Should I upgrade my AGP card (6800 to x1950pro)?

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wearefree

Weaksauce
Joined
Sep 4, 2005
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76
Guys/Gals,

I run into a situation that I need to buy an extra AGP card now. My main rig is in the signature, and I recently acquired another computer (for free) that is quite old: Athlon 1800+, 352 mb PC2100, on-board video (VGA output only). The idea is to use this computer as my video box (for AVIs and RMVBs that can mostly only be played on computers) and connect this computer to my TV which will accept s-video and composite video only. There are several options I'm considering:

1) Leave the Athlon computer to collect dust till I buy my LCD tv later this year. LCD prices are falling so I won't be buying one anytime soon till the BF price comes up again ($370 for 32 in at microcenter)

2) Buy a very cheap AGP card for the Athlon PC that comes with a S-video output, price ranging from $35 to $50. A regular VGA to S-video adapter comes around the same price :(

3) Unplug the eVGA 6800 from my main rig and use that with the Athlon PC. Instead buy this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814161068
for my Dell. It has been proven that Dell should drive it fine, from:
http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_video&message.id=155191

Personally I'm leaning towards option 3, but the only concern is: is it a good idea to spend this much on a video card that relies on dying technology? Basically if anything on my Dell goes wrong the card becomes useless (or ebay-able only). Or should I simply wait till I buy a LCD TV? Any inputs are greatly appreciated!
 
I was in your same shoes. I found it was cheaper to upgrade my Mobo to PCI express, 50$, and then to buy a 7900GT card for 165$. So for 215$ I have a video card faster than the 1950pro. You can find 7900gt's all over this forum for sale for that price. Plus now you will be ready for the higher end PCI-express cards.
 
I did think about that choice as well, except it is a DELL which means the motherboard is customized for DELL only. I have researched and nobody could find a motherboard that can fit in the DELL box. Besides, even if I did, socket 478 motherboard with PCI express are really hard to come by. If I have to invest in new case + new motherboard + new CPU + new videocard, probably new memory, that's already a new computer :(
 
Well option closed. A friend is offering me his ATI all-in-wonder for free till I get my LCD tv. I guess my semi-legitimate reason for upgrading is now out of the questions.

Thanks for all the inputs though.
 
wearefree said:
Well option closed. A friend is offering me his ATI all-in-wonder for free till I get my LCD tv. I guess my semi-legitimate reason for upgrading is now out of the questions.

Thanks for all the inputs though.
Click to expand...


Damn. What kind of friend spoils your semi-legitimate excuse for an upgrade?
 
Well, I have to say a good friend. Even I'm leaning towards option 3 people on dell forums are saying the power supply may need to be upgraded as well, which is another $80 to $100. Then it becomes really not worth it, and I should start considering a new computer in the near future (Core 2 duo, pci-e, 8800 etc). It's just this is such a nice card to pass by.

Besides, I will have a really hard time to convince my wife for the budget if I go with option 3 :)
 
wearefree said:
It's just this is such a nice card to pass by. :)
Click to expand...

I know exactly what you mean. When it came time to build myself a new computer last fall, I loved the Sapphire x800GTO2 to death because it was a really good price and was unlockable. But sadly, it just wasn't current. Based on older tech. Such is the way of things. :rolleyes:
 
Thats funny.. I have a Dimension 8300 too, except with a 3.2 Northy.. and a BFG 6800GT.. and 1.5 gigs of kingston ram too.

$170 is a tempting deal..

But I think the Northy is starting to hold me back these days.

If I got that AGP card, then the only route after that is to get a new Conroe and go the Asrock route, but then I'd be limited to only 1 gig of ram since I can only use two sticks.

So I'm going to wait to build a complete new system.
 
Just did a quick search on Toms. CPU may bottleneck but quite unlikely and also depend on the games I play.

@ ynnek888:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157107
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157097
The picture of both these AsRock motherboards showed 4 slots for memory so you should be able to transfer all your memory sticks to the new board. And thank you for the ideas of Asrock! Otherwise I don't even know my old memory can still be used with the new CPU.

I don't intend to build a new computer anytime soon (limited budget). This card should give me about 2 more years of life span of the current computer. Besides, if I buy the new motherboard + CPU, it won't fit in the current case (because it's frigging dell) so I'll need to invest a new case + powersupply. It's just too much for the time being.
 
the asrock mobo's show 2 slots for DDR and 2 slots for DDRII. I'm pretty certain you can't use both types at the same time, and max ram is limited to 2 gigs.

Also, with the asrock's, they only officially support certain vid cards and driver ver's... although I've heard others running other cards.

I personally know one person that runs an e6600 and a 6800GT agp and DDR ram on his..
 
Yes you're right. I overlooked and the one that can house four DDR sticks are for AMD CPUs.

Well that just convinced me even further that I should keep my computer and play with it for a little longer. Hope my powersupply will put out enough juice. Fingers crossed... I will run the test tonight.
 
I have PC&P 425 silencer in my 8300.. :)

Again, its been a while since I bothered checking, but I'm extremely certain the 8300's used PSU with standard out.. The main problem is there's piece of metal on the back that would block the power socket or power switch on back of most PSU's.. I remember hearing people using tinsnips to cut up the case just slightly to fit a stanrdard PSU in.

So my original Dell PSU is actually powering a Shuttle SS51G, in a desperate attempt to cut out the SS51G's original noisy power supply.. They both shared the same pinout.
 
Powersupply... From the test last night it seems definitely this was the problem. I can boot into windows just fine but when I load any game the card would crash and display would turn off.

Any good budget powersupply recommendations?

Edit: will this work?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171018

Edit: Forgive my stupidness... There were two power connectors on this card and for some reason I only connected one the first time. Now both connectors are connected and the card runs like a charm. Played BF2142, Oblivion and NFS-MW all night, all games that gave my old card (6800 vanilla) some trouble to display at 1680x1050. Very happy now.
 
All I want to say is this is definitely worth the $18x.x (after tax) that I paid for it. This weekend I played Far Cry again, and I was wowed by the image quality! In the past I could barely set anything to high w/o AA and AF, now everything is set to max and the game looks fantastic! It felt like living in virtual reality except very dangerous :)

The evga 6800 got transferred to the Athlon PC. The onboard video of Athlon PC can only output at 1280x1024, 1024x768 and 800x600 resolutions because it's hard coded in the BIOS. Since the TV (37in Komodo) can only accept 1024x768 via VGA it wasn't a bid deal except if I want to play widescreen video on this computer I have to strech it vertically first through the player window then horizontally with the TV. Not very fun. After 6800 was installed, I can use DVI to get the native resolution 1360x768 and all video files I have played show a much better quality. It truly felt like hit two birds with one stone.

Long live AGP!
 
Thanks for the update on this - I too have a 6800GT and have been quite tempted to upgrade to an x1950Pro, so this puts it about equal with going the C2D route though... Too many good options!
 
Schro,

It's probably the best for you to buy a new motherboard then a PCI-e card. This option did not work for me because first I don't have a big enough budget; second my Dell computer cannot take any motherboard that is not made for Dell. So if I want to buy a new motherboard (which will not fit in Dell) I have to buy a new case, new power supply, new CPU (my P4 is really old), new memory (who uses DDR these days), and that's practically a new computer. Even if I can find a board that would support my old CPU and DDR memory I still have to buy a new case and probably a better power supply. Besides my win xp home which activates through the Dell motherboard will now be deactivated and I have to pay extra on OS as well. That's just way to much to be spent on old technology, and this new card would allow me to game another year or two and that's good enough.
 
No.

Don't buy it.

Wait one month and you'll get a better deal, Nvidia and ATi (AMD) are both launching a new lineup (or refresh) in May. The midrange cards from these series could be better than that upper middle class x1950pro.

Just wait a little bit, and you can secure DX10 for the future.
 
Wow that got me thinking... should I keep my current X1950pro or return it and wait for a better deal to come? Besides, what's the odds of the new lineup in agp?
 
Normally I would say go with whatever makes you content, and whatever works...
But as this is such a dramtic change in GPU's, since two huge lineups are on their way in, you might want to wait just a little...

There should be AGP support for this last generation of cards... if not you can always get an x1950pro for 50-100$ less in 2 months. Go buy yourself something nice with that money--or who knows, in that time you may be able to save a little more money for a pci-express purchase.
 
why are they still making AGP anyways?
i thought its been dead for a few gens now.
 
I'm trying to weigh out my options:

1) My CPU (P4 3.0E) is pretty old, and x1950pro is already bottlenecked somewhat by my CPU, later generations may be even more bottlenecked and not worthy;

2) The power requirement of later generations may go up and my limited Dell power supply (even though works fine now) may not keep up with the new card;

3) I bought mine for $170 (before tax) which is already $50 to $100 lower than the market value (newegg similar cards cost from $200 to $260) so it's considered a good deal.

If there is any information on how the new cards will be priced then I can make a decision. I checked the VGA chart on tomshardware and see that X850XT (I can't find X850pro) is actually faster than X1650XT in many cases and that tells me the new mid-range ($170 budget) will likely to be same or even less powerful than X1950pro. I'm afraid at this time it's the best to keep X1950pro, and forget about future upgrades till I'm ready for a new PC.
 
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