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Worth getting an AGP card as an upgrade?

Wej

Wej

Wej

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Joined
18 Dec 2002
Posts
1,024
Location
Bakewell
Here's the deal: -

I have an Athlon 2600+ based system with a Radeon 9800 Pro and a lot of games run very slowly *but* I don't particularly want to upgrade the whole PC as I'm aiming to get a 360 soon and the PC will only be used occasionally. Is there a reasonably priced AGP card that will give me a significant gain over a 9800 Pro or is it all a bit pointless. Bearing in mind that to do the upgrade I probably ought to do (mobo, cpu, memory & gfx) is likely to set me back £500 which is not going to happen...
 
Theres quite a few better performing AGP cards but the problem is a lot of the higher end ones (Like x1950pro) will almost certainly be bottlenecked by your cpu.
 
Are there any good comparison pages so I can work out the best bang for buck before I make a decision?
 
That's what I want to hear! I have been looking at a cheap upgrade to do the lot, but even going bargain basement it's £60 mobo, £55 cpu, £20 cooler, £60 memory and £80 gfx = £250+ :(
 
marc2003 said:
a 7600gt would be a nice match for that rig. less than 100 sheets and it won't be bottlenecked too much either. performance wise it will blow that 9800pro away. :D
Click to expand...

Agreed, and the x1950pro at just over £100 will blow that 7600 GT away. :D

The x1950pro would be bottlenecked on there by a quite a bit, so 7600 GT would be the best option, adn its a decent card, faster than the 6800 Ultra, so as said be a cracking boost up from a 9800pro.
 
I Just went from a 6200 to a 7600GT on an Athlon XP2400+ system. I upgraded to 2GB RAM first which I think is essential for games.

Basically, Under Vanguard which is supposed to be a demanding game, I put my resolution up from 1024*768 to 1280*1024, turned on a lot more video features which were off, and upped the settings of the ones I had been using, and increased FPS by 50% - 100%

Oblivion looks MUCH bettter now, to mention a very quick test I did with another game.

Not sure how the Nvidia 6200 compares with your card though so don't know where your starting base line is.
 
Have a look at http://tomshardware.co.uk/2007/02/01/agp-platform-analysis_uk/.

I've recently had to make the same decision as you, although running on an Athlon 64 3200+. It has a good run down of a few of the good AGP cards on single-core systems. It made my decision a lot easier. I ended up getting a Radeon X1950 Pro, although I made the mistake of getting the HIS version, but that's been RMA'd now and I've got a Sapphire 512MB instead. Runs amazingly well in my system, just make sure your PSU is up to the task (30 amps on the 12v rail, if you have dual rails then you're ok in theory) :)
 
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