Graphics Card Recommendation?

I have an ATI Radeon 9800Pro which has been given me memory read errors for a while so I guess it's on it's way out - any suggestions for a replacement?

It has to be an AGP card - not PCI Express because my motherboard won't support PCI Express.

I also want a new card. I've been reading around, and I think the DX10 cards are comming out in a couple months. It would be worth waiting for them I think. Unless you can't that is...

I can't wait really because a PC is not much good without a working graphics card - especially if it went completely.

But a DX10 card is only worth getting for Vista anyway - DX10 is not going to be available for WindowsXP.

Did you download the newest driver for ATI Radeon 9800Pro?
Sometimes this could solve the problem.

They just released the 7900GS... Pretty sure that's AGP and if it is, it's the fastest you can get. :)

In terms of price versus quality, I'd get a GEForce 7600. I don't notice any difference between those and the 7800's, and they are fairly inexpensive. Get the BFG overclocked 7600 if you can.

A 7900 might be slightly faster, but it's probably not worth doubling the price for a 5% increase in performance.

How do those cards compare to the Radeon 9800Pro? A big speed increase? I haven't bought a graphics card in a while.

PS Sammy it's a bit more serious than a sofware problem.

Have you tried lowering your Memory speeds, Has the card got sufficient air circulation around it, not just on the front as their are Memory chips on the back too. If the errors are pixel based (I.E. white pixels here and there) that would be the GPU. If you're getting discoloured strips along the screen or white coloured trianges/flashing white its a memory problem.

Yes, pretty big. You'll also be able to have anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering enabled without any performance loss. Pretty sure the 9800 was a SM 2.0 card as well so you'll be up to SM 3.0 with these. In order words, you'll be getting better looking effects, soft shadows, things that you weren't seeing on SM 2.0.

I'm inclined to agree with Halo. I don't see the point in going beyond a 7600 if you're sticking with an AGP card. I don't know ( and perhaps you don't either ) when you might want to upgrade the motherboard, cpu, etc, so I would probably play safe and pick up some kind of 7600 for a bit less money. It's not likely to be pushed to it's limits any time soon.

Something like this, perhaps? 256 meg of DDR3, and it's £125. The PCI-E model would probably be cheaper, but that's often the case with older bus hardware.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-76GTA

( Not particularly suggesting Novatech are the cheapest, although they're usually fairly good on price, they're just local to me. )

good advice. i would like to know how much better the 7600 as mags tend to review comparing them to other new cards, which doesnt really help people upgrading.

ive not got the cash to upgrade my motherboard etc and my 9800pro is also on the way out, even with perfect air flow in my huge case, thats full of fans it gets to very high temps and crashs the system now and again. Grrrr

Thanks for the advice, I'd like to upgrade more than the graphics card really, and maybe I will - depends how long the card lasts.

At the moment I just get a few beeps on start-up and after that it's fine - but sometimes I get an error message telling me it couldn't read/write to memory.

You may also want tto take a look at http://www.tomshardware.com

They have huge VGA adapter benchmarks periodically, with performance graphs for dozens of cards.

@ Kanati:

Sorry, but according to NVidia's website, the 7900GS is PCI-E only.

I know that it is offered in PCI-E, because I just bought one. That means my newest rig (all the parts should be here by Tuesday) will be a Conroe E6400 on an Abit AB9 Pro MB with 2G Corsair RAM (4-4-4-12) and a 7900GS for graphics.

I feel like a kid at Christmas...

Club 3D 7600GS AGP:

http://www.club-3d.com/productshow_vga.php?gpu_brand=Nvidia&ordercode=CGN-GS766&show=AGP&p=&filter=&l=en

That would be my choice, not the Club-brand maybe if possible although they are OK, but 7600GS with passive cooling. I'm so tired of temp problems... next PC I'm going to buy/built is going to be as quiet as possible.

For the no noise seekers:Silence is Golden: Silent GPU Roundup, that has the Gigabyte 7600 GS as a good choice. PCI-E only I think though...

Steve: let me know when you've done it as I have an almost identical system to you (9800XT is the only minor change). I am interested in silent GPUs too.

Just ordered this Graphics Card, which is about as good as it gets under AGP.

http://www.gainward.net/products/product.php?products_id=48

Steve I replied but the post got wiped. Thanks for letting me know, looks RAD :-)