Which AGP card for an old system?

[Gazzafj]

Hi guys, after some advice.

I have an old Athlon 1400 based system with a GeForce 4200 card in it. I would like to up-grade the card to enable the pc to play more recent games. The question is, which would be the best card to go for? I've read that the best option is the Sapphire 1950, but it's a bit power hungry and I don't want to have to replace the psu as well.
Full system is:
Gigabyte GA7DXR motherboard, Athlon XP 1400 CPU, 512Mb RAM, 350W PSU.

Any help/advice much appreciated.

Gazza.

 

[Gazzafj]

"That system is pretty old, a 9800 Pro would give you a decent upgrade and let you play recent games on medium settings, but if you want to play the newest games properly then your entire PC needs an upgrade."


Hi guys, thanks for the replies. Yeh, I realise the system is old, but I just wanted to see if I could pass it on to one of my kids and then get something completely new for myself. Unfortunately the more money I spend on it the leass I will have for my new system. I was looking for something that would be good for NFS Carbone (and other similar games). I checked out the Graphics power guide thread and kind of hoped that my 350W PSU would be ok with a graphics card that consumes, say, 50W. Or is it the mobo that would cause the problem? I understand the Sapphire 1950XT needs a separate connection for power, could it plug into one of the PSU spare hard drive cables?? What about the lower spec cards, do they require a separate power feed?

Any answers/advice appreciated, thanks.

Gazza.

 

[Gazzafj]

On the PSU concern, use this website to calculated; http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

I have an old AGP system, an overclocked P4 northwood C 2.8GHz, 2x1gb memory, 7900GS, 3 hdd's, 2 DVDRW, 2 PCI cards, 2x 120mm case fans, loads of usb devices and that website says I need a 386w (with overclocked CPU) and I have a 400w and its runny very stable with no problems at all.

As mav said though, I would go for a 7600GS/GT for your system.

Many thanks for that link, how good is the calculator I wonder??

Bearing in mind my PSU is 350W (max)

Just fed in my current pc config and got a calculation of 245W
Did it again with an X1900XTX and got a calculation of 342W (too much!)
Did it again with the pc in the configuration that my kids will be using and an X1950XTX card and got a calculation of 280W!! Yippee

On the face of it this looks good, I must be missing something!!

Does anyone know the details of the extra power connector on the X1950XTX, will it plug into one of the spare PSU HDD power cables!!!

 

[Gazzafj]

I think your current system would not make much difference from one of those X1900XTX cards than a lower spec card, your CPU would probably bottle neck and if not that the 512mb of ram you have would.

Looks like a 7600GS/GT then, I take your point about the CPU, not much I can do there as the mobo is the limiting factor. The only upgrade option would be 2nd hand - bit of an unknown! However with the money saved on the cheaper card I could probably do something about the RAM.

Thanks for the advice fobose, much appreciated.

Gazza