AGP replacement card advice

[Yogi]

I've been planning for a while to build myself a new machine around the vista launch so I could take advantage of cheaper Conroes, DX10 vido cards, and the like. However, my Radeon 9800 decided to die on me this week, and so I'm in the market for a AGP card to hold me over until my big upgrade. My funds are limited (starving student) and any money I save on this card means a better computer this winter.

What would you guys reccomend for something in the $100-200 range? I've been frustrated by the price premium that AGP cards seem to have over PCI express, and I've been looking most closely at a Geforece 7600GS. I have some 7600GS choices in the $150-170 Canadian range.

If you know of any good deals out there from stores that ship to Canada let me know.

Also, I've been slacking when it comes to following the overclocking potential of mid-range cards lately, if there are any gems that I might not know of let me know. I was looking at the x800GTO cards that unlock, but it looks like none of the AGP versions have the right cores.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Silverfox1]

You can`t hardly beat the performance and what you get for this card below:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102492

It may not be quite as fast as the new Geforce 7800GS AGP, but you get a whole lot more bang for your buck at almost half the price until you decide to upgrade your rig. I was in the same predicament as you when my ATI 9700 pro`s memory starting going out and I wasn`t ready to upgrade my rig just yet.

I am very satisfied with the AIW X800XT card.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_all_in_wonder_x800_xt/

Regards, Silverfox1

 

[ClintE]

Until a few months ago I was running one of the X800XT AIW cards in a P4 3.0GHz box with Abit IC7-MAX3 mb & 2gig memory. Excellent performance in most games, very stable, although I never used ATI's newest drivers. Always prefer to use one or more releases previous to the latest video and other drivers unless there's something very compelling about the new ones.

And what the review says about lots of gold plating on the board is correct, it's one of the nicer looking video cards out there. If you're into that.

 

[GreenMonkey]

If you're willing to do it, most of the time it's now cheaper to buy a PCIe card and a new PCIe motherboard than to buy the AGP card . I did this myself, running socket 754 PCIe.

 

[Anavel0]

Sapphire X1600 Pro Just barely over 100 bucks. It should hold you over till you can switch to PCI-E. Hope you get your new rig up and running soon. We want pictures when you get it done.