Can you still buy AGP 8x Graphics Cards?
Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/Can you still buy AGP 8x Graphics Cards?
My Radeon 9800XT I reckon is on it's last legs. Noisy fan. Dots on some games like Quake 4 and Serious Sam 2. I'm very tempted to spend a modest amount (say £100) on a modern gfx card (has to be AGP8x) which exceeds the 9800XT by a lot and can do nice anti-aliasing and play modern games etc. Of and it'd be nice if it was quiet. I'll be using it on XP and I'm not bothered about DX10 shaders or whatever.
Of course next year I'll upgrade the whole PC and get a special graphics card for that, but meanwhile I reckon I need a new one for this.
So then graphics gurus, any recommendations are much appreciated as I'm out of touch with modern graphics cards (I know it's an oxymoron as AGP8x is not modern but you know what I mean) :-)
Thx!
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?XFX-76GTAEDIT: website is a bit of a mess for me, so in case you can't read that, it's a 7600GT from XFX, just under £100. Probably the fastest AGP there is. There are some newer ones, but I don't think they have the raw power of that.
I'm running a 7600GT AGP card, works fine. Cna play all the latest 3D games with no real problems.
Yep the 7600 GT is a good card, should be able to get one cheap on (shudder) fleabay from someone moving to a PCI-E setup.
Just bought an AGP 7600 GT yesterday. Only $140 from
TigerDirect.
I'm another 7600GT AGP user. It has run everything well that I've thrown at it, at medium detail settings. These include
Doom III
Quake Wars
Stalker
Crysis Demo
UT3 Demo
Bioshock
Fear
Halo 2
it's definitely the best bang for your buck. Oh, and I think you'll find that the benefits of PCIE are overstated. In most of my research, the performance difference between it and AGP was negligible to non-existent.
Actually I have a second-hand, but perfectly working and cared for Gainward 7800GS 512mb AGP 8x card - it's based on the 7900 chip so it's very fast (but not DX10). Nice quiet cooler too. It takes up two slots in the back of your case, requires a PCI-express power connector to the back of it (I'm not sure if I still have a convertor to convert a normal 4-pin power cable to 6-pin PCI-E). If you're UK-based and interested, let me know. It has 2 DVI connectors for dual display at the back, so you'd probably need a display with DVI (or a RGB-DVI converter).
7600GT sounds great.
Caff. Yep I'm UK based and that sounds good only. However I still run a (nice) CRT so I guess that means I really need a card that still has Analogue VGA output! How antiquated.
Yep you can get a DVI to VGA convertor but it's extra expense. I'd plump for a nice new 7600GT for about £80 - I've a feeling I could sell this card for a bit more than that second hand, I remember it being a bit of an 'enthusiast' card. But thanks for reminding me to sell this thing - better than it sitting in a drawer collecting dust!
Are those convertors any good then? I wouldn't consider one unless it was quite cheap. Yeah that card sounds cool. I found this:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128027/show_product_specifications?spectype=extendedBut again it seems to be DVI only output. Are a lot of modern cards like that then? They are all designed for TFTs or something? What about CRT users, are we the minority now?
I've found some 7600GS cards for about £50 but I'm dubious as they are not GT. I know it's like cars, get the best model!
Hmm Gabriel's link shows a GT which comes with an adapter cable...
Yep you will almost certainly need one of these:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=97442&doy=7m11&C=SO&U=strat15(Female DVI to male VGA version)
So that's £10 on top of the card, unless they include it in the box (most manufacturers do)
I'm doubting there's all that much difference between a 7600GS and a GT really. I'd just go for the cheapest really. It'd be a step up from your 9800XT that's for sure.
And yep that XFX must be the fastest Nvidia you can get for AGP. Everyone says the ATI 1950 is fastest for AGP, but really it comes down to what you'd be happier with. I would pick Nvidia over ATI but that's a completely personal preference based on my experience.
Don't go with GS, get the GT. My 7600GT has a plain VGA hookup, no need for an adapter.
caff: Yeah I've had a couple of Geforces and they've been fine (Voodoos before that). Got a Radeon now.
That Tom's HW link says that the GS is considerably slower than the GT so I may as well spend another £30 getting the GT. I think I'll steer clear of those top end ATIs for now.
How much would you want for your card btw? (now I know converters are only £10ish (hope quality of conversion is good...) Email me if you like :-)
Eikon: sounds good actually, thing is the specs I'm fiding don't seem to have VGA, maybe certain models of GT do and some don't - seems inconsistant though, you'd think they all had the same. What's your make please?
Hmm this seems reasonable:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NVIDIA-GeForce-7600GT-512MB-AGP-Graphics-Card-7600-8X_W0QQitemZ230189085784QQihZ013QQcategoryZ3762QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItemHmm but closer inspection shows odd specs:
Engine Clock 580MHz
Memory Clock 800(400*2)MHz
Yet I thought the core on GTs was 560MHz and memory was 700MHz x 2 (1400MHz effective) according to Toms Hardware and other sources, so now I'm not sure about this card... Also other GTs I've seen are two DVIs only so there must be two models or something...
Ah this is more like it:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/dirresults.html?s=7600gtIs it worth getting one with 512MB RAM?
Mine is a LeadTek WinFast brand at 560mhz, try to find a 590mhz if you can. On the ram, 512 won't cause much of an increase in performance over 256 unless the game is using massive textures.
Sorry to semi-hijack this, but it's almost exactly what I've been thinking about the last few days. I could use a graphics card update, and I was astonished to see how far down the premium 8x AGP cards had come in price - such that even the mighty 7600GT is within reach.
Trouble is, I'm only running an AthlonXP 1900+, and given any new computer I get will have PCI-e in it, would the extra expense (compared to a lesser model) of a 7600GT be a total waste given the bottlenecking at the CPU? Is there a limit to how good a card is worth getting for such a relatively old computer, or is it a case of The More The Merrier?
Otherwise I'll aim a lil lower (6600GT?) and maybe add some memory too...
What Eikon said, plus the two 256MB cards you listed there are faster DDR3 VRam, whereas the 512MB card is slower DDR2.
WRT A 7600GT with an Athlon XP 1900, I don't see any fundamental reason that it would hamper your performance. However, since many of the game you would get most benefit from a 7600GT with will want a faster processor, it might not make financial sense to buy one. I'd be inclined to grab a 6600GT and definitely get the extra ram, which is always the best bang for buck performance increase anyway.
Ive got a 512mb x1950pro agp card. one of my friends has got the same cpu and ram as me but his graphics card is the pci express version, so i did some comparisons, the pci version is a bit slower 2 frames ish and seams to jerk about abit more at the start of levels until it finishes loading thinks into vram. but i can run just about any game with nice setting 60+ FPS.
Pete - what is the CPU and ram on your machine?
Are those convertors any good then? I wouldn't consider one unless it was quite cheap.
I've used them -- you can find them for $5 or so. They don't actually *convert* anything, all it does is connect the proper pins. DVI-I connectors provide both the digital DVI signal
and the old fashioned analog VGA signal over a seperate group of pins.
Those converters just take the VGA signals from the DVI connector and connect them to the appropriate VGA pins.
But since DVI has more future than VGA at this point, I'd rather have a video adapter that can handle it... If you do get a TFT at some point you'll be glad that you can run DVI, since it does give a noticable crisper image (especially if your screen supports a high native resolution)
xlsior: Thanks for the info on convertors.
Eikon: I'm finding it really hard to find a card in the UK. Thought I had a candidate with that 512MB version but now I'm told the RAM is slower...
Gabriel: The first of the 256MB cards is PCI-E so I can't get that. The other two cards appear to both have Dual 400MHz RAMDAC and Memory Clock Speed of 1400MHz, so doesn't that mean they are the same or am I missing something? (Clearly the 256MB version costs more too! weird)
Hmm 7600GT is hard to locate so now swinging towards this Radeon X1950:
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(16139)Sapphire-Radeon-X1950PRO-512MB-DDR3-8x-AGP.aspx[edit] wow but check out the X1950XT compared to the PRO:
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?PHPSESSID=9c27d510042b4ee73b521e3370e4275d&card1=471&card2=503Thing is I was planning for something under £100 really...although it's tempting to get the last and best AGP card there is.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Gainward-BLISS-GF-7800GS-AGP-512mb-Silent-FX-7876_W0QQitemZ330184389621QQihZ014QQcategoryZ3762QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem^ this is the card I have.
I suppose I could sell it - not sure how much it's worth (I'm asking around on another forum to get an idea of it's value) - I'm guessing around £100?
Comes with the original box, in great condition, has antistatic bag, original driver disks (probably would't need them), a DVI - VGA convertor (quality is fine with the convertor by the way). And I can guarantee it's pretty silent.
Your PSU needs a 6-pin PCI-E power cable, or you would need one of these:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-018-AK&groupid=701&catid=48&subcat=153to plug in to the back of the graphics card. I'm pretty sure I still have this but I'll hunt around in a drawer. I've got the invoice for it too, but I'm not sure it is still under warranty as I bought it in May last year.
Let me know if you're still interested. My advice is still get a 7600GT for new though - it's a bit cheaper and at least that way you're sure it can be sorted under warranty.
Thanks caff. In the end I got an X1950PRO for like £90. I was spending WAAAAY too long choosing a card and it was costing me money. Good luck selling your card.