Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: Motherland on August 01, 2009, 09:39:53 PM
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I've got a friend who's AGP video card blew out... he doesn't have a PCI or a PCI-E rail. On top of that, I'm sure there're at least a few AH'ers who are looking to upgrade their computers that don't have PCI rails.
So... what's the best AGP card available?
Searching brought up every DXDIAG posted. :rolleyes:
Oh, this isn't the hardware forum. :rofl
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I have an AGP slot in my old machine. I decided on this: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4914257&SRCCODE=WEBLET03ORDER&cm_mmc=Email-_-WebletMain-_-WEBLET03ORDER-_-Deals (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4914257&SRCCODE=WEBLET03ORDER&cm_mmc=Email-_-WebletMain-_-WEBLET03ORDER-_-Deals) to replace my five-year old (well-proven) ATI 9800 Pro. We'll see how this works when it gets here in a few days.
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The 3650 or the 4650 are going to be the best of the best for AGP cards. You really need a fast single core or an early dual core chip to take full advantage of these cards (as per tomshardware.com).
At $170, you could pick up a cheap CPU/Mobo, halfway decent vid card and 2gb of ddr2. Reuse the rest.
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The 3650 or the 4650 are going to be the best of the best for AGP cards. You really need a fast single core or an early dual core chip to take full advantage of these cards (as per tomshardware.com).
At $170, you could pick up a cheap CPU/Mobo, halfway decent vid card and 2gb of ddr2. Reuse the rest.
Test after test has shown the 3850 is faster than the 4650.. The only thing the 4650 does faster is texture filling.. In actual performance, the 3850 wins..
The HD3850 is the fastest AGP card available.. It's totally comparable to an Nvidia 8800GT or 9600GT although it might
do better than the 9600GT in a few aspects.. To add a little to what Fulmar says: You will need either the fastest P4 cpu available (P4 Extreme 3.6ghz for socket 775 and P4 Extreme 3.4 for socket 478).. Even then, you still won't get to the full potential of this card because those aren't true dual core processors.. Otherwise, it's a waste of money.. If he has 1st or 2nd generation Pentium 4, his options will be very limited and it would be better just to build another system.. He'll have to think about his power supply as well.. The 3850 requires a minimum 450 watt power supply..
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The 3850 requires a minimum 450 watt power supply..
And that minimum spec is inaccurate. Using a 450W power supply with a ATI 3850, you'll experience a lot of PSU related VPU errors, especially if you have a few devices connected to the PSU. To save a major headache, it's best to use a 550W PSU as the minimum.
ack-ack
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And that minimum spec is inaccurate. Using a 450W power supply with a ATI 3850, you'll experience a lot of PSU related VPU errors, especially if you have a few devices connected to the PSU. To save a major headache, it's best to use a 550W PSU as the minimum.
ack-ack
I probably should've stated that, and you're totally right.. Always better to go overkill on the psu in any situation..
I look at minimum PSU ratings just like I do minimum hardware requirements for games..
It might work, just barely..
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Uhhh.. wrong forum?
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Uhhh.. wrong forum?
Wow, never noticed.... How clumsy of me..
Good think the forum police came along to that out! :aok
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I posted this in the wrong forum by accident (hardware and screenshots are right next to eachother) and acknowledged that in the first post with an edit, within two minutes as evidenced by the lack of an edit tag.
Oh, this isn't the hardware forum. :rofl
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I noticed that as well, but apparently folks keep replying, and bumping it, and bumping it, and bumping it... Tut tut!
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Running on my obsolete machine (with AGP video card), AH normally reports 70-100 FPS:
motherboard:
ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe
Intel 875P/ICH5 chipset
CPU:
Intel Pentium 4 3.2E "Prescott" SL7PN socket 478
3.68 GHz on 230 MHz FSB
RAM:
4 x 1GB Corsair CMX1024-3200C2 DDR 400
460 MHz at 3-4-4-8
video:
Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4670 1GB AGP
monitor:
PHILIPS 22" CRT model 202P7
1280 x 1024 resolution
sound:
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme PCI
power:
Thermaltake W0013RU 480 watts
disks:
3 x Seagate 500GB 7200 RPM SATA Barracuda 7200.11
2-drive RAID1 mirror via mobo Promise Tech chip plus 1 stand-alone
controls:
CH Products USB FighterStick/ProThrottle/ProPedals
NaturalPoint TrackIR 3 Pro + Vector
O/S:
MS Windows XP Pro (32-bit)
In the game controls I have the following selected under "Options... Graphic Detail... Advanced"
ON - Detailed Terrain
ON - Detailed Water
OFF - Local Water Reflection
ON - Bump Map Terrain
OFF - Object Self Shadow
OFF - Smooth Shadow