Suggestions for solid AGP card with DVI?

[bebrewer1]

I believe my old ATI Radeon X800XT Platinum AGP graphics card is dying (monitor goes into sleep mode a few moments after booting, have done troubleshooting and believe this to be the case). I paid a fortune for that card about 5 years ago because there were no real options if I wanted to use my 24" Sun Microsystems LCD on a Windows box with DVI. 1920x1200 isn't a big deal today but it was back in 2004.

My problem is that the best cards today are all in PCI Express and I can't afford to do a complete mobo/CPU rebuild right now. Can someone give me some suggestions on a good AGP 8X card for a Windows XP Pro machine?

 

[goldcrow]

The best you can get from AGP right now is a 3850, not sure if there's still 3870 AGPs. These things wouldn't do the resolution any justice, if you plan on playing new games, you won't be able to crank up the settings to high even.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

As far as performance, and general availability, here's from fastest to slowest:
HD 3850
X1950 Pro
HD 3650
X1650XT/7600GT/7800GS (TIE)

You might want to venture on ebay to see if you can get any of these cards cheaper, and you will probably have to get the last three cards from there anyway if you're interested and if their price is right.

 

[bebrewer1]

Thanks for the suggestions guys! Any feedback on an NVDIA 6200 256MB card? Looks like I can get one of those locally for around $50.

 

[alyarb]

6200 is poor.

 

[Andrew1990]

Originally posted by: bebrewer1
Thanks for the suggestions guys! Any feedback on an NVDIA 6200 256MB card? Looks like I can get one of those locally for around $50.

The 6200 is a POS when it comes to gaming. You want at minimum a 6800GT/GS if you even want to try gaming at that res.

The HD3850 can be found sometimes for $100AR on the egg and is your best bet though.

 

[vj8usa]

Originally posted by: bebrewer1
Thanks for the suggestions guys! Any feedback on an NVDIA 6200 256MB card? Looks like I can get one of those locally for around $50.

That's incredibly overpriced. I've seen brand new 6200s for free after rebate before; they're very weak cards. Do you have to buy locally? Prices at online retailers are usually much better.

Also, do you even need gaming performance from your card? I see several people recommending 3850s and such, but that's massive overkill if you won't be gaming.

 

[bebrewer1]

I don't really need gaming performance since I haven't played a game on it since HL2 back around '06. I do need fast 2D desktop capabilities as I keep a lot of windows open and have multiple tabs in the browser going all the time. Don't want to have to wait on a slow GPU to redraw the screen. Appreciate the tips on the 6200, I did some research and found out it doesn't even support 1920x1200 via digital, only analog. I might have to go with the 3850 or X1950 just to keep my desktop running as smoothly as the X800XT did for the past few years. I sure am going to miss that card

 

[vj8usa]

Originally posted by: bebrewer1
I don't really need gaming performance since I haven't played a game on it since HL2 back around '06. I do need fast 2D desktop capabilities as I keep a lot of windows open and have multiple tabs in the browser going all the time. Don't want to have to wait on a slow GPU to redraw the screen. Appreciate the tips on the 6200, I did some research and found out it doesn't even support 1920x1200 via digital, only analog. I might have to go with the 3850 or X1950 just to keep my desktop running as smoothly as the X800XT did for the past few years. I sure am going to miss that card

You sure about that? It doesn't make sense that it'd be able to output 1920x1200 through VGA but not DVI.

Also, as for 2d performance, you won't see a real difference with a more powerful card (unless you want GPU accelerated video decoding or something), so you might as well get something really cheap.

I'm curious, why did you originally get the X800XT? Weren't there plenty of low/mid range cards that could output 1920x1200 via DVI back then?

 

[tcsenter]

In no particular order:

Radeon X1650 PRO
Radeon HD 2600 PRO or XT
Radeon HD 3650
GeForce 7600 GS or GT

The ATI cards require the Catalyst AGP Hotfix drivers:

Catalyst 9.3 AGP Hotfix (last version to support DX9 GPUs such as Radeon X1650 Series)

Catalyst 9.4 AGP Hotfix (supports only HD 2000 and 3000 Family)

 

[bebrewer1]

Originally posted by: vj8usa

You sure about that? It doesn't make sense that it'd be able to output 1920x1200 through VGA but not DVI.

I'm curious, why did you originally get the X800XT? Weren't there plenty of low/mid range cards that could output 1920x1200 via DVI back then?

It didn't make much sense to me either, I got it from the EVGA website about the card that was here locally. I got the X800XT to be able to play games on my PC when I built it some years back. There really weren't too many cards able to do 1920x1200 via DVI back in '04. The Radeon card that I had prior to that could only do it analog.

After looking at all of the feedback, I think I am going to order the Sapphire X1650 Pro from NewEgg. It's only $59.99 shipped and looks to be plenty powerful for what I need.

X1650 Pro - NewEgg

I'll post up some feedback after I get it up and running.

Thanks!

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814131136 <--- much better

My AGP X850XT did 1920 x 1200 through DVI, so make sure you're positive your X800XT won't do 1920 x 1200.

 

[bebrewer1]

The X800XT ran it perfectly, probably the best video card that I have ever had. I'm having to replace it because it goes into sleep mode after the computer has been running anywhere from boot up to 5-10 minutes and won't wake up. The 6200 Nvidia is the card that says it won't support 1920x1200 over DVI on the EVGA website.

 

[vj8usa]

Ah, I just realized that 1920x1200@60Hz needs dual link DVI. For some reason I thought single link could handle it, but it can't. So cards that can't go past 1600x1200 on DVI are single link.

 

[bebrewer1]

Yeah, that's it. Maybe it was that the X800XT was the first card that was dual link @ that resolution and I had been using the VGA connector prior to its release. I just remember that because I have had this Sun Microsystems 24" Widescreen LCD since '02 that it was a nightmare finding a Windows capable card that would work correctly in the early years. Sounds like single link cards still aren't up to the challenge.

 

[BassBomb]

Originally posted by: bebrewer1
Yeah, that's it. Maybe it was that the X800XT was the first card that was dual link @ that resolution and I had been using the VGA connector prior to its release. I just remember that because I have had this Sun Microsystems 24" Widescreen LCD since '02 that it was a nightmare finding a Windows capable card that would work correctly in the early years. Sounds like single link cards still aren't up to the challenge.

Have you tried reseating your card? What temps are you getting? What PSU do you have?

x1650's and similar cards won't be better than your old card for gaming (if you still do it)

 

[bebrewer1]

Thanks, I did reseat the card and even used an old Nvidia card that my neighbor had. Even ran into issues with that though which is making me think it might be something more than my video card going out. It worked overnight with the old card but then the PC went into a reboot loop and now won't even post. I unplugged the PC, removed the battery from the motherboard and reset the CMOS but no dice. Wondering if my AGP port might have gone bad on the motherboard at this point?

 

[Adul]

Originally posted by: bebrewer1
Thanks, I did reseat the card and even used an old Nvidia card that my neighbor had. Even ran into issues with that though which is making me think it might be something more than my video card going out. It worked overnight with the old card but then the PC went into a reboot loop and now won't even post. I unplugged the PC, removed the battery from the motherboard and reset the CMOS but no dice. Wondering if my AGP port might have gone bad on the motherboard at this point?

even consider it might be your power supply going out?