Yup - come to that conclusion. Unfortunately looks like the 250W model is the largest capacity one that will fit in the SN95G5 - the 300W is listed as not compatible. Even then it looks like the 300W has twin 12V rails at 14A each, so may not be powerful enough to power a top end agp card.

Looks like I may go down the Media pc/portable route then. Unfortunately this system doesn't have on board video. What's a good low power AGP card that can handle 1920x1080 desktop resolutions quickly, but 3D not too important?

Probably not worth spending too much on this trying to get to a high level spec when I could just get a newer, better model barebones setup.

 

[Eddie]

I take it the 6800GT that it came with is either buggered or it doesn't support 1080p?

Maybe one to look at would be a second hand ATI 2400 series card, but I don't know what power requirements they have - I don't imagine it being as much as the 3850 though.

 

[fizzy]

I take it the 6800GT that it came with is either buggered or it doesn't support 1080p?

Maybe one to look at would be a second hand ATI 2400 series card, but I don't know what power requirements they have - I don't imagine it being as much as the 3850 though.

Well, the 6800GT is working ok-ish at the moment. I had a lot of startup problems when trying to use the X2 processor as well, so suspect that it may be a bit much for the psu - it does require an additional power lead plugged into it, so seems a power hungry card.

I've managed to dig up a simple radeon 7000 64mb agp for now which seems to be working ok. If it's going to be used a general purpose pc then I prefer cpu power over gpu.

 

[Eddie]

Well, the 6800GT is working ok-ish at the moment. I had a lot of startup problems when trying to use the X2 processor as well, so suspect that it may be a bit much for the psu - it does require an additional power lead plugged into it, so seems a power hungry card.

I've managed to dig up a simple radeon 7000 64mb agp for now which seems to be working ok. If it's going to be used a general purpose pc then I prefer cpu power over gpu.

I guess you'll have to make do with that setup then as you're not left with a lot of options really. At least you've got a working card in it so if not for gaming then at least you can use it for your media.