Worth upgrading an AGP8x Card?

Phonesis

Phonesis

Phonesis

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So here are my specs:

2600+ Athlon XP Processor
2gb DDR2 ram
ATI 9550 256mb Card

I recently downloaded Left for Dead as I was just curious if my PC could handle it. The good news is that it is actually playable! I wasn't sure if I would like the game but am now becoming addicted to it.

However, my details have to be set real low for this to run. My FPS rate is also obviously pretty choppy at times. So I'm wondering if it's worth me upgrading my current AGP8 graphics card? I was looking at this one:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-173-SP

I just don't want to buy it only to realise it makes no difference to my overall performance lol so would appreciate some thoughts on the matter.
 
Whilst that card us significantly better than what you already own, i wouldn't recommend it.

You may as well save enough money for a complete overhaul and new system.
 
:eek: You can still spend 100 quid on an AGP graphics card?

I would just hold onto your money till your get 500 quid and buy a new system with PCIe
 
Hi,

I have been in the same shoes as you, last year I bought an HIS IceQ 3850 AGP card for my old machine, and to be honest it was not worth it in the long haul.

My AMD 3300 (Athlon XP 3200+) with XMS pro PC3500 completely bottlenecked the graphics card. It allows me to play games such as Red Alert 3 on medium with so so frame rates, but some of my old C+C titles like Yuri's Revenge and previous games ran slower.

It was supposedly able to play Bluray without a fancy processor but I only get smooth 720p on some HD content.

I am now upgrading this system with a new Asrock mobo which can re-use the AGP card and DDR 400 memory from my old system, BUT only as a stop gap as I feel my AGP card will perform better as I am hoping the boards bios revision will allow me to run an Intel E7400.

Once I get a better PSU I will probably try a better card in the PCI E slot which will bottle neck performance yet again, then buy a better motherboard and memory and put the Asrock elsewhere for a bit (well until the Windows 7 beta runs out).

What you may be better off doing is getting a second hand 7800 AGP or such from eBay while saving for a new PC.

;)
 
Yeah am thinking that way tbh. It's just that I noticed the reviews for that card were really positive. I guess it is just time for a full system upgrade lol.
 
Yup i was debating wether to upgrade my AGP card but decided to just get a new system that i wouldnt have to worry bowt for a few years :)
 
I'm in the same boat as you since I'm currently running an Athlon 3000+ with an AGP 7800. I would also advise you to get a new PCIe system and maybe a dual core cpu to last you a long while.
 
don't spend now, save for new system. AGP is long forgotten and only a handful of "new" cards are out, the newest will be ATi HD3000's
 
The 3850 AGP is a wonderful card for the ageing bus, only problem is that it is TOO powerful for it. Most of the other components like the CPUs are mainly still single core and so you won't really make full use of it and hence the bottlenecking.

Like what has been mentioned already, just save up for a cheap full PC upgrade, or a second hand mid-to-high end Geforce 6 or 7 series AGP card will do fine, though you'd still have to tweak the graphics settings a bit.
 
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