Old AGP card nostalgia - which one is faster?

[mrjoltcola]

I still have the first Athlon64 3200 that I built in 2004, and I decided to give it some TLC and put the best 3D card I could find into it for fun. Before I buy one, I rummaged through my old AGP cards and I came up with:

1) GeForce2 MX400 / 64MB
2) ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB

Which card wins here? It seems obvious with a 128MB card vs a 64MB, but just wanted to make sure.

 

[Zorander]

No comparison. The R9800 was a premium card whereas the MX400 was a mid-range card at best.

 

[mrjoltcola]

I thought so. I seem to recall lights and angels singing when I installed the R9800 those were the days! I think it replaced a 3dfx Voodoo2 card (which I also still have)

Thanks!

 

[mrjoltcola]

Ok, so assume I wanted to buy the fastest AGP card that the Athlon64 3200 will run? I'm clocking it at 2.4Ghz I think. Budget isn't an issue here, just part of the hobby. Which card would you recommend?

 

[magomago]

6800gt or 7600gt. I actually have both in AGP form, but i don't know if the 7600gt has the edge or not. of course that is as far as nvidia is concerned....

 

[Termie]

Ok, so assume I wanted to buy the fastest AGP card that the Athlon64 3200 will run? I'm clocking it at 2.4Ghz I think. Budget isn't an issue here, just part of the hobby. Which card would you recommend?

If you're doing this for kicks, then this HD4670 would do nicely: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161337

About the speed of an x1900xt, and therefore 4x the speed of the 9800pro. I've owned all of those cards, plus an x800xt in between.

The fastest AGP card ever made was the HD3850, I believe, but actually the HD4670 should be very close in performance.

Oh, and Magomago, the 7600gt/6800gt were at x800xt levels. Had a 7600gt AGP as well...that would be half the speed of the HD4670 I linked.

How's that 8800gt I sold you a while back doing?

 

[mrjoltcola]

Thanks both. Yes for kicks, but I get a little more satisfaction out of doing it with junk from my old card bin, or from trading for it.

4670 sounds cool, I never considered a 1GB card for this! Let me try to find comparisons between the 6800/7600 geforce cards vs the 4670.

magomago, you interested in selling/trading one of those?

 

[Zorander]

The fastest AGP card ever made was the HD3850

X2.

I paired one with an A64 X2 4600+. It smoothly handled DA:O, Fallout 3, RA3 and Assassin's Creed at 1920x1200 resolution, at Medium settings.

Not bad for relatively outdated system.

 

[mwmorph]

I used to be in your exact situation.

I had a Old S754 AMD64 (3300+ Oem chip) system with AGP and I actually had all these cards:

The 9800Pro was 3 generations newer than the GF2 400MX. It's a DX9 v.s. DX7 card.

I ended it when I ran out of options for the AGPbus, but I had a Radeon X1950GT 256mb which is quite a lot faster than the 9800/6800/7600 series.

Without a CPU overclock, the X1950/4650 would be quite overpowered for the 3200+ while the 9800Pro is actually a good fit, if maybe just slightly weak. The best fit IMO for a 3200+ is a 6800GT or X850XT but if you just want to go all out, the X1950/4670 is not a bad performance level to be at.

Also as a tip, try doing the 9800Pro softmod to a 9800XT core in you have a R360 chip just for fun. It's not a big difference, but's it's easy to do if you have a later run 9800Pro.

 

[mrjoltcola]

Yes, not bad at all.

 

[mrjoltcola]

I used to be in your exact situation.

I had a Old S754 AMD64 (3300+ Oem chip) system with AGP and I actually had all these cards:

The 9800Pro was 3 generations newer than the GF2 400MX. It's a DX9 v.s. DX7 card.

I ended it when I ran out of options for the AGPbus, but I had a Radeon X1950GT 256mb which is quite a lot faster than the 9800/6800/7600 series.

Without a CPU overclock, the X1950/4650 would be quite overpowered for the 3200+ while the 9800Pro is actually a good fit, if maybe just slightly weak. The best fit IMO for a 3200+ is a 6800GT or X850XT but if you just want to go all out, the X1950/4670 is not a bad performance level to be at.

Also as a tip, try doing the 9800Pro softmod to a 9800XT core in you have a RV360 chip just for fun. It's not a big difference, but's it's easy to do if you have a later run 9800Pro.

Ok, thanks, never knew about that.

This is why I posted the thread; guys here are better than Google for hardware. Kids don't understand the satisfaction of fixing up old computers or cars, but for me, I have memories associated with every computer / gaming system I've owned back to 1979.

Just wish I hadn't sold the 486

 

[nemesismk2]

the last agp video card i had was the x1950 pro

 

[ther00kie16]

if money isn't an issue, here's the 4670:
http://www.amazon.com/HIS-Radeon-Nat.../dp/B003CYKCG8

there was also a 3870 but can't find it anywhere for sale.

 

[penske2298977]

if it matters --- if you want Win 98 support --- the fastest AGP card was the X850 xt pe.

There were faster AGP cards, but none had Win 98 drivers/support.

 

[darckhart]

oh gosh this was so long ago!

but i'll put in a good word for the 6800gt. it was teh card i used to play doom3. and basically, all 6800gt were 6800 ultras (just need appropriate air flow). and they were all softmodable into quadros, so it doubled nicely for my cad work.

there were other faster agp cards that iirc, were actually pcie cards with the pcie-to-agp chip on the card so as to allow it to have the agp interface. can't remember the exact models, but ati made a few and my friend got one of those.

 

[happy medium]

Fastest AGP cards in order of speed.
4670//3850 depending on which game
4650
x1950xt
x1950pro
7950gt
7800gs+ (=7900gt)
x850xt/pe
7800gs
6800ultra
6800gt/7600gt were close
x1600xt
7600gs/x800pro

SOmething like that.

 

[DietDrThunder]

I still have the first Athlon64 3200 that I built in 2004, and I decided to give it some TLC and put the best 3D card I could find into it for fun. Before I buy one, I rummaged through my old AGP cards and I came up with:

1) GeForce2 MX400 / 64MB
2) ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB

Which card wins here? It seems obvious with a 128MB card vs a 64MB, but just wanted to make sure.

Old? That is almost as old as one of the systems I still have running.
Epox 8K7A (updated Bios)
AMD Athlon 2400XP (over clocked to 2.4 GHz) - original processor AMD Thunderbird 1.2 GHz)
ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 7500
120GB Western Digital PATA 133 HD
Running Windows XP Pro SP 2

I built it over 10 years ago and it will still surfs the web, runs the microsoft Office suite,
and plays BF1942 pretty well (it is amazing that there are still BF1942 multi-player servers
still up and running for this game).

Even though I built a new system last year, I don't know why, but I can't bare the thought
of retiring it. I guess I want to see how many years it still remains fairly useful.

-------------------
Order #: 361707
Submitted: 5/17/2001 12:12:12 AM
Order Summary. Qty Product Description Price
1 CPU AMD|T-BIRD 1.2GHZ/266 PGA RTL
Item #: N82E16819103155 $173.00

1 MB AMD761|6P2D EP-8K7A W/S EPOX
Item #: N82E16813123141
Epox Tech Support 714-680-0695 (M-F 9-5pm PST) $129.00

1 DVD|PIONEER 16X 106S 16X SLOT OEM % - OEM
Item #: N82E16827129103
for Pioneer DVD Recording Drives Please go to: http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/hs/ for an Important Patch $60.00

In 2004 I upgraded the processor:
Order #: 6526467
Submitted: 8/12/2004 6:20:43 AM
1 AMD Athlon XP 2400+ Thoroughbred 2.0GHz Socket A Processor AXDA2400BOX
Item #: N82E16819103336 $79.00

Then in 2007 I upgraded the ram
Order #: 61910228
Submitted: 1/5/2007 5:16:28 PM
2 Crucial 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Desktop Memory Model CT6464Z40B.8T - OEM $105.98 ($52.99 ea)
Item #: N82E16820146541
--Standard Return Policy
--------------------------------

It's kind of nice NewEgg keeps all of your order history online for eternity.

 

[mrjoltcola]

Old? That is almost as old as one of the systems I still have running.

Not to one-up you, but my closet has way older stuff than that; this system was still running too. I had given it to my parents in 2006 and I just upgraded them to a Core 2 Duo this year and took the Athlon64 back.

I also have the Athlon 1700+ XP that the Athlon64 replaced, so looks like my Thunderbird is older than yours, and before that I have the Pentium III dual core Abit BP6 board that it replaced, with the 3dfx Voodoo 2 card it ran. I think was the first card that could SLI. I had two, not sure where the other went, phooey.

The oldest one I have is a Trident 16-bit ISA VGA card!

The one computer I wish I had held onto was the AMD 486/80 or the DX2 66. I would have played Wolfenstein 3D and Doom 1 on it, and eventually I installed the first release of Linux and was thrilled at having my own UNIX system in my room to write C programs with.

But the Athlon64 was a big milestone for me, and at near 8 years old it is the best single core chip I ran, before multi-core took over. It was also a time when AMD still ruled.

I think maybe it needs an SSD too.

 

[DietDrThunder]

Not to one-up you, but my closet has way older stuff than that; this system was still running too. I had given it to my parents in 2006 and I just upgraded them to a Core 2 Duo this year and took the Athlon64 back.

Oh, my closet has an old IBM PS2 Model 50z that will still boot up. Running PC DOS 5.0,
2MB of ram and 30MB Hard drive (replaced my Commadore 64 which I still have as well).
That was the first real system I bought back in 1987 and it cost me over $3,600. But
my point is that my EPOX 8K7A system (the first system I built and is over 10 years old)
is still being used by my kid to surf the web.

I guess I have a hard time getting rid of any old computer hardware.

 

[skipsneeky2]

A 6800 ultra would be a sweet edition .

Fry's had one back in about early 2007 by shock new in box i picked it up but later on exchanged it for a 7800gs agp for a pentium 4 gamer.

Liked the looks of that card looked pretty beasty .

Reviews for the 6800 ultra are right in your alley with most it appears in april of 2004.

 

[RichUK]

BFG 6800 Ultra FTW!

 

[GotNoRice]

Just as important as performance will be what games the cards support.

Geforce2 series is DirectX7 hardware and good for hardware acceleration of your trash can and not much more.

ATI 9700, 9800, x800, x850, etc is DirectX 9 but doesn't support Shader Model 3.0. That will limit the games that they are able to run.

For broad DirectX9 compatibility (with Shader Model 3) you want at least an ATI X1800 series or Geforce 6-series card (such as the 6800).

ATI 3850 and 4670 will both give you DirectX10.1 support, which by extension should allow you to run any DirectX11 game using the 10.1 feature level. There are no actual DX11 AGP cards that I know of.

 

[IAteYourMother]

wasn't the bfg 6800 ultra like 600 dollars or something at launch?

 

[magomago]

If you're doing this for kicks, then this HD4670 would do nicely: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161337

About the speed of an x1900xt, and therefore 4x the speed of the 9800pro. I've owned all of those cards, plus an x800xt in between.

The fastest AGP card ever made was the HD3850, I believe, but actually the HD4670 should be very close in performance.

Oh, and Magomago, the 7600gt/6800gt were at x800xt levels. Had a 7600gt AGP as well...that would be half the speed of the HD4670 I linked.

How's that 8800gt I sold you a while back doing?

Still going strong

I moved her to a Thuban build I did the other day (gaming computer I leave home); I just hope she can take oblivion with all the mods installed haha!

 

[JeffMD]

wasn't the bfg 6800 ultra like 600 dollars or something at launch?

I think I paid $400 some for my evga 6800 agp. ^^ Saddly all my motherboards started dieing, now i've got all these old performance video cards and nothing to do with em.