Why AGP graphic cards so expensive

[modez]

I really like to buy the Geforce 6800GS AGP, but I still think the price is far to expensive as I believe they will no longer be in the market place. I don't see them in the retail store like I used to, so I will have to purchase from an Etailer.

Do you think they will eventually go down in price?

 

[Duke]

They are expensive because the manufacturers want to change to 100% PCI-E rather than producing both types.

I don't think they will really drop in price, just become harder to find (for the performance models anyway).

 

[peetee]

they might drop slightly(say £10 or so) when the geforce 7 AGPs come out, there only expensive because its easier making PCI-e cards now, since they dont need a bridging chip between the GPU and socket converting the data to AGP from PCI-e, or something like that, if you have the chance upgrade to pci-e.

 

[deadeyedic30]

Read this thread. http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17525037

 

[modez]

Thanks for replying Gents.

First I don't really want to upgrade my system due to it being upgraded last year. At the moment my system is Intel Pentium 4 (Hyper-Threading), running 3EGHZ, system bus 800 and my graphic card is Geforce 5700 Ultra.
Them memory DDR 3200 1GB of Ram. I mostly play FS9 and I do get quite good frame rates but I just wanted to go Geforce 6800 so I could use the AA16X and AF16X.

Thanks for comments anyway. Much appreciated.

 

[deadeyedic30]

Is flight sim 9 more cpu dependant of gpu dependant ?

 

[peetee]

if you did buckle and upgrade the 6600GTs are unbeleivably powerful compared to 5700s, since the whole FX line was a complete flop!

 

[daz]

if you did buckle and upgrade the 6600GTs are unbeleivably powerful compared to 5700s, since the whole FX line was a complete flop!

The FX5800/FX5900 were equivalent to the R9700, which isn't bad, just wasn't worth the hype that nvidia were building for it. Granted, his is a 5700, but i just thought i'd point that out.

 

[man_from_uncle]

If you do upgrade with AGP you are better off with a 6800 rather than a 6600gt. Though there is very little difference at stock speed the 6800 can unlock 4 pipelines and 1 vertex shader and overclock better.

The reason that AGP cards are so expensive compared to PCI-e cards is because there is nothing to drive the price down. No (or rather few) new models in the foreseeable future means that what we have now will always be the premium product. Until demand vanishes quicker than supply (which won't be for a while) you can expect them to stay the same price. Also high prices here make it less viable for people to continue with their old systems.....forcing them to spend even more money still. It's just cold hearted capitalism getting the most out of peoples desires.

 

[HangTime]

AGP cards are expensive because there is very little competition in the marketplace, meaning that products don't reduce in price much at all. For example the 6600gt/6800 cards have been priced at around £100-120 for ages now; there aren't many new parts being released to drive the price down. Even the new 6800GS is a crippled version of its PCI-E brother, sporting a much slower core clock - it's basically the same as a 6800GT but with fewer pipelines.

The best bet for an AGP upgrade (from a weak card like the FX5700) is probably to look secondhand. People upgrading to PCI-E motherboards are offloading their old AGP cards and hence you can find some reasonable ones for sale (6800GT/x800pro or similar)

 

[kdd]

Well there's always a small amrket for the high end and seeing as agp is no longer used by oem's, high end agp cards are going to be small demand = high price. Buy a pcie board.

 

[D.P.]

if you did buckle and upgrade the 6600GTs are unbeleivably powerful compared to 5700s, since the whole FX line was a complete flop!

No, the rnage was sucessful and it made Nvidia a lot of money.
Just because the 5800 wasn't as good at DX9 stuff copared to the R9700, but little did it matter because the FX5800 was faster at DX8 where it mattered.

 

[modez]

Is flight sim 9 more cpu dependant of gpu dependant ?

I would have thought if you have a stronger CPU the application would run on the game better. I could be wrong. I don't know how much the graphic card contributes to the application. However, before I upgraded my system to 3GHz
I had a 2GHz bus speed 400MHz. When I changed it to 3GHz I saw a lot of difference on the game with the same graphic card I had. The game was running faster.

 

[modez]

The only reason I am worried to upgrade now to PCI-e etc., because maybe in 4 months time they bring something else out and still you need to upgrade. As everybody knows the hardware is not cheap and you can't afford to keep upgrading.

Many thanks to everyone for their advice. Who knows?

Regards

 

[Cyber-Mav]

yea, pci-e will be short lived since pci-x is just around the corner.

 

[Dunky]

PCI-X has been around for years, long before PCI-E. I think PCI-E will be around for a good while yet, until we get to a point where we start maxing out x16 PCI-E lanes with gfx cards.

 

[badbob]

My brothers got a P4 2.6ghz with (I think) Geforce MX 440 would upgrading to latest gen £160 AGP video card help? System memory is 512MB. Stock 350W PSU, 3 HD's. I also have a P3 933 with Geforce MX400, again worthwhile?

 

[ACESHIGH]

My brothers got a P4 2.6ghz with (I think) Geforce MX 440 would upgrading to latest gen £160 AGP video card help?

For this system yes as the CPU is still pretty good.
An X800GTO or similar would be great.

I also have a P3 933 with Geforce MX400, again worthwhile?

Put the MX440 into this system, as its not worth having a faster card.

 

[peetee]

badbob, get a 6800 for this system, maybes even a 6800GS (or 2nd hand GT or something), your system on the other hand. You might just want to buy a new one

 

[badbob]

yeah cheers gave him info, not interested but he moans when it slows down (he's a idiot) I'm building a new system up. I only have the PSU! Enermax 620W Liberty, also some spares from that machine (SB Live, 60GB and 80GB HD, DVD-ROM)