I'm lost and scared..

iCraig · 10 Oct 2006 at 12:14

..with how far graphics cards have advanced.

Anyway, here's the deal:

I'm thinking of getting Battlefield 2142 to play with my mates, but I'm aware that my graphics card is going a bit wrinkly and grey now.

My current PC setup is

AMD Athlon XP 2800+
1.5GB of DDR400 RAM
ATi Radeon 9800 Pro.

I'm aware that ideally I should think about getting a new mobo and CPU and going down the PCI Express route, but money is tight this time of year and I can't justify a new system like that just for one game.

So I'm going to have to stick with AGP for now and see how well it does.

So my question is, what's the best AGP graphics card available for about £100-150 budget?

Needs to be a decent upgrade over a 9800 Pro, I was hoping to find some 6800GT's/Ultras cheap but they appear to be all out of stock.

So, what would you people recommend?

easyrider · 10 Oct 2006 at 12:16

7600 GT

Cyber-Mav · 10 Oct 2006 at 12:19

7600gt

NaNd0! · 10 Oct 2006 at 12:19

That's a option.. altho..

iCraig said:
I'm aware that ideally I should think about getting a new mobo and CPU and going down the PCI Express route, but money is tight this time of year and I can't justify a new system like that just for one game.

Well if i was in your shoes i wouldn't upgrade.. id just save the money untill i could afford the pci-e route!

Cyber-Mav · 10 Oct 2006 at 12:20

get 7600gt now, then next time you do an upgrade you can go straight to quad core.

iCraig · 10 Oct 2006 at 12:24

How does the 7600GT compare to the older titans that I heard everyone rave about a year or so ago?

Is it as good as the 6800 Ultra? The X800 Pro etc?

easyrider · 10 Oct 2006 at 12:25

iCraig said:
How does the 7600GT compare to the older titans that I heard everyone rave about a year or so ago?

Is it as good as the 6800 Ultra? The X800 Pro etc?

LMAO

Its faster than a 6800 ultra!

Firegod · 10 Oct 2006 at 12:27

easyrider said:
7600 GT

iCraig · 10 Oct 2006 at 12:28

I really have no idea. This is exactly why I asked, if I went into a store I would probably end up coming out with a SNES cartridge. :rolleyes:

tonyyeb · 10 Oct 2006 at 12:28

My 7600GT doesnt blow the BF2142 demo away but it copes very well on med-high settings! BF2 is on full draw distance and full detail. I am yet to max out on BF2142.

easyrider · 10 Oct 2006 at 12:29

iCraig said:
I really have no idea. This is exactly why I asked, if I went into a store I would probably end up coming out with a SNES cartridge.

lol

No worries mate,

At this moment in time the gfx arena is a minefield and this is what the forum is about asking people like myself who are in the know.

easyrider · 10 Oct 2006 at 12:30

tonyyeb said:
My 7600GT doesnt blow the BF2142 demo away but it copes very well on med-high settings! BF2 is on full draw distance and full detail. I am yet to max out on BF2142.

That could be because of cpu limitation though. And system ram

LoadsaMoney · 10 Oct 2006 at 12:31

7600 GT

Duff-Man · 10 Oct 2006 at 13:42

NaNd0! said:
Well if i was in your shoes i wouldn't upgrade.. id just save the money untill i could afford the pci-e route!

As would I. A half-hearted upgrade can be something of a waste of money.

Have a look for second hand parts on MM. I'm sure you could upgrade to (say) a s939 platform with a decent CPU and PCI-e for not too much cash - lots of people selling their old gear to go core2.

locutus12 · 10 Oct 2006 at 15:24

iCraig said:
..with how far graphics cards have advanced.

Anyway, here's the deal:

I'm thinking of getting Battlefield 2142 to play with my mates, but I'm aware that my graphics card is going a bit wrinkly and grey now.

My current PC setup is

AMD Athlon XP 2800+
1.5GB of DDR400 RAM
ATi Radeon 9800 Pro.

I'm aware that ideally I should think about getting a new mobo and CPU and going down the PCI Express route, but money is tight this time of year and I can't justify a new system like that just for one game.

So I'm going to have to stick with AGP for now and see how well it does.

So my question is, what's the best AGP graphics card available for about £100-150 budget?

Needs to be a decent upgrade over a 9800 Pro, I was hoping to find some 6800GT's/Ultras cheap but they appear to be all out of stock.

So, what would you people recommend?

i wouldnt bother buying a new card, its a waste of money for AGP now how ever you may be able to pick yourself up a second hand X800GT AGP for around £50 which would be your best bang for buck, failing this your 9800pro will play BF2 on full detail @ 1024 x 768 without AA/AF providing you have 2 gig of ram, i see you have 1.5 so you may just about get away with it.

Example of why buying a new AGP card is pointless...

AGP 7600GT Price:£140.99 Including VAT

PCI-E 7600GT (exactly the same card just a different interface) Price: £88.11 Including VAT

absolute rip off.

EDIT:

if you really must have a new card then there is a brand new X800 XT going on a popular auction site for £95 inc delivery, it has comparible if not better performance than a 7600GT but no SM3.0 support... not like many games use it anyway. Personally i would go put a wanted advert up in members market and post AGP card wanted, £80 waiting. youl probably get offerd an X800XT / X850Pro / 6800GT or Ultra. id be going with any of those.

Adam Senior · 10 Oct 2006 at 17:57

7600gt

iCraig · 10 Oct 2006 at 18:27

locutus12 said:
Example of why buying a new AGP card is pointless...

AGP 7600GT Price:£140.99 Including VAT

Well that's one price, I've found one for £128.97 somewhere else, and at £105.92 somewhere else.

locutus12 said:
if you really must have a new card then there is a brand new X800 XT going on a popular auction site for £95 inc delivery, it has comparible if not better performance than a 7600GT but no SM3.0 support... not like many games use it anyway. Personally i would go put a wanted advert up in members market and post AGP card wanted, £80 waiting. youl probably get offerd an X800XT / X850Pro / 6800GT or Ultra. id be going with any of those.

But I was told above that the 7600GT is far better than the 6800/X800 stuff, so why not pay an extra 20-30 quid for a better card?

I understand the logic that in the long term, I will be wasting money on the card. But I simply can't afford the parts, nor time to get myself a PCI-e based system. Probably in 8-12 months.

locutus12 · 10 Oct 2006 at 19:47

iCraig said:
Well that's one price, I've found one for £128.97 somewhere else, and at £105.92 somewhere else.

But I was told above that the 7600GT is far better than the 6800/X800 stuff, so why not pay an extra 20-30 quid for a better card?

I understand the logic that in the long term, I will be wasting money on the card. But I simply can't afford the parts, nor time to get myself a PCI-e based system. Probably in 8-12 months.

because its not £20 / £30 quid its £42 , you can get a second hand 6800GT for £70 or X800XT for £80 or find a little X800GT for around £50 to tide you over untill your ready for a full upgrade, all from members market, and all includes delivery.

or you can pay £140 + £8 postage and packaging for an AGP version of a card thats worth £88 + £8 p&p. the 6800GT isnt as powerful as the 7600GT this is true but its still more cost effective, the X800XT can match it easily.

buying cards for an AGP socket especially when your stuck with an older cpu like the AMD XP range is a bad idea and a waste of money.

ANOTHER OPTION:

from the members market you can get the following...
sockt 939 motherboard £30 (specify that you want PCI-E with 4 x memory sockets)
socket 939 CPU + cooler £45 (probably something like an AMD A 3000+ venice)
use existing ram
buy PCI-E 7600GT £96 inc delivery from OCUK.

total cost £171

Sell
XP 2800 £25
old motherboard £20
9800Pro £40

total £85
total spent on upgrading after selling old parts = £86

for a little effort and £86 you can have a brand new pc with a 7600GT, hell you can even spent an extra £40 on an X1800XT and still come in at less than £150 spent.

hardly difficult now is it... :rolleyes:

to blow your money on an AGP card would be foolish.

Naffa · 11 Oct 2006 at 09:01

CP-176-AM AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-176-AM)
£32.99 £32.99
BG-063-MS **B Grade** MSI K8N SLi Platinum nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (BG-063-MS)
£40.00 £40.00
GX-026-BG BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GS 256MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-026-BG)
£61.99 £61.99
Subtotal £134.98
VAT £23.63
Total £158.61

This would be my recomendation.

The 7600GS is a fair bit faster than the 9800pro and you get a far faster CPU. I meant to choose the retail but I've got a lecture now and have to shoot!

tonyyeb · 11 Oct 2006 at 09:12

naffa said:
CP-176-AM AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-176-AM)
£32.99 £32.99
BG-063-MS **B Grade** MSI K8N SLi Platinum nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (BG-063-MS)
£40.00 £40.00
GX-026-BG BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GS 256MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-026-BG)
£61.99 £61.99
Subtotal £134.98
VAT £23.63
Total £158.61

This would be my recomendation.

The 7600GS is a fair bit faster than the 9800pro and you get a far faster CPU. I meant to choose the retail but I've got a lecture now and have to shoot!

I agree with everything here but the graphics card. Add an extra £26 for the 7600GT taking the combo to £185 roughly. Then youve got a decent system playing the Battlefield games at high to medium detail and max draw distance (but not games like oblivion though!!

) - I have the same CPU and GFX card but 2GB of ram (makes a big diff on load times in BF2 and BF2142. Got the demo of BF2142 running on max detail on my setup - playing fine last night for over an hour with no slow down at any point.