Best AGP Card on the market?

[Correction]

My computer was built 2 years ago, on this motherboard:

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?model ... l3=30&l4=0

After downloading the specifications it seems to not support PCI-E cards, so I'm stuck buying an AGP to replace the one that overheated and fried itself last night. Unfortunately I can't really be without this PC for long so regardless of the advice I'm probably getting this:

http://ati.amd.com/products/RadeonX1050/specs.html

on an AGP interface since it seems to be all that my local retailers (Fry's, Best Buy, etc.) will carry.

The good news is that this replacement will only cost me ~70 bucks, which isn't much in the long run. However, I wonder if I'm really getting a good card. Time constraints being what they are for me today, I can't spend more than 3 hours looking for a better card, but since I'm not interested in replacing my MOBO/CPU anytime soon, I'm happy to replace the radeon with a much better card once I'm satisfied the repair is done and I'm within the return policy of the store I buy it from.

But does one exist?

[Cephius]

Is it a good card? No. Will it run FFXI? Yes. No one really develops AGP cards anymore, since most newer motherboards don't even come with the slots. If you just play FFXI that card is fine, if you want to run newer games, you'll have to upgrade everything.

[Correction]

I mean is it among the best of what I can get out of AGP? I don't really play FFXI anymore and just need a card because my Radeon 9800 died.

'Good' is relative. I'm wanting that comparison relative to the bygone days of everyone running AGP.

[Grandcross]

Check out the ATI 3850 AGP.

[Shuemue]

x1950pro is an option too

[mootsfox]

Check out the ATI 3850 AGP.

Please god no.

Honestly, you're nearly three generations behind on CPUs, and about four on graphics cards. It's time for an upgrade/overhaul. Don't waste any more money on AGP, it's dead. With that S478 motherboard, I'm guessing you are running a 2.2-2.8GHz P4, which is going to hold back any decent AGP card, and if you are going to spend $250 on a new graphics card, so might as well spend $300-400 and get a better card, new motherboard and CPU.

[Hitoshura]

It's not going to be $300-400 for a motherboard, CPU, AND a graphics card. A decent setup anyway.

For our PC in the living room (which was my old main PC) it has about the same specs as yours on the mobo. When the old card on it died (was a Radeon 9800 Pro) I was thinking about trashing the whole thing, but I decided to look for a replacement instead so it can still be put to use. I went with a PNY nVidia 7600 GS. It was only about 80 bucks. When a friend comes over we can play Team Fortress 2 at the same time and it plays and looks damn good. It can also run Oblivion, Unreal Tournament 3, Crysis (absolute lowest settings) all well.

If you were like me in a tight spot and don't have $300-400 to blow towards a new setup and just want to use your PC, I suggest you go with that card. I can't find it at the moment, Circuit City doesn't seem to be selling it anymore.

[Avanarius]

It's not going to be $300-400 for a motherboard, CPU, AND a graphics card. A decent setup anyway.

Actually, ncix has a deal for the 320mb version of the 8800gts for $115 so fuck me blind and call me stupid but you can get a decent setup for $300-$400, maybe less.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php? ... omoid=1046 /cuts wrists for buying @ $300

[mootsfox]

It's not going to be $300-400 for a motherboard, CPU, AND a graphics card. A decent setup anyway.

For our PC in the living room (which was my old main PC) it has about the same specs as yours on the mobo. When the old card on it died (was a Radeon 9800 Pro) I was thinking about trashing the whole thing, but I decided to look for a replacement instead so it can still be put to use. I went with a PNY nVidia 7600 GS. It was only about 80 bucks. When a friend comes over we can play Team Fortress 2 at the same time and it plays and looks damn good. It can also run Oblivion, Unreal Tournament 3, Crysis (absolute lowest settings) all well.

If you were like me in a tight spot and don't have $300-400 to blow towards a new setup and just want to use your PC, I suggest you go with that card. I can't find it at the moment, Circuit City doesn't seem to be selling it anymore.

$90 Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128059
$70 CPU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819116036
$165 GPU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814127333
$35 RAM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820231098

Total: $360 (didn't count shipping because it's ~$14 and there is a $20 MIR)

Thats for a great overclocking motherboard, 1.8GHz C2D which will hit 2.8-3.6GHz no problem, a 9600GT which will stomp the 3850, and 2GB of DDR2-800.

[Hitoshura]

I guess there are a lot better deals out there than I originally thought, but even then there is no guarantee this guy himself can put this shit all together. Not to mention there are plenty of other factors to consider. You can't just throw together a bunch of stuff you bought and hope for the best. I am willing to bet that new GPU is going to need a better power supply than the one his came with, also he is most likely not running on a SATA HD, which IMO is worth shelling out an extra amount for over using your old shitty IDE. That's easily an extra $50-$100 bucks, plus most likely over $30 in taxes and shipping and handling.

[zoobernut]

It's not going to be $300-400 for a motherboard, CPU, AND a graphics card. A decent setup anyway.

For our PC in the living room (which was my old main PC) it has about the same specs as yours on the mobo. When the old card on it died (was a Radeon 9800 Pro) I was thinking about trashing the whole thing, but I decided to look for a replacement instead so it can still be put to use. I went with a PNY nVidia 7600 GS. It was only about 80 bucks. When a friend comes over we can play Team Fortress 2 at the same time and it plays and looks damn good. It can also run Oblivion, Unreal Tournament 3, Crysis (absolute lowest settings) all well.

If you were like me in a tight spot and don't have $300-400 to blow towards a new setup and just want to use your PC, I suggest you go with that card. I can't find it at the moment, Circuit City doesn't seem to be selling it anymore.

$90 Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128059
$70 CPU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819116036
$165 GPU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814127333
$35 RAM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820231098

Total: $360 (didn't count shipping because it's ~$14 and there is a $20 MIR)

Thats for a great overclocking motherboard, 1.8GHz C2D which will hit 2.8-3.6GHz no problem, a 9600GT which will stomp the 3850, and 2GB of DDR2-800.

That is very similar setup to what I just got. Same CPU at least, same amount of ram but I opted for corsair ram instead. It is much easier than people think to upgrade your computer at least close to the newer stuff for only ~$300 I know that setup will not run Crysis on max settings but nothing will. It will at least run most of the other newer games with a decent frame rate. And the motherboard will last a while as you can upgrade to newer processors and better ram when you have the money.

[Zosi]

The problem with buying AGP now is that you're just spending more money to lock yourself into an architecture that's basically a dead end. Your shit's old and getting harder to replace, and an expensive AGP video card will be pretty much wasted because every other part of your system will be bottlenecking it. If you insist on staying with AGP, go cheap, get something that matches the rest of your system performance-wise, because if you ever want to upgrade to a newer architecture, you'll be scrapping basically everything in your system anyways. $100 would be the absolute most I'd spend, and I'm pretty sure you could find a decent AGP card in the $50-$75 range.

I was recently faced with the nearly the exact same problem (had a Sempron 3000+, AGP Radeon 9800 Pro, normal DDR RAM), and I ended up upgrading with tax return money. I got the following:

AMD Athlon 5000+ Black Edition ($100)
BIOSTAR TForce TF7050-M2 Socket AM2 motherboard ($75)
Arctic Freezer CPU fan ($20)
2gb of G.skill dual channel DDR2 RAM ($45)
Generic 450W power supply ($40, I overpaid)
Diamond Viper Radeon HD3870 ($200)

I reused my old IDE hard drive, although I'm thinking about replacing it now because I'm low on space. Under $300 without a video card, and while I'm very fond of my HD3870, it's probably overkill unless you run the very newest games, you'd be fine with something half as expensive if you play older games. Just some stuff to consider if you decide you do need more system performance.

[mootsfox]

The problem with buying AGP now is that you're just spending more money to lock yourself into an architecture that's basically a dead end. Your shit's old and getting harder to replace, and an expensive AGP video card will be pretty much wasted because every other part of your system will be bottlenecking it. If you insist on staying with AGP, go cheap, get something that matches the rest of your system performance-wise, because if you ever want to upgrade to a newer architecture, you'll be scrapping basically everything in your system anyways. $100 would be the absolute most I'd spend, and I'm pretty sure you could find a decent AGP card in the $50-$75 range.

Yes thank you. You said what I was thinking (but didn't say very well).

And the HD3870 is a very nice card. I can kinda play CoD4 is good settings at 1920x1200

The 9600GT is a bit faster and cheaper, but if you want ATI, the HD3870 is the only choice.

There is going to be a price drop on the HD3850 and HD3870 to ~$120 and ~$140 soon. The HD3870x2 might be pricecut soon too, but you will need a better PSU for that though.