AGP Graphics Card Upgrade advice please

[northenstar]

Looking for some friendly advice on upgrading my graphics card (and hopefully see a noticable difference) to see me through another 6 months or so until I can afford to buy a new PC.

My PC Spec is (it's about 5 years old):

Intel Pentium 4 3.06
ASUS P4S8X Motherboard
400w PSU
2 GB RAM
Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB

My budget is about £100 - I prefer Radeon (as I have had more realiability with these cards) - but I am open-minded.

I mainly use my PC for online gaming such as World of Warcraft and Everquest 2.

Any advice would be greatfully received.

 

[steve258]

Was gonna suggest the X1950 pro but that's way out of your budget.

Best thing for you is probably ebay for a second hand 6800GT or X850.

Otherwise go for a 7600GS or 7600GT.

Just so you know I have an AGP 1600pro 512Mb for sale

 

[northenstar]

How about a HIS ATI Radeon X1650 Pro ICEQ 512MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Retail (RX1650P-AGP512ICEQ) ?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-063-HT

 

[Alexrose1uk]

I'd recommend getting a second hand card too. The x1650 aint that fast unfortunately, only the XT version would really be worth paying for. If you can find an old 6800GT etc second hand, thatd be cheaper and faster. I used to be on a 9800Pro myself, great cards for the time! Ultimately, I'd hold out and try and get a bigger budget, or if you need something now, I'd recommend looking for a second hand AGP x800xt, 6800GT/Ultra, x1950pro or 7900GTO. They're the only cards likely to give a worthwhile increase in frames for the outlay, your card is still faster than most of the cards you can get right now for £50 or less, and performance you pay for

For the amount of money you're spending as well, get a better core, and 256MB of memory. No point apart from marketing, getting a card with 512MB thats not powerful enough to utilise it.

The other option, and possibly one to think of would be a new system, after saving a few hundred more. Your current system is dead/end of line tech in several ways, and there may be truth in the saying flogging a dead horse, for example, an AMD64 motherboard and the equivalent PCI-E X1950Pro, can be bought for the same price (sometimes with some left over) as the AGP X1950Pro variant. AGP demand has gone down, as has supply, so unfortunately price has gone up.

 

[melbourne720]

I'd recommend looking for a second hand AGP x800xt, 6800GT/Ultra, x1950pro or 7900GTO.

You can't get a 7900 GTO for AGP, but otherwise I agree. A second hand 6800 GT is worth it, if you have some spare cash get an after-market cooler (one of these http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=57&subid=787 I recommend Zalman or AC Accelero) and overclock the card to get the best out of it.