Looking for a new AGP graphics card

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Can anyone recommend me a good (possibly cheap) AGP graphics card? After playing Oblivion on my PC yesterday, I've finally come to the conclusion that I'm in dire need of a new graphics card in order to be able to run it (and future games) at a decent speed and level of detail, and I've come to you for any recommendations you might have. My current card is an ATI Radeon 9600.
 
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Well, AGP cards and the AGP bus are dying fast. And if you want better performance for Oblivion and future games, you are pretty much forced to got to PCIe, as much as I hate to say it.

The only card that I can think of off the top of my head would be and ATI card thats atleast and X800+ or a Geforce card that is atleast a 6800 GT, but you may have to do as I said and get a PCIe Card and Mobo.

Sorry man.
 
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Well, you said you want "cheap" and "good enough to run Oblivion/future games"? Those two don't go together. The fastest AGP 8x card available is the 7800 GS. They're about $300.
 
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Well, it would be a good idea to upgrade to PCIe, but that would mean having to upgrade my entire motherboard and God knows what that's gonna cost, not to mention any hardware I'll need to upgrade along with it. Is it really worth upgrading to PCIe right now, or should I be able to stick with AGP for a while longer?
 
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Amayirot Akago said:
Well, it would be a good idea to upgrade to PCIe, but that would mean having to upgrade my entire motherboard and God knows what that's gonna cost, not to mention any hardware I'll need to upgrade along with it. Is it really worth upgrading to PCIe right now, or should I be able to stick with AGP for a while longer?
If you were to use a socket 939 athlon 64 setup with a agp mainboard you could get away with upgrading to an asrock 939 dual sata2 as the board comes with both agp & pci express slots. There are also other boards out there that allow this, but a lot of them aren't really that good on quality from what iv'e seen.

If anything I'd look for an agp Geforce 6800gs (&, if you have the know how, Unlock the extra 4 pipes on the card & clock it up a bit and you got yourself a 6800ultra for a cheaper price :)).
 
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Hmmm, guess I'll go for PCIe after all. Might be expensive, but at least that way I'll be up to date for a long while to come.
 
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Considering the age of his computer, won't he need a new CPU to match the socket 939? Then, with all that new stuff, your old RAM could be a bottleneck too. More of that would definitely help run Oblivion.

See where this is going?
 
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frsrblch said:
Considering the age of his computer, won't he need a new CPU to match the socket 939? Then, with all that new stuff, your old RAM could be a bottleneck too. More of that would definitely help run Oblivion.

See where this is going?
Well, good question actually. Post your specs & then maybe we can tell you if it's worth getting a new card in your system or not Amayirot Akago.
 
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Right then, my specs:

Processor: Intel Pentium 4 2993MHz
Display Card: ATI RADEON 9600 Series
Memory: 1024 MB
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP
Free Disk Space: 27.04GB
Display Card Memory: 256MB
Display Driver Version: 6.14.10.6601
DirectX Version: 9.0c
Optical Drive: CD/DVD
Sound Card: Creative SB Audigy LS
 

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Get a new CPU and put an AGP 7800GS in that baby and it will last you.
 
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CM said:
Get a new CPU and put an AGP 7800GS in that baby and it will last you.
What's wrong with my CPU then? And what card brand are we talking about here?
 
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CM said:
Get a new CPU and put an AGP 7800GS in that baby and it will last you.
There is no need for a new chip, his chip is fine enough as it is. It's not gonig to bottleneck a 7800gs, 7800gs is only 16 pipes anyway with the geforce7 filtering and rendering instructions & clocked faster.

If anything I would get a 6800gs & unlock it + overclock it to a 6800ultra (this can only be done on agp variants mind you), & this way you won't spend to much cash. Make sure you also have a half decent power supply too.

Sorry, pushed edit and ment to push Quote ~Smith
 
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General Overlord said:
There is no need for a new chip, his chip is fine enough as it is. It's not gonig to bottleneck a 7800gs, 7800gs is only 16 pipes anyway with the geforce7 filtering and rendering instructions & clocked faster.
Lol, yes with GeForce 7 'filtering'.

A 6800GS sounds fine, like Overlord suggested. My 6800(GT~) plays Oblivion 1024 by 768, all high (except for grass), and 2x anti-aliasing with decent rendering speed. Nothing spectacular, but it's playable, and very enjoyable. Awesome game, Oblivion.
 
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Given the fact that it's also agp, you'll be shooting yourself in the foot if you buy a 7800gs, that's why I suggest you get a 6800gs. 7800GS is expensive and benchmarks show that it's not so amazing when you compare it to a 6800ultra & If you get a AGP 6800gs, you can unlock the pipes on the card + overclock the card a bit and you have a 6800ultra for a fraction of the price. The price you pay for 7800gs and when you compare it to a 6800gs/gt/ultra is just not enough to justify buyying one as it really can't perform much better then the gs, gt or ultra. All the more reason to buy a 6800gs and save your left over moolah for something else.
 
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General Overlord said:
Given the fact that it's also agp, you'll be shooting yourself in the foot if you buy a 7800gs, that's why I suggest you get a 6800gs. 7800GS is expensive and benchmarks show that it's not so amazing when you compare it to a 6800ultra & If you get a AGP 6800gs, you can unlock the pipes on the card + overclock the card a bit and you have a 6800ultra for a fraction of the price.
The only reason nVidia pushed the 7800GS out was because they wanted to officially have the only "next gen" card on AGP.
 
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Did a quick check at newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130273

A price for a 7800gs (practically if you decided to buy one, this is the only one that would show good enough gains over any 6800 series card). This card cost $309. It's up to you what card you want to buy but As i advised before it's still an agp card and I wouldn't spend that kind of money on a agp card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143045
Geforce 6800gs, price : $219. Difference between the price is about $90 or so dollars.

I'm not sure about your psu, but again that's more reason to buy the 6800gs as you might have to get a new psu.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153023 - Thermaltake TR2 W0070 ATX 430W Power Supply - Retail $39.99.
 
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General Overlord said:
Did a quick check at newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130273

A price for a 7800gs (practically if you decided to buy one, this is the only one that would show good enough gains over any 6800 series card). This card cost $309. It's up to you what card you want to buy but As i advised before it's still an agp card and I wouldn't spend that kind of money on a agp card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143045
Geforce 6800gs, price : $219. Difference between the price is about $90 or so dollars.

I'm not sure about your psu, but again that's more reason to buy the 6800gs as you might have to get a new psu.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153023 - Thermaltake TR2 W0070 ATX 430W Power Supply - Retail $39.99.
The +12V has only 18A, which is a minimum for new PSUs. Get one with ~20-24.
 
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General Overlord said:
Guess i'll look into power supplies in the future. Had a friend yesterday witch bought a thermaltake soprano case that came with a 430w psu that didn't seem shabby at all.

JUST PC JPC-P4DF450C-BLUE 450W Power Supply - Retail $29.99. This power supply has +12V@20A.
It looks better, but it's from a company I've never heard of before. Never know if their warrenty will hold through. I'm sure his current PSU is fine, so you can probably drop the issue =).
 
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Of course a Geforce 6200 could be a temporary replacemant
 

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