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please suggest an agp card

nutBar

nutBar

nutBar

Associate
Joined
7 Dec 2004
Posts
41
Location
uk
hi there,

currently have a 9800pro, a 3500+ amd cpu(newc), and 1gb of geil value ram: I have not oc'd. Looking for an upgrade to my 9800pro, but dont need the hassle of upgrading to pci-e at the mo (though I won't mind any replys along this theme :) ). My budget is a little flexible, where £200 would be the top of my budget. Currently playing Oblivion, play fps's (q4, hl2, cs:s). I suppose Im looking for a significant improvement on my 9800pro in 1280x1024 res (max for my tft).

cheers lads and lasses
 
Hmm, How about an ATi X850XT, or better yet a 256MB 7800GS. 7800GS Has Smartshader 3 and it's newer so....pick.
 
What is your powersupply?

I'd probably plump for a 7800gs (the Leadtek one is just under £200) as they overclock better than the X850s and support SM3.0. The X850XT PE will be faster at stock though (but only the X850XT is available from OcUk and I suspect that's not going to be any faster than a 7800gs).
 
thanks for the advice fellas, Ive got an Enermax noisetaker 485W psu. Im keen on orderning from ocuk, always had a1 service with em. Ive not overclocked a gfx card before (and little experience overclocking generally), so im not taking this into consideration at the mo: are there simple utilities to do this, and is it ok with stock cooling on the card?
 
You've got a Socket 939 CPU so definitely go PCI-E

Your PSU will be fine for this

The 7800GT can be had for about £160 on PCI-E (quicker than the 7800GS) and you can get a PCI-E motherboard for about £50. This is a far better solution
 
thanks for the reccomendation ajgoodfellow, I know the pci-e option makes sense for future proofing, even bang for buck, but Im gonna avoid a pcie upgrade for now as a rebuild is too much hassle for me atm, plus im really happy with my system in general at the mo (compeltey stable, and know it inside out). This gfx upgrade will have to last me a lot longer than a year (no vista etc for me!), and its purely for gaming reasons - I can live without hdr, but my 9800pro has been showing its age particularly in higher resolutions for a while now (i do like some high-res bling). Thanks for the suggestions guys, will let you know what i decide upon
 
The PCI-E option is a hassle but you do get more for your money :)

If you want to stay with AGP though get a 7800 series GPU as these will last you the longest being current gen GPUs (the X800 and 6800 are last gen GPUs).

The best AGP card by some margin is the new Gainward 512MB 7800GS as it actually has the 7800GT core (fully unlocked to 20 pipelines too!). It's only called the 7800GS as nVidia doesn't like the idea of the 7800GT being available on AGP! The only problem with this card is that it's very expensive - there's a thread on it here

If that's a little pricey get a pre-overclocked 7800GS, preferably the XFX GeForce 7800 GS Extreme Edition 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Retail (PVT70-KUAD7) (GX-069-XF)
 
ouch! thats a monster card, its slightly over my budget :eek: but i see you get a free game voucher with it [not trying to convince myself that would soften the blow to my wallett]. That is a bit of a stretch, but i wonder, how much better is the Gainward 512MB 7800GS than the XFX GeForce 7800 GS Extreme Edition? (I hate to ask a 'how much is x better than y question'). Whatever I purchase, I lookin at about 2 years life out of it (I know this only srengthens the pcie argument :) ) and are wondering if delaying a purchase till I get more funding for this card is a good idea
 
there is really no point in AGP now esp if it's an upgrade from a 9800Pro

PCI-E cards are cheaper for the same or more performance which allows u to pick up a decent nForce4 mobo for £44 like i did.

nVidia fix the prices of AGP cards higher than PCI-E ones because they know people will pay the premium because they know people don't wana change the majority of their system.

but you seem to have a socket 939 CPU, and a decent PSU.
 
Last edited:
nutBar said:
ouch! thats a monster card, its slightly over my budget :eek: but i see you get a free game voucher with it [not trying to convince myself that would soften the blow to my wallett]. That is a bit of a stretch, but i wonder, how much better is the Gainward 512MB 7800GS than the XFX GeForce 7800 GS Extreme Edition? (I hate to ask a 'how much is x better than y question'). Whatever I purchase, I lookin at about 2 years life out of it (I know this only srengthens the pcie argument :) ) and are wondering if delaying a purchase till I get more funding for this card is a good idea
Click to expand...

It's not a huge amount faster really

Here's a review of it against a 7800GS clocked at 460MHz/1350MHz (the XFX EE is clocked at 440/1300MHz)
 
tbh that card is way over my budget (which is a bit stretched at 200 anyway) so ive put that idea to bed. Gonna mull over the pcie idea for a bit and probably decide to stick with agp anyways, but many thanks for all the advice guys, Ive got a simple choice now.

cheers
nuttie
 
If the budget of £200 is strict get the Leadtek GeForce 7800 GS 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Retail (GX-076-LT) for £205

It's still a good card and it's still a lot faster than your 9800Pro. They're also great clockers too - this is quite easy to do using something like RivaTuner

When you clock the card keep an eye on temps and check for artifacts. Just do it bit by bit and you'll be fine
 
thanks for the good advice ajgoodfellow, gonna sleep on it and make a decsion 2morrow; think it will be the Leadtek, had a read up on it and, as you say, is an excellent card and is within my budget.


nuttie
 
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