Advice on new AGP card

[jyp]

This is my system:

Antec Sonata case w/ True 380watts
Asus A8V Deluxe
AMD Opteron 180 Dual-Core
2G Ram Patriot
XFX Geforce 6200 / 256MB AGP 8x
4 Hard drives

I'm looking to upgrade my AGP video card mainly for gaming purpose. What would you recommend? ATi or Nvidia? My budget is around $200. Are AGP cards more expensive than PCI-e cards of similar spec? I noticed there were no Geforce 8 series in AGP.

I don't know how much longer I can use the 380Watts psu. I'm not sure how much power is being used right now. Is there any software that measure that kind of stuff or do you just go by estimating how much power each parts are using?

I do have a CoolerMaster 550watts I got on sale sitting for future use.


Thanks,

James

 

[Stumps]

plug in that coolermaster and go for a x1950pro agp....you'll see a massive improvement in gaming performance over that old 6200.

 

[TC10284]

Originally posted by: Stumps
plug in that coolermaster and go for a x1950pro agp....you'll see a massive improvement in gaming performance over that old 6200.

/me = agrees

 

[AntecCSR]

You can do an inventory of the equipment you are using on a Watt calculator like the one at http://www.extreme.outervision.com/powercalc.jsp and get an estimate of your power consumption.

Then you can do another calculation where you select the equipment you plan to use and find out how much more power you will need for your upgraded system. That will prevent problems and guesswork.

Your 380 can probably handle the system you have easily. The x1950pro is a good card. If it requires its own connector to the PSU, I recommend an upgraded PSU. The one that we currently put in the Sonata III is the EarthWatts 500. You can check it out at http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=27500

 

[Ozoneman]

If you want to stay with nvidia this is almost as fast as the 1950pro.

https://www.bfgstore.com/Produ...ductCode=BFGR78256GSOC

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: Ozoneman
If you want to stay with nvidia this is almost as fast as the 1950pro.

<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://www.bfgstore.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=BFGR78256GSOC">https://www.bfgstore.com/Pr......Code=BFGR78256GSOC</a>

nope it's not even close, I upgraded from that card to a Sapphire X1950 Pro AGP 512mb and it was a huge improvement, upto 30% in some games.

but with that said it is still a nice card and will give a massive boost over the 6200...and the later BFG 7800GS's use the g71 core so they overclock like the devil.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

the 7950gt is more in the x1950s league

 

[evolucion8]

The 7800GS trade blows with the X850XT PE and once you put the FSAA in scene, the 7800GS trails slighly behind the X850XT

 

[jyp]

I don't see many x1950 pro's available. Is it already old? Do you expect faster AGP card to come out soon?

 

[Syntax Error]

There are reports of an AGP HD3850 coming out, so you could keep an eye out for that...

 

[s44]

Stick to your current PSU and get a 2600XT.

 

[jyp]

2600XT? Any comments to this?

 

[MarcVenice]

It's not bad, but it all depends on what games you play/intend on playing. If you ask me, I'd go for a whole new rig, with pci-e. Your old opty and ddr2 400mhz ram should still be worth something, which means you can do a full mobo/cpu/ram/videocard upgrade for $400-500.

 

[jyp]

I guess I should've mentioned what kind of games I'm hoping to play. The fact is I don't even know that many games. It has happened before and just recently tried to play Juice and it seems to require GF 7series to play decent. I don't play latest graphic intensive games. I mainly play racing games and occassionally medal of honnor or counter strike stuff. I know my current card can't run many games to their fullest potential, so I want to upgrade to something that I can hang on for some time.

All my replaced parts are going to build another system for my wife who only browses and watch movies.

 

[MarcVenice]

Just dump your old s939 to your wife, and build a new rig yourself then ? But if you want a suggestion on a agp card, then you could wait for a HD3850, like someone else mentioned, but I'm not sure if that card has been actually officially announced. And you'll need a new PSU for it too most likely. 1950pro's are good too, but those are getting pretty rare, and the thing is, you simply pay way to much for a 7600gt AGP card for me to happily recommend it to you. Hence I suggest you build a pci-e rig, although your opty 180 is still plenty fast CPU wise ...