~50$ AGP Vid Card

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MrCoffee

Limp Gawd
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Jan 10, 2004
Messages
480
A friend of mine Is looking for a Hold-me-over video card until he can get his new laptop in about 6 months. Hes looking to shell out around 50$ for one (after AR is fine), and I've looked around, but havent found anything really good for him.

His constraints are as follows:

Must be AGP card
Computer is a P4 2.4ghz with 1g of Ram
Hes got a 250W power supply (Yes, its a crappy prebuilt computer from Best Buy)
It must have VGA input
He hopes to play CoD4, even if on minimum settings. (CoD4 Specs suggests 9800pro or better)
His Current card is a GeForce4 MX 440

I know there are some really good cards etc for like 75$ and such, but hes really not looking to spend more than 50$. Again, hes just looking for something to hold him over until he gets his laptop.

Looking forward to your suggestions
 
250W from best buy > "430W" ThermalTake TR2.

Anyways, your not going to find anything in retail, but 7800s and 6800s are plentiful on e-bay and should hit somewhere around that price. Also there are retail outlets through ebay (such as this NCIX one, but I know theres a velocity micro one and a couple others which arn't coming to mind right now...)

I believe those items come with all factory warranties. I bought an item from them, and I'm trying to remember what it was, but it came with a full invoice and looked like it had never been opened. edit: oh rofl its right in the discription that this one has been opened and it comes with a 15 day defect free warranty from them. Still, you get the invoice and so long as you register within 30 days I doubt EVGA will be the wiser... please someoen chime in if thats illegal.
 
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lloose said:
That will run it on low/medium settings easy.
Click to expand...

Wasn't a big fan of that card, x1650pro AGP, but for $50 it will do just fine. 7600GT will perform a little better but you're not going to find one, even a used one, for that price.
 
I second or third the choice of the 7600GT for an extra $20-$30...It will be a good investment...

I myself am thinking about get a 7600GT AGP for me 6 1/2 year old P4 comp...
 
There is this card on newegg for $53 counting shipping and (large) MIR.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814241073

Looking at the (horrible) new VGA charts on toms shows the x1650pro and 2600pro to perform about the same, at least at the two charts I looked at. (one win each) Either way he goes, there is the power issue. I think both cards officially call for a 350W PSU. He can try either one, but I'm not sure how well it will work.
 
I played COD4 with the 1650 and it worked smoothly, albeit on low settings. It should get the job done.
 
You can find the 512mb Visiontek HD2600 Pro's on the forums for $50 - $60 shipped and they'd slaughter the 7600GT in CoD4, Bioshock, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Crysis :)
 
it's gonna be hard to play cod4 with any of these cards but the 2600 would be your best bet.
 
Dazed and Confused said:
You can find the 512mb Visiontek HD2600 Pro's on the forums for $50 - $60 shipped and they'd slaughter the 7600GT in CoD4, Bioshock, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Crysis :)
Click to expand...

Whoops, just realized the first link had the 2600 on 4x AA.

http://www.overclockersonline.net/index.php?page=articles&num=1312&pnum=10

This second link shows the 8600GT killing the HD2600 Pro. You can find many other articles that will show the 7600GT just about on par with the 8600GT for DX9.

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/powercolor_hd2600pro_512/8.htm
 
Tzzird said:
Whoops, just realized the first link had the 2600 on 4x AA.

http://www.overclockersonline.net/index.php?page=articles&num=1312&pnum=10

This second link shows the 8600GT killing the HD2600 Pro. You can find many other articles that will show the 7600GT just about on par with the 8600GT for DX9.

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/powercolor_hd2600pro_512/8.htm
Click to expand...


Except the fact that #1 the 8600GT isn't on AGP, #2 the 7600GT is a bit slower than the 8600GT, #3 the 7600GT is about 30 - 50% slower than the HD2600 Pro in games like CoD4 , S.T.A.L.K.E.R. , BioShock and Crysis. In many other games and especially older games the 7600GT would be faster. But the older architecture of the X16xx and 7600 series is showing its age in the latest games.

Man the 7600GT sure doesn't fare well in CoD4 . And keep in mind the HD2600 Pro is only a little slower than the X1650XT in older games and comes in between the X1650XT and HD2600XT in newer titles :)

I was thinking about a 7600GT myself before I started looking arround and saw how badly the HD2600 Pro was killing the older cards in newer games.

Personally I'm enjoying Crysis @ 1024x768 on mid - high detail with 8x AF and 0x AA with no hiccups yet and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. @ 1280x1024 on mid - high detail with 16x AF , 4x AA and View distance at max :)

Oh, before the Catalyst 8.46 Hotfix AGP drivers I couldn't run AA without noticeable slowdowns before, but now it runs fine :)
 
And again.. we reach the $50 limit.
If you had pci express, you could find a slew of cards in the pricerange. As for agp, the cheapest you can get is $70 and its open box (which I wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole).
 
i dunno if you can find one but i have an x850pro AGP that plays COD4 on medium settings pretty good....

i dont know how much you can get one for now though... im sure used they are cheap
 
I paid $63 for X850XT AGP.

It obviously isn't super good in shader heavy games and its Shader Model 2.0. However, it was a far better choice than the x1650pro I was considering.
 
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