AGP 1X Whats a good card ?

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Ryck

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 7, 2003
Messages
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Hey all I have a friend who has an old gateway and he wants to upgrade his video card.
After some searching I found that his AGP port is a 1X port. What would be a good card for his comp? I've searched and found an ATI 7000 that says 1X2X4X would that be a good upgrade for his computer?

I told him not to expect to much of an improvement and he understands just wants something better than what he has which is a TNT-2 8Meg card. Any help on a good card for him would be appreciated.
 
The oldest AGP slots are AGP2x. Intel did create an AGP1x, but it was only a short-lived on-board only version. There is no such thing as an AGP1x slot unless you forget to install your chipset drivers... and even that at worst puts the board in "AGP0x" mode, aka PCI mode.

Any AGP2x card should work. Just make sure you know what voltage the slot I/O uses. Some "AGP2x" cards only work in the so-called universal slots.
 
I have some info for you.
*********************************************************************************************
The 9600 XT 256MB version:

Description:
ATI RADEON 9600XT Video Card, 256MB DDR, 128-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP

Specification:
Chipset: ATI RADEON 9600XT
Memory: 256MB DDR
BUS: AGP 1X/2X/4X/8X
Ports: VGA Out(15 Pin D-Sub) + TV-Out(S-Video) + DVI connector
Support 3D API: DirectX®9, OpenGL®2.0
*********************************************************************************************
The GeForce 5950 Ultra 256MB

FX5950
*********************************************************************************************
The GeForce FX5700LE VIVO 256MB
GeForce FX5700LE
*********************************************************************************************
ATI All in Wonder 9600 XT

AIW 9600 XT

Out of those cards I would go with 9600 XT AIW. It has tv in and tv out.
 
I have a feeling your friend's on a budget. Which would make a Geforce4 Ti4200 or a Radeon 8500 a good choice, new or used. They should work well. Buy too high-end, and you'll be CPU limited.
 
It said the AGP slot was 3.3 volts and that was all the information that it gave.
It is a 440BX chipset with an old P3 Katmai Core 450Mhz processor in it.
The motherboard is a Jabil BX motherboard R2 if that helps any for more clarification.
Gateways site does not list what type of AGP slot it is (Universal or not)
 
see if you can find a geforce2 gts or a voodoo5 they are still kicking around and would be compatible with your old 440bx board.... they support the 3.3v spec.
 
mentok1982 said:
I have some info for you.
Click to expand...
So do I:
http://www.ati.com/support/faq/agpchart.html (AGP 1.0 is 2x for AGP slots. The spec has 1x defined for onboard devices. www.agpforum.org)

The 9600 series is AGP4x/8x only since it uses 1.5v/0.8v signalling. The last ATI cards to support AGP2x were the 8500/9000 (also 9100, but that was just a renamed 8500LE).

IIRC, most of the NV3x and previous lines did support AGP2x/4x/8x (3.3v/1.5v/0.8v signalling). The GeForce 6 line finally dropped AGP2x compatibility.
 
Ryck said:
It said the AGP slot was 3.3 volts and that was all the information that it gave.
Click to expand...
That should work for most cards that are AGP2x/4x universal. AGP4x only cards are keyed for 1.5v slots.

Get a Radeon 8500, 8500LE/9100 or Ti4200. Those are the best bang for the buck on an older system like that. Just watch out for the Sapphire 8500/9100 cards... several of those have 64-bit memory and gimped core speeds. A much faster 128-bit memory card at full speed is only a couple of $$$ more.
 
Thanks pxc that was a very informative link. I was just unclear about his chipset and because I have not looked at the aforementioned pc yet.
 
I had a 440BX3 motherboard that ran a Radeon 8500 perfectly. My friends are still running their old 440BX3 with a GeForce 4200 and it is a respectable gamer.

I echo those above that selecting any card that is faster or more expensive than those listed above would be wasted funds as the processor and dated architechture would limit the graphics card.
 
Ryck said:
I told him not to expect to much of an improvement and he understands just wants something better than what he has which is a TNT-2 8Meg card. Any help on a good card for him would be appreciated.
Click to expand...


He should notice a pretty big difference with a 8500 or a Ti4200. Like was already said, watch out for the 64bit ones. If he can get a Retail 8500, that would be the best choice (out of the ATi choices, it runs 275/275). That and the Nvidia card could be found for around $60 used (in the U.S.).

and if he is considering a 9100 or a 8500LE, they come in different clock and memory speeds so look out for that...
 
Correction...
The 9500/9700 cards were still AGP2x/4x/8x, so those were the last AGP2x cards from ATi. If you can get one, the 9700Pro sure is a fine card, capable of running even the latest games like HL2, FarCry and Doom3 at quite decent framerates and resolutions.

Then again, since a system with AGP2x is very old, it would be of little use... the CPU won't be powerful enough to run such games anyway.
 
I'd go with a Ti4200. My brother uses one with his AGP2x mobo and it works quite well.
 
Ti4200 128mb in a Abit 440BXII
GF2 GTS Pro 64mb in a Abit 440BX
Both work great.
 
Enigma said:
see if you can find a geforce2 gts or a voodoo5 they are still kicking around and would be compatible with your old 440bx board.... they support the 3.3v spec.
Click to expand...

Voodoo 5 cards are a bad choice from a driver support standpoint. Many DirectX 8 cards cost very little more than something like the GF2 GTS, and are far more flexible, while still supporting 3.3v AGP.
 
2 important bits of info that are missing here:

1) what's your friend's budget?
2) what's the rest of the system look like?
 
System specs are:
P3 450 Katmai core on a 440BX Chipset proprietary Gatway MB
64 Megs of SDram which he is going to upgrade to 256
12 gig Hard Drive which he is going to an 80 gig hd

His budget is around 200 for all of it (Vid card, HD, and memory)
 
Ryck said:
System specs are:
P3 450 Katmai core on a 440BX Chipset proprietary Gatway MB
Click to expand...
If that's a minitower system, the motherboard is just a standard ATX form factor and standard ATX PSU. His budget isn't really enough to upgrade everything to make a great upgrade, but for around $200 it's possible to get:
$69.00 shipped Radeon 9600 np 128MB http://www.chiefvalue.com/app/produ...14-164-023&ATT=Video Cards&CMP=OTC-pr1c3watch
$28.50 shipped 256MB PC2700 http://www.chiefvalue.com/app/productdetails.asp?submit=catalog&item=20-211-114
$52.00 shipped 80GB WD800BB http://store.compbus.us/hd-wd807200-o.html
$65.00 + about $8 shipping retail Sempron 2400+ and motherboard http://shop3.outpost.com/product/4291744
(or wait until the weekend and the Duron 1.6GHz/motherboard combo will be around $40-$50... the same bundle is available every couple of weeks)
-----
$189.50 - $215.50 + around $8 shipping from outpost. That would be a huge upgrade overall. The only problem with the upgrade is that gateway sometimes doesn't have an ATX back plate cutout... it's a solid part of the case. You would have to cut out the opening and use the new ATX cover that comes with the motherboard to use all the ports.

the old stuff (motherboard and CPU, hard drive, 64MB DIMM) is worth at least $50 on ebay if it all works.
 
I have a 1.4Ghz P3/BX mobo and I currently have an ATI 7000. Since it's an AGP 2x slot you can stuff an ATI 9700 in there if money permits.
 
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