Athlon XP 1900+ AGP Video card seleciton help needed

theflux

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Oct 8, 2004
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As the title says, I've decided to try and nurse my current desktop hardware along a bit longer, but I am woefully uninformed as to what hardware to buy. It only has an AGP slot, and I'm only looking to spend around $200 (hopefully less). I usually only read reviews for the latest and greatest, so I don't know what all these other budget cards can do. I realize that the CPU will be a big bottleneck, but I figure there has to be a lot of room for improvement over my tired overclocked GeForce 3 (original not titanium).

The motherboard is a KR7A, and I have no preference as to nvidia or ati.

Update: I have 768 Megs of ram.
 
How much RAM do you have? It might be worth it to spend some of that $200 on a CPU upgrade or some RAM.

As far as the video card, I would suggest something like a 6600GT, X800GTO or XL, maybe even a 6800GS.
 
The 6800 vanilla might be just what your lookin for. Check the FS/FT forum there are plenty of them there that are unlocked to 16pipes and 6vertex units instead of the normal 12pipes 5vertex units. They go for like 125$. I would also try OC your CPU to get some more juice outta it.
 
I would buy a 6600GT. They are about $80-100 shipped used, and would save you $20-30 over a 6800 vanilla which is maybe 10% faster. Your processor will be the bottleneck, so there is no need to get anything faster. Of course, if you can snag a 9800 pro/xt for 60-70, I would go for that instead.

Along similar lines, YGPM, I might have a bundle for ya ;)
 
the original XP 1900 is a good cpu, do not underestimate it. There are tons of games that cpu can run, my son uses a 1700 OC to 1.8 GHz, and a X800 pro. Runs EQ II, COD, COD2, Oblivion, etc just fine. May not be able to max out the resolution since his LCD is 1024 x 768, but he has a blast. The 1900 is 1.6 GHz. Your real issue is more memory bandwidth.
 
If you want to max out your current setup, you should overclock that processor (maybe to 2.0 GHz or so) and get a 6800 GS or even a 7800 GS (that is what I recently got and it rocks). Your CPU is a bottleneck, but you can help that along with good cooling and a decent overclock. I dunno about the 1900's but the 1700 JIUHB was badass! Could OC like a dream.
 
RavenD said:
Yes. The 6800XT has 8 pipes, the GS has 12.
For the price, the XFX 6800xt 256mb (DDR3) has some nice potential and surprised me in game performance. It has awesome overclockability and can unlock to 12p/5v. =)

Here's my screenshots...

unlocked.jpg


overclocked.jpg
 
Check eBay for cards made by BFG, they have a lifetime warranty & don't care if you have a reciept. I got a 7800 GS OC for $250-, it came with a cap broken, I sent it in on an RMA and got a brand new one that's still in perfect condition.
 
If I were you, I'd save up a bit more and get an AM2 base to build off of. AGP and Socket A are both dead in the water.

Best bet? Save a bit more cash and get this:

Biostar Tforce4 AM2 - $75
1gb (512x2) G.SKILL DDR2-667 - $80
Athlon64 Orleans 3000+ - $109
Geforce 6800Xt - about $100

Under $400 and you've got yourself a pretty fast system thats future proof and will run pretty much anything. If you wanted to save a couple bucks you could get a 6600GT (used would save you about $25), drop the a64 for a sempron64 AM2 (save around $25-30?)... although I think the choices I've outlined are worth the extra cash.

If you're really strapped and don't feel like chucking your pc3200 ram, piece together a s939 system from the used market and throw a budget pci-e card in there to hold you over. Even a 6200 of the right flavor will run circles around what you've got now.

All I know is that I wouldn't invest any more money into either AGP or Socket A.

Edit: you might even look into a 6100 integrated AM2 solution. The 6100 sucks but at least it would have video and you could probably run most of the games you are running now. Then when you have more cash, get a pci-e video card.
 
IMO, I'd wait to build a new system...
but If you must upgrade, id recomend a 6800gs... mine unlocked all the way. and very happy with it. I will be building a new system Q2 2007ish....
 
look at this way, unless you add 2 or 3 512 MB sticks of ram, you are limited anyway. Still 768 MB of ram is plenty to play some games that are just a few years old. So if you stay with 768, and the XP1900 then I wouldn't bother with anything newer than the X800 or 6800 series card. With either of them you could still have a lot of fun. I bet you could get a decent 256 MB card for less than 200 used. Check the forums , lots of good deals. Good luck and let us know what you decide.
 
what do i need to get the source engine to max quality on 1600X1200? Will it do it with HDR? AA? Asino?
 
nigerian_businessman said:
...
Geforce 6800Xt - about $100
...
Under $400 and you've got yourself a pretty fast system thats future proof and will run pretty much anything. If you wanted to save a couple bucks you could get a 6600GT (used would save you about $25), drop the a64 for a sempron64 AM2 (save around $25-30?)... although I think the choices I've outlined are worth the extra cash.

no no no! 6800 series = bad. you definatly want something from the 7 series. 7600GS > most of the 6800 line, and look at its price O.O
 
Again from a previous 6800 GT owner I'd search for one of them on the FS/FT section. A 7 series card is going to be strangled by that CPU, I wouldn't waste the money on anything from the 7 series.
 
the 6800GT is built on 130nm, and drains power like a fat kid and pudding.

the 130 nm process means alot of heat and with heat comes low Hz.

the 7600GS will not bottle neck an atholon XP at 1.9GHz, but then a thought has occured...

how the hell did you get pci-e on an Atholon XP?
 
I wouldn't go much higher than a Radeon 9800, especially considering you'd have to buy a new card for a new build anyway. My old Athlon XP 2000 with 768 bottlenecked the hell out of my current 6600GT. The lowest frame rates were consistently much lower than the highs.

-pig
 
MrWizard6600 said:
no no no! 6800 series = bad. you definatly want something from the 7 series. 7600GS > most of the 6800 line, and look at its price O.O

Stfu please don't diss the 6800 series. They were a damned good contender. They're not bad, you bluthering bufoon. And it's "definitely."
 
MrWizard6600 said:
no no no! 6800 series = bad. you definatly want something from the 7 series. 7600GS > most of the 6800 line, and look at its price O.O

Um, how do you figure it's better than 'most'? 'Cause as far as pixel pushing power, it only beats out the 6800, LE and XT -- and the vanilla 6800 and xt have almost double the memory bandwidth. Perhaps the 6800XT wasn't the best suggestion, I misread and got it confused with the 6800GS, which is a bit more expensive. However I'd like to see your proof that a 7600GS is better than a vanilla 6800, since I think your statement about the 7600GS being better than most of the 6800 line was pulled straight from your posterior.

Oh, and according to this, in all situations except for those calling for SM3, the x800gto should be just as fast or faster than the 7600gs, since it has over 2 times the memory bandwidth, a higher pixel fill rate and the same texture fill rate. He could get this card here for $115 (and $95 after rebate).
 
compulsivephreek said:
the original XP 1900 is a good cpu, do not underestimate it. There are tons of games that cpu can run, my son uses a 1700 OC to 1.8 GHz, and a X800 pro. Runs EQ II, COD, COD2, Oblivion, etc just fine. May not be able to max out the resolution since his LCD is 1024 x 768, but he has a blast. The 1900 is 1.6 GHz. Your real issue is more memory bandwidth.
hey my lil cousin has a xp2600+ and a x800 xt agp card. he only gets like 30-40 frames in cs source no mater what quality and resoliton i put it on. 1 gig of ram. how good does his stuff run? so iono if his comp sucks or what.
 
MrWizard6600 said:
how the hell did you get pci-e on an Atholon XP?
I don't believe the OP is using pci-e; everybody else just started assuming stuff. There are, however, AGP to pci-e adapters available; so it's still an option.
 
tvdang7 said:
hey my lil cousin has a xp2600+ and a x800 xt agp card. he only gets like 30-40 frames in cs source no mater what quality and resoliton i put it on. 1 gig of ram. how good does his stuff run? so iono if his comp sucks or what.
Well, if he was playing in a 32 player game with everyone on the screen at once, then yeah 30-40fps. I had almost the same system as that and cs ran 40-60 (1280x1024 2xAA/8XAF) in firefights. With my Athlon64 now though, that's a different story :-D.

Moving along, with that AGP system you should probably just get a 6600GT man. It can run a lot of newer games at resolution as high as 1280x1024 with decent framerates and low AA if you're lucky. Just newegg a 6600GT, as I think you just can't lose with a 6600GT.
 
bboynitrous said:
Well, if he was playing in a 32 player game with everyone on the screen at once, then yeah 30-40fps. I had almost the same system as that and cs ran 40-60 (1280x1024 2xAA/8XAF) in firefights. With my Athlon64 now though, that's a different story :-D.

Moving along, with that AGP system you should probably just get a 6600GT man. It can run a lot of newer games at resolution as high as 1280x1024 with decent framerates and low AA if you're lucky. Just newegg a 6600GT, as I think you just can't lose with a 6600GT.

umm thats in a 10 man server and with caseys config in the cal website. i dont dare tell him to play in a 15 man+ server. its gets to like 25 frames when he encounters a player upclose and he ends up dying due to frames dropping
 
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