Hardware BEST AGP GFX CARD? UNDER $200? AUS

[Halo-101]

What is the best GFX Card for AGP I Have 2.8GHZ Pentium 4 with nvidia geforce 6200 and 1GB Ram and am getting a quick upgrade until i can afford a really good PC atm 2 sticks of 1024MB DDRam,700W PSU,And A GFX Card New one is what i am purchasing but out of these which is best?"

Gigabyte ATI HD4650 AGP 1GB 128-bit GDDR2, Dual Link DVI-I / D-sub / HDMI / HDCP, Fan
PowerColor HD3650 1G DDR2 DH AGP
PowerColor ATI HD4670 1G DDR3 AGP
PowerColor ATI Radeon HD3650 512M DDR2 DH AGP
Sapphire HD4650 1G AGP

Anyhelp greatly Appreciated thnx in advance.
-Halo101

 

[Rydian]

What are the games you intend to run?

 

[Deleted User]

No offense but you aren't going to find one, cheap that would be an upgrade at this point in time.
but here.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814161337

 

[junkerde]

a new comp is the way to go

 

[PettingZoo]

I think you'd be much better off saving up for a new desktop than spending so much on an outdated low performance card bro.

DDR RAM is severely outdated as well so I wouldn't bother, as well as a 700w PSU being waaaay to overkill, especially for your current specs.

 

[cobleman]

doh agp that is old.
Joe88 i changed it before your comment lol
I wouldnt waste the money on an AGP mate.

 

[Joe88]

This is a nice card http://www.centrecom.com.au/catalog/produc...oducts_id=51127 good value and rates pretty good on passmark too http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?...orce+GTX+550+Ti
This card wont brake the bank

he has a AGP slot not PCI-e

 

[Halo-101]

HIS IceQ H467QS1GHA Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 AGP 4X/8X HDCP Ready Video Card

This Card Good??

I was thinking of purchasing either the above or ATI 3650

With 4 sticks 500MB DDR Ram

700W PSU

And i have pentium 4 2.8GHZ

 

[GreatCrippler]

Best AGP card available is gonna be an ATI 4670, After that either a 3850, or a 4650.

 

[Chhotu uttam]

Radeon HD 2600 XT.
my friends old PC has this card.
works well.

 

[doyama]

To be honest you have way too many bottle necks there. You're better off just dumping the system and starting from scratch. I think even the best AGP card is going to be outdone by an equivalent PCIe card by a HUGE margin. You'll see much better performance by simply starting from scratch.

 

[Halo-101]

bottleneck define?

and ok well would this work then:

Asus DRW-24B3LT 24x DVDRW SATA LightScribe
$55.00

CoolerMaster 700W Extreme Plus
$89.00

Intel Core i5 2400 Processor LGA1155 3.1GHz CPU
$209.00

Corsair 2G 1333MHz DDR3 VS2GB1333D3
$26.00

Corsair 2G 1333MHz DDR3 VS2GB1333D3
$26.00

Keep My current case...need help finding a good modbo for it relatively cheap with SATA,USB2,Etc...

And Maybe A Good GFX Cheap just for playing Darksiders,Prototype,Dawn Of War 2,AC3,Left 4 Dead 2,Borderlands,COD BO,Brink,Portal 2,Battle LA.etc.

anyhelp here guys? thnx

 

[Sop]

Your computer is as bad as mine.. On topic - Put the money towards a new PC, you can make a new PC for the price of an old agp card, seriously don't bother upgrading your computer it's a dinosaur... If you really want to upgrade go with the first also newegg doesn't ship to Australia.


That system is overkill for what you do..

This system should be able to run whatever you need

Amd athlon (or phenom) II x4

Nvidia 550

Earthwatts Eco 500w antec

Antec 200 (or 300)

Kingston 1333mhz ddr3 ram 2gbx2

Any Asus am3 mobo

Sanding spinpoint f3 1tb

 

[Originality]

Kinda rich seeing Sop giving computing building advice and asking for advice in another thread. Anyway...

The best Sandy Bridge motherboard is apparently the Asus Maximus IV Extreme. Since that's a lil pricey, you might want to look at the MSI P67A-GD53 (B3) instead, which was rated the best value motherboard (and has a bucket of features too).

For the RAM, you can save money by getting a 2x2GB kit for $40, such as this kit.

For the DVD drive, unless you REALLY want LightScribe (which requires compatible DVDs to even work), you're better off getting a $20 DVD drive like this one.

Finally for graphics, any mid-ranged graphics card will be plenty for your needs. A Sapphire Radeon HD 6790 is better than a GTX 550 Ti, but isn't as fast as a GTX 460. Just consider how much of your budget you want to spend on a graphics card.

EDIT: Oh right, forgot to explain what a bottleneck means. Extreme example, putting a nVidia GTX 590 in a computer with only a Pentium 4 inside. The CPU (and subsequently motherboard and RAM) just won't be fast enough to give the graphics card instructions, and that causes a bottleneck. Another example: putting a SATA III SSD (like the OCZ Vertex 3) in a SATA I speed device (like a PS3). It can only go at 1.5Gbs, instead of the 6Gbs it's capable of. Basically in order to get the most value out of your system, you want to try and match the components and keep the right balance. Here's the Wiki definition too:

Spoiler

A bottleneck is a phenomenon where the performance or capacity of an entire system is limited by a single or limited number of components or resources. The term bottleneck is taken from the 'assets are water' metaphor. As water is poured out of a bottle, the rate of outflow is limited by the width of the conduit of exit—that is, bottleneck. By increasing the width of the bottleneck one can increase the rate at which the water flows out of the neck at different frequencies. Such limiting components of a system are sometimes referred to as bottleneck points.

 

[OrGoN3]

Kinda rich seeing Sop giving computing building advice and asking for advice in another thread. Anyway...

The best Sandy Bridge motherboard is apparently the Asus Maximus IV Extreme. Since that's a lil pricey, you might want to look at the MSI P67A-GD53 (B3) instead, which was rated the best value motherboard (and has a bucket of features too).

For the RAM, you can save money by getting a 2x2GB kit for $40, such as this kit.
Finally for graphics, any mid-ranged graphics card will be plenty for your needs. A Sapphire Radeon HD 6790 is better than a GTX 550 Ti, but isn't as fast as a GTX 460. Just consider how much of your budget you want to spend on a graphics card.

That is all opinions and personal experience with the different companies. A Gigabyte board will be more than enough. I would never recommend MSI. They always made low-end quality products. In any case, a P67 motherboard will probably go down in price soon, as the Z68's have been rolling out (more advanced features).

As for RAM, a 1x4GB stick will cost just as much as a 2x2GB kit. Such as this right here.

Finally, graphics. If you plan on playing games, you do NOT want an ATI/AMD card. Here's the only reason why: Catalyst. Catalyst is the name of their drivers. Simply put, their drivers are terrible. While they continue to improve, NVIDIA drivers simply work. Most games will have NVIDIA sponsorship. Of course they're going to patch NVIDIA problems first. I recommend a GTX 560 Ti, or a GTX 460 1GB (768MB has slower memory). If you can't afford the 560 Ti, don't just get the GTX 550. Get the GTX 460 1GB instead. It's a generation old, yet it'll kick the 550's ass.

 

[Originality]

That is all opinions and personal experience with the different companies.
...
Catalyst is the name of their drivers. Simply put, their drivers are terrible. While they continue to improve, NVIDIA drivers simply work.

Okay, I'll just assume you know more than I do (whether or not that's true) and return to a professional reviewer's opinion... oh wait, that's what I did - use a professional reviewer's opinion. CustomPC Magazine issue 094, arrived this morning with a fresh coverage over their recent Sandy Bridge motherboard labs test.

They say the MSI motherboard is the best value in the test (aside from the Maximus IV Extreme which they used only to overclock i7-2600K to 5.3Ghz out of the theoretical 5.7Ghz maximum). They go into detail on how the VRMs are the main feature of the board, which is able to keep cool even under heavy overvolting. Sure, the Intel Z68 motherboard and early releases from other retailers feature a whole bunch of extra features (like "virtual GPU" technology), but they're new and I'll wait for their labs test next month before saying Z68 is better than P68.

The disadvantage of using 1x4GB of RAM over 2x2GB is the fact that dual-channel RAM requires 2 RAM sticks. I'd only advise getting 1x4GB of RAM when they intend to get another 1x4GB of RAM soon, if not straight away.

Catalyst is not as "terrible" as you say, or at least not as bad as they were 4 years ago. That doesn't make them good, and nVidia drivers are better, but in many cases you'll find that mid-ranged graphics aren't nearly as affected by driver issues as high-end graphics. True that 60% of games will have the "nVidia: The way it's meant to be played" logo on the startup, but that doesn't mean that AMD graphics are incapable of producing playable framerates in modern games (as you seem to imply). I'm still using a HD4870, and there are no games that give me trouble.

As I said, the HD6890 is better than the GTX 550. The GTX 460 (768MB) is faster than the HD6890. The GTX 560 costs much more than any of them. There is a clear scale to the order of graphics cards, and if you just ignore the AMD cards, you'll end up either paying too much or too little for the amount of power you want. EDIT: Naturally, these facts are based off real-life performance in a range of modern games. If needed, I could even cite the exact page in CPC Magazine (and, in a couple weeks, provide the link to the review on bit-tech.net).

 

[FAST6191]

I will echo the "probably better to sort new PC" crowd but "I Have 2.8GHZ Pentium 4" caught my eye- if memory and quick search are correct these are LGA775 aka that used by a good chunk of the core2 line (an upgrade path that is not so dear any more and still quite effective).

Granted that is now old hat (the third successor to the method if you count 1156 and 1155 as one is due out before the end of the year) but if you have up to $200 Australian you can probably score a PCIe motherboard and swap everything out (not sure what ram you are using- most and indeed any I suggest would have DDR2 minimum though which might set you outside the range).
Equally do read spec lists- some boards left out support for the old P4s despite them fitting in sockets or only added support in a later BIOS update.

This being said between the consoles (which are souped up DX9 era devices) and relative failures of DX10 and beyond games are still just about holding back spec wise so you can get something done on older hardware. Most of the games you listed are not that demanding either (they can take advantage of it but actually requiring is a different matter) and you can probably get by on an old second hand card for a month of two as you scrape some funds together.

Other than that if you do want AGP you got some good advice so far. Buying high end AGP in that day and age does not sit well with me though as you are effectively paying a premium to limit yourself.

 

[PettingZoo]

Your computer is as bad as mine.. On topic - Put the money towards a new PC, you can make a new PC for the price of an old agp card, seriously don't bother upgrading your computer it's a dinosaur... If you really want to upgrade go with the first also newegg doesn't ship to Australia.


That system is overkill for what you do..

This system should be able to run whatever you need

Amd athlon (or phenom) II x4

Nvidia 550

Earthwatts Eco 500w antec

Antec 200 (or 300)

Kingston 1333mhz ddr3 ram 2gbx2

Any Asus am3 mobo

Sanding spinpoint f3 1tb

An Athlon may be all well, but you'd be better off saving up for at least something a bit more modern like a Phenom II x4 955 to do you well, in this day and age why would you ever touch an Antec 300/200, if he's on such a budget he wouldn't really need to restrict himself to an Asus mobo, rather anything he could get his hands on. Just like the Asus motherboard, he shouldn't have to restrict himself to Kingston RAM either (some G.Skill RAM may be cheaper) Sanding isn't even a brand, but a Samsung f3 spinpoint 1tb is a good drive.

 

[giantpune]

why are you worrying about a graphics card when you are using a CPU that is over a decade old? in some countries, your CPU is old enough to be married and support a family. you can get a processor just like yours for $25.

as others have pointed out, DDR memory is also a thing of the past. you can get it now off ebay for $5 per GB. and getting 4 sticks of 500MB only gives you 2BG of RAM. windows uses 1/2 of that just sitting idle.

i dont think you will be happy with the performance you will get out of your machine with any graphics card unless you are planning on playing games that are as old as your components. if you are looking to play new games, you best save your cash and upgrade all those other parts.

 

[Halo-101]

Gigabyte GTX 460 SE PCI-E 2.0 1GB DDR5 256-bit - GFX Card

Gigabyte GA-H61M-D2-B3 H61 L1155 2x DDR3 SATA2 USB2.0 HD Audio mATX
Gigabyte GA-H61M-USB3-B3 H61 L1155 2x DDR3 SATA2 USB3.0 Audio mATX
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::Which Modbo?::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::