AGP card to go with Sempron 3000?

[Zimdesign]

Hey, my friend doesn't have a whole lot of money but he wants to upgrade his Radeon 9600. He currently is running a Sempron 3000 CPU with a gig of RAM, which AGP card do you think would best suit the rest of his current system?

I am thinking an X700 might be enough, but I think he might be better off with a 6600GT or something even more powerful like a 6800GS. Would those "higher-end" AGP cards be overkill in his rig?

 

[apoppin]

the highest end cards are not overkill.

How much is his budget and what resolution does he game at?

 

[keeleysam]

6600GT.

 

[Zimdesign]

I guess, like most of us he wants to get the most bang for his buck. I would say he would not spend more than say... $250. He is an occasional gamer, been playing F.E.A.R. and Battlefield 2 at lower resolutions and quality settings right now. I'm sure he would like to turn that up a notch or two.

He is looking to get his new card before the next LAN party (which is next month) so I said I would help him find a good card quickly

 

[beserker15]

if $250 is his limit, he might as well go for the 7800gt, i think it's down to that price but with rebates...so say wait like one more month for prices to come down, because it's worth waiting for.

 

[Zimdesign]

The cheapest AGP 7800 I can find is $380 Canadian (which is $330US).

 

[Powermoloch]

X1600PRO agp
6600 GT agp
x800 GT agp

good run for his money lol

 

[beserker15]

oh, sorry about that...forgot it was agp only and he's in canada. your best bet is probably be getting a used 6800gs and pray that it unlocks.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: beserker15
oh, sorry about that...forgot it was agp only and he's in canada. your best bet is probably be getting a used 6800gs and pray that it unlocks.

That sounds reasonable to me :thumbsup:

 

[EvanAdams]

Originally posted by: beserker15
oh, sorry about that...forgot it was agp only and he's in canada. your best bet is probably be getting a used 6800gs and pray that it unlocks.

I'm glad we are now asking the big guy upstairs for computer help.

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: Zimdesign
Hey, my friend doesn't have a whole lot of money but he wants to upgrade his Radeon 9600. He currently is running a Sempron 3000 CPU with a gig of RAM, which AGP card do you think would best suit the rest of his current system?

I am thinking an X700 might be enough, but I think he might be better off with a 6600GT or something even more powerful like a 6800GS. Would those "higher-end" AGP cards be overkill in his rig?

This review features the Sempron 3100 and MSI Geforce 6600 GT AGP to give you a rough idea of how the 6600 GT would perform with a Sempron.

The Geforce 6600 GT performs well against the older video cards when used with a Sempron and the Sempron doesn't appear to be holding it back too much. I guess what we need to know is which games is he going to use and does he have any plans to overclock the Sempron at all?

 

[Skunkwourk]

I'd go with a 6600gt. My guess is that his processor will probably bottleneck higher end cards.

 

[Zimdesign]

Nice article nemesis, looks like he will see a nice boost over his current setup by going with a 6600GT. Hopefully the fact the he is still on the old socket A (as opposed to 754 in this article) will not negatively affect performance too much.

I guess I will try to find the best deal on a 6600GT for him then.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Zimdesign
I guess, like most of us he wants to get the most bang for his buck. I would say he would not spend more than say... $250. He is an occasional gamer, been playing F.E.A.R. and Battlefield 2 at lower resolutions and quality settings right now. I'm sure he would like to turn that up a notch or two.

He is looking to get his new card before the next LAN party (which is next month) so I said I would help him find a good card quickly

$250 Canadian?

6800GS seems best-bang- for buck in AGP [now] . . .

also look in Hot Deals


even a 9800p will be a significant upgrade over a 9600
[the 6600gt, more so]

again, what resolution does he game at [crt or lcd?] . . . and NO the 6800GS wold NOT be overkill for the rest of the system.

 

[Bozono]

I'd recommend a 6800GS as well. They can be had for $220 CDN. The reason is it's only $50 more than 6600GT, much better performer, and will have great resale value a year from now seeing as it will be one of the last quality AGP cards made AFAIK. Plus I think they unlock to 12 or 16 pipes.

 

[Zimdesign]

I was giving a ballpark figure, so $250 US or CDN doesn't really make that much of a difference these days (the current exchange rate is about 15%). I think he would like to game at a minimum of 1024 at medium quality settings with acceptable performance.

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: Zimdesign
Nice article nemesis, looks like he will see a nice boost over his current setup by going with a 6600GT. Hopefully the fact the he is still on the old socket A (as opposed to 754 in this article) will not negatively affect performance too much.

I guess I will try to find the best deal on a 6600GT for him then.

I didn't notice that he had a Socket A motherboard, on the same website there is a
review of a sempron 2200 socket a which also features sempron 3100, athlon xp2500, and athlon xp3200. The Sempron 3000 will be a little slower than the athlon xp 3200 but it will give you a good idea of it's performance with a msi 6600 gt agp.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Zimdesign
I was giving a ballpark figure, so $250 US or CDN doesn't really make that much of a difference these days (the current exchange rate is about 15%). I think he would like to game at a minimum of 1024 at medium quality settings with acceptable performance.

well, if that's your buget, the 6800GS is the best bang for the buck . . . considerably cheaper, the 6600GT is best in it's class.

Both cards will do fine in that system at 10x7 for his games . . . the 6800GS will allow for more AA/AF and still higher FPS.

 

[Trevelyan]

Originally posted by: Zimdesign
$250 US or CDN doesn't really make that much of a difference these days

its the end of the world as we know it

 

[Zimdesign]

Yeah, this whole low exchange rate thing is still weird to me... I remember it used to be like 50-60% and I would see something advertised online for what I thought was cheap until I realized it was in USD. For example: a 150$ USD video card would have ended up costing almost $300 CDN with shipping and these days it's much closer to $200.