Suggestions for a New Video Card

[trap78]

System specs are:
Asus P4P800 Se MB
2.4GHz P4 Processor
1 GB Corsair XMS RAM
480 watt Power Supply

I'm currently running an ATI 9800 vid card with 128MB. I want to upgrade to the best card available that's still a good match for what the rest of the system can do performance wise; and it has to be an AGP card. Any suggestions?

[Anodizer]

System specs are:
Asus P4P800 Se MB
2.4GHz P4 Processor
1 GB Corsair XMS RAM
480 watt Power Supply

I'm currently running an ATI 9800 vid card with 128MB. I want to upgrade to the best card available that's still a good match for what the rest of the system can do performance wise; and it has to be an AGP card. Any suggestions?

As far as I know, this is the best AGP card available....  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161284

This is probably not far behind...    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161284

Both are ATI flavors...  I wouldn't waste your time with any of the Nvidia agp series as it is either obsolete or is riddled with problems (7900 series)..


On top of that, a power supply will probably be in order..  I know you stated a 480watt PSU..  It may be enough if it's a decent power supply..  If it's factory such as a Dell,

or a budget PSU, then no.... 


To add to that, a CPU upgrade wouldn't cost too much either..  You could get away with spending 50 dollars or less and getting a P4 3.2 HT w/800mhz fsb and 1 meg cache...

And a RAM upgrade would be advisable too(depending on your configuration: 2x512's or 1x1024)..  2 gigs is ideal for AH...  With 1 gig, you'll be swapping files back and forth between

the RAM and the hard drive.. 

Doing this more intense upgrade will bring your system just about up to speed of what that video card needs to achieve its full capability..  Otherwise, you'll just be bottle necking..

Then again, with the cost of all that, your probably already halfway to buying an entire new rig.... 

Your choice...


Or.................Perhaps you can take a shot at over clocking...  That Corsair RAM is made to over clock..  Your processor will probably go to atleast 2.8-3.0ghz..  That ATI card can be overclocked

as well..  I'm not saying you'll get any kind of spectacular results, but every little bit helps...  Maybe 2 FPS..  Maybe 5 FPS..  Who knows? 


I can tell you this...  My back up system is a P4 3.2ghz w/2 gigs of Crucial Ballistix DDR500 RAM..  It's overclocked to 3.6..  It has an Nvidia Geforce 6800GS AGP w/256.. 
I was able to mod the card so it a couple more shaders and pipelines would work (only worked on a few of the 6800GS agp cards).. 
It runs the game great at 1280x1024...  Everything is cranked except for the shadow effects..  I get a constant 59 framerate using Vsync.. 

That's just to give you an idea of how little it really takes to run the game full out..  Higher resolutions with of course yield different results..  I ran the game on my 22" at 1680x1050 with everything cranked at it stuck around 40..  Still ok, for some..  But I guess I'm spoiled..  I need smoothness in my graphic experience or I won't bother playing..  After turning down AA on notch, it stayed around 59 pretty much unless I got close to the ground/water or a bunch of other planes...

Good luck!

[cattb]

If you can afford save your money and build a new computer if you think you can build one, be the way to go.
2.6 dual core either AMD or Intel with a 9800 pci-e express will run this game. You should be able to save some stuff from your PC to migrate over.
 i also understand money is tight. tiger direct and newegg come up with some pretty good builder package deals at times also.
Cattb/TimO

[Krusty]

Anodizer seems to think the last good Nvidia card was the 6800.

The 7900 GS AGP card is a good card. Is it a 9800? No. It smokes a 6800 Ultra easily enough. More than enough power for anything AH will throw at you.

Even though the HD 4650 card is indeed a more recent card, the 7900 GS is only a little slower, and surpasses it in a few areas (256 bit memory means it has about 3x the memory bandwidth as the HD 4650, pixel fill rate is nearly double, and overall it's a high-end gaming card, where the 4650 is a mid-range card)

For example:

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=510&card2=611

Question is, are you going to be running games like Crysis, FEAR, HL2, etc?

EDIT: In the link I posted, that's a 600mhz GPU on teh 4650, seems the links Anodizer provided are for 750Mhz GPUs, just FYI.

EDIT2: I'm not saying the 7900 is without flaws, but as a solution to your AGP problem it'll do nicely, and is probably cheap now (if you can find one)

[Masherbrum]

Keep the personal jabs out of these discussions.    Come on, people asking for advice, don't need this. 

[Anodizer]

Anodizer seems to think the last good Nvidia card was the 6800.

The 7900 GS AGP card is a good card. Is it a 9800? No. It smokes a 6800 Ultra easily enough. More than enough power for anything AH will throw at you.

Even though the HD 4650 card is indeed a more recent card, the 7900 GS is only a little slower, and surpasses it in a few areas (256 bit memory means it has about 3x the memory bandwidth as the HD 4650, pixel fill rate is nearly double, and overall it's a high-end gaming card, where the 4650 is a mid-range card)

For example:

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=510&card2=611

Question is, are you going to be running games like Crysis, FEAR, HL2, etc?

EDIT: In the link I posted, that's a 600mhz GPU on teh 4650, seems the links Anodizer provided are for 750Mhz GPUs, just FYI.

EDIT2: I'm not saying the 7900 is without flaws, but as a solution to your AGP problem it'll do nicely, and is probably cheap now (if you can find one)

Krust-Sack<-------Providing the AH community (and lord knows who else) bad information on just about any subject since 2003...
You should stick to skinning, bro...

Trap, Krusty is not a good person to get advice from....  Many on this forum will vouch for that...  He has proven time and time again that a microscopic
amount if knowledge can be construed into a dangerous thing..  He's never owned any of the hardware he endorses except for the 7600GS which he tried to
pass off as a L33T card and made grandiose claims on what his particular 7600GS could do.. The 7600GS was a budget card that could've been had for about 60 bucks
when it was released..  My best advice: don't listen to Krusty, as many others will tell you.. 

The 7900 series is riddled with problems..  They are WELL known for running hot..  If you don't believe me, check out Tiger Direct and New Egg and see
the comments..  Some don't even work out of the box....  There are dozens of experiences explaining how they had to RMA the card after
just a few months or even weeks..  The links I provided to you are the fastest AGP cards available today....  If you truly want to go with
an Nvidia card, I would suggest a 7800GT/GS if you can find one..  But understand, most likely it will be at a premium(expensive).. 
The 6800 series is a decent substitute..  While there is a bit of a drop in performance, it is likely you'll be able to find one for much less than a 7800 series card..

In the AGP arena, ATI has definitely taken the lead(and will probably remain as there probably won't be anymore AGP card advancements)..
The 3850 has even beaten out the 8800GT is some aspects....  I just noticed that pasted I 4650 twice..  I meant to post the 3850 also...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161226

You need to understand that the 3850 is the very best you're going to get when it comes to AGP and it beats out ANY of the competition by a large margin regardless what Count Krustula says...
The numbers speak for themselves..  There are rumors that better cards have been made(by ATI), but I can find nothing as far as where to buy them or any real info on them besides a few reviews..  It is likely these cards never made it past prototype stage..  The 3850 will literally crush the 7950GT(which I think is the fastest AGP card Nvida produced)..  The 3850 is basically a down-clocked 3870..  So, the overclocking potential is excellent!  Check this review and comparison out...  http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3151&p=9

If you have any other questions, feel free to skip this thread and PM me as I'm sure Count Krustula will have more bad information to spew after reading this....

[Delirium]

Another player has a 7800 AGP card and is running AH without difficulty. Keep in mind the AGP design is outdated and this will most likely be the last time you'll be able to upgrade that computer without getting a new apeture for the video which will require a new motherboard.

Finding those high end AGP cards is getting tougher and tougher, and from what I've seen they charge prices that are beyond ridiculous.