Best AGP card for gaming in 2009?

Archaea

Archaea

[H]F Junkie
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I have a bud who has an old system -- still AGP. He doesn't want to upgrade quite yet and just wants a new/used graphics card that can play games a bit better than his current 9800pro.

What's the best AGP graphics card still available in 2009?

I know the 7800GS is the best Nvidia - I had one of those cards back in the day, but can't remember the best ATI???

How do the two best AGP cards (nvidia vs. ati) compare?
 
The ATi 4670 AGP would be the best one, but they cost about $120 on newegg, and that's entirely too much. Unless he's got a high-end 939 system, his CPU will probably severely limit a 4670. Trying to extend AGP systems now is a losing game, with drivers becoming an issue.

For $250-$350, you can put together a Core 2 Duo DDR2 system that will run rings around any AGP system.
 
A 3850 512MB with 256-bit bus might give the 4670 a run for its money, IMO. Not to mention the 3850 is usually cheaper, too.
 
Syntax Error said:
A 3850 512MB with 256-bit bus might give the 4670 a run for its money, IMO. Not to mention the 3850 is usually cheaper, too.
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Yeah I was just noticing that in the reviews and came back to post the same thing...It appears the 3850 bests the 4670 in some modern games like crysis???
 
Archaea said:
Yeah I was just noticing that in the reviews and came back to post the same thing...It appears the 3850 bests the 4670 in some modern games like crysis???
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I mean, at this stage, it's your pick between "somewhat good" and "somewhat okay" graphics cards; if you had a more modern computer with a PCIe bus, you'd have a lot more options.

Honestly, it might just be a more prudent upgrade path to get yourself a more modern Core 2 Duo or X2/Phenom system.
 
You guys have got to be getting bottlenecked by those old CPU/motherboard combos with these "new" AGP cards. I know, I know, AGP isn't dead yet, but it's really close. Another year and no more cards will be coming out for the old platform. Enjoy the last few months while you can boys. *thumbs up*
 
PCI-E 1.0 @ 8x is bottlenecking my 9800GT (and so is my CPU, lol). But yeah, when I take out my other card, and put the PCI-E bus to 16x, it increases the FPS by a good amount. I could only imagine the bottleneck on the HD4850.

Good luck with the classic system! ;)
 
I really think he should just save his money and put it towards a new PC. He sounds like he doesn't want to waste any money on his computer where it's not necessary, but I think at this point it's a bigger waste to upgrade his old one and still get very low performance for his money.

For someone who doesn't like to spend much, I'd recommend the $370 Acer PC on bestbuy.com (athlon x2 with 3GB) and the $35 after rebate 9600 GSO video card from newegg. You could even play Crysis on that (on low-ish settings of course).

Both his computer and his card will be so much faster this way, than if he continued trying to make the AGP system keep pushing on.
 
I know that around these parts where I live, there is no way in hell one will get back even 50% the cost of a higher end AGP card -- people just aren't wanting AGP around here. Simply not worth the $$$. Better off saving up and working towards that newer stuff with a PCI-e slot.
 
you guys are falling off the wagon.

I appreciate your upgrade advice, but he is trying to go cheap.

He ended up buying an ATI AGP 4650 from NCIX for $85 shipped. Not the fastest, but probably a reasonable choice to line up with the rest of his system.

AMD 3700+ Clawhammer, 1.5GB RAM, 480 watt TT PSU, the newer 4650 graphics card and a 19" LCD. It'll be a significant upgrade for his 9800 pro and get him off 800x600 resolution at the lowest details settings for his Call of Duty 4 gaming sessions.
 
Your friend will honestly have to invest on something remotely modern sooner or later, it's just a matter of opportunity cost and his patience of putting up with sub-par equipment in modern games.
 
Hm, I'll throw in a very similar question here.

I have an old AGP machine that I keep at a friends place to use while I'm over there. If I'm remembering all the details right, it's built around a AMD x64 3200+ with an "unlocked" ATI x850 Pro (flashed to be nearly an XT)

I've been thinking about topping off the ram and maybe swapping out for a newer AGP card, but I haven't kept up with the AGP area at all. Would a "faster" card really give me anything, or would it be so horribly restricted by the AGP bus that it'd be a near pointless acquisition?
 
A lot of people are stating CPU bottlenecks at that point, especially with higher resolutions.

Not to mention other factors, like limited driver support, AGP saturation, power supply limitations and generally old hardware.

I honestly believe just saving money for a newer system is a more prudent buy.
 
Syntax Error said:
A lot of people are stating CPU bottlenecks at that point, especially with higher resolutions.

Not to mention other factors, like limited driver support, AGP saturation, power supply limitations and generally old hardware.

I honestly believe just saving money for a newer system is a more prudent buy.
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For a system that I use an average of maybe 6-10 hours a month, I'm not really wanting to invest much money in it. If bumping the AGP card will be a waste, I'll simply slap a bit more ram in so I can better handle being the server when we play Sins or similar and otherwise leave it alone. If I could get a decent bump in performance from a newer AGP card, I'd be willing to throw maybe $50 away on a used card, but it sounds like you're thinking that's not going to happen.
 
S3th13 said:
LOL. People have been saying that since the 7800GT came out in an AGP format, but they still keep making them. Why wouldn't they? They usually sell for twice the cost of their PCI-E counterparts.
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Because mainstream market was overtaken by PCI-E cards and manufacturing AGP is less profitable that's why are they more expensive even they are older platform and lower performance.
 
Not falling off the wagon, just thinking it is unwise to spend 85 on a card when for 150 you can have a motherboard, chip, ram, and card. If you sold your old parts that were replaced by those you would probably come out at about the same price!

Putting any part in the old computer that can't transfer into a new computer would be a waste.
 
Jakalwarrior said:
Not falling off the wagon, just thinking it is unwise to spend 85 on a card when for 150 you can have a motherboard, chip, ram, and card. If you sold your old parts that were replaced by those you would probably come out at about the same price!

Putting any part in the old computer that can't transfer into a new computer would be a waste.
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THIS!!!!
 
Jakalwarrior said:
Not falling off the wagon, just thinking it is unwise to spend 85 on a card when for 150 you can have a motherboard, chip, ram, and card. If you sold your old parts that were replaced by those you would probably come out at about the same price!

Putting any part in the old computer that can't transfer into a new computer would be a waste.
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This still doesn't get him a video card. The $150 link provided did not have a video card - it had a small hard-drive which he doesn't need. So he'd then have to spend another $80+ to get a decent video card. Yes overall performance would be faster with all new components ------- but the overall price goes significantly higher than the cost of the video card upgrade alone. Thanks for your help guys...
 
We honestly tried but I guess your friend is that stubborn and he really is impatient. :rolleyes:

He's going to come back in another 6 months wanting to upgrade, but this time, there probably won't be much he can do as games get more complex and AGP technology lags two generations behind and is still prohibitively expensive.
 
I hope it works out with the new card for him.

Cheap people will be cheap regardless of how much common sense you shove in their face.

Everything said in the comments are true, but if he is happy with it then so be it.
 
lloose said:
:eek: thats a killer deal
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I was wondering why, if this is such a killer deal, that NewEgg feels it has to post this
disclaimer in their terms of sale? Frankly this scares the H*** out of me.

"Newegg.com cannot guarantee the compatibility of Combo items. Please contact the manufacturer(s) directly if you have issues or concerns regarding compatibility."
 
Archaea, for what it's worth, I agree with you.

There are some older but high quality systems out there. I have an old P4/2.8 that continues to chug along, AGP and all, but every piece of it was a top quality proven component at the time of assembling. I'm sure someone could link $150 of core componentry that in theory would match its performance, but frankly I'd trust the longevity of the old rusty but proven durable box over el cheapo components designed with the least care, made by the lowest bidder and shipped with the least packaging.

The other thing many people fail to realize is the number of people who want a computer for (a) web surfing and (b) basic gaming. (a) has been met by hardware for a long time now, as clearly evidenced by the wildly popular yet "low performing" netbooks. (b) becomes the issue then. If I have a proven durable system that satisfies (a) properly, and a $75 card can give me a real nice boost to (b) over the 9700/9800 cards common in these older, high quality systems, then it may make sense to do so.

Without question, it's a risk. But, so is paying beyond your means for an expensive system that is out of your budget. Also, I think there is some techie value to having a system that you run near its limits most of the time. It'd be a shame to go through life that way, but I have found an occasional short stretch "living with" older hardware to be instructive. It's taught me to be more sensitive to responsive design, especially in software, and better able to spot bloat.
 
lloose said:
:eek: thats a killer deal
Click to expand...

No it's not, that ECS Black 780G motherboard has some serious quality issues, just look at all the DOA reviews.

You get what you pay for. I make it a habit to avoid ECS/Elitegroup/PC Chips garbage.
 
I have the HIS radeon 3850 ICEQ3. Its overclocked and voltmodded to 795/990. I actually found the biggest jump of performance when I upgraded from my 2.8C at 3.0 to a 3.2E at 3.6. (bought the 3.2 from the FS/T for 30 bucks), best deal I have ever made
 
tarlog said:
I was wondering why, if this is such a killer deal, that NewEgg feels it has to post this
disclaimer in their terms of sale? Frankly this scares the H*** out of me.

"Newegg.com cannot guarantee the compatibility of Combo items. Please contact the manufacturer(s) directly if you have issues or concerns regarding compatibility."
Click to expand...


They put that on all their combos.
 
defaultluser said:
No it's not, that ECS Black 780G motherboard has some serious quality issues, just look at all the DOA reviews.

You get what you pay for. I make it a habit to avoid ECS/Elitegroup/PC Chips garbage.
Click to expand...

I have actually only read good things about that motherboard. I was looking at that combo for an easy upgrade for some friends and my wife's rig. The only bad things I have read about it are from the newegg reviews. Most of the people who post on newegg are complete idiots imo.
 
Archaea said:
This still doesn't get him a video card. The $150 link provided did not have a video card - it had a small hard-drive which he doesn't need. So he'd then have to spend another $80+ to get a decent video card. Yes overall performance would be faster with all new components ------- but the overall price goes significantly higher than the cost of the video card upgrade alone. Thanks for your help guys...
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter to me what he gets, was just trying to save him money long term. Whats done is done though.
That wasn't my link though, mine was to a 112 dollar setup with no video card. Anywho. A setup like this is what I was talking about.

xd6utv.jpg
 
JakalWarrior - now that is a good deal. Except not quite convinced about the ECS motherboard .....I'd pay the extra for a cheap ASUS or something more along those lines. I had an ECS board that worked fine that was basically free in a combo I bought a couple years ago - ...so I won't call them junk, but they are the cheapest you can buy and that's a bit scary to me in regards to potentially the most important hardware piece on your system.
 
Best AGP card is HIS HD3850 IceQ3 Turbo (720/1820). What is more, ~3,4GHz Pentium 4 CPU bottlenecks it by from 40% to much more in any newer game, so anybody with P4 should go for a less powerful and cheaper AGP card.
 
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This talk about the 3850 makes me want to pick one up. The X800XTPE in my old Dual 3Ghz Xeon rig is taking a turn for the worse and I just love that old beast of a rig too much to let it die. Having virtual quad core back in 2003 was the shit.
 
Cheaper solution... buy some $10 whiskey with some cola and play drunk? Smooths the edges noticeably.

At some point the Clawhammer or AGP aren't bottlenecks, it's just dated.

That technology is not from a time before PCI-Ex, and 1.5 GB of memory is feasible. If you must salvage things why not visit the For Sale/Trade forum here and get a s939 board for cheap, and a video card, for the price of the new AGP cards?
 
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