Need an AGP card

[VortexTk]

After posting and finding no real solution, I just need to ditch my card. I have a 9800 pro and it seems to be overheating, even though it doesn't get "that hot"(130 F). I have a BOX FAN on the side of my computer, and even with that on I can only run games on medium settings. Games that I can run on basically max and still play, until my computer reboots because of the card.

Anyway, I have an AMD 64 3000+ with one 512 stick of pc-3200 ram. It's all running off a 480W Thermaltake powersupply. Now, all I really require is a s-video out, and that the card be better than my 9800 pro. Looking at prices, 6800's and it's variations seem to go around 200-220$. The 7800 around 300+.(Newegg isn't really listing any radeons past the 9800, do the later agp ones not have tv-outs? I have it set to search for them)

Would a 6800 or 7800 upgrade be worth it? I planned on making AGP last for another year or two and rehaul my system. Because of my graphics card problem, I have to change it out early and my motherboard is AGP only. Also, would it be a good idea to maybe go ahead and buy a new motherboard and PCI-E graphics card? If the upgrade to a 6800/7800 is justified by their prices, I'd rather hold off on buying a new motherboard as well as a graphics card till later. Spending more money on my computer when I just spent like 600 on it 2 months ago isn't really what I want to do, but I can't stand playing games at specs lower than I should have to while a box fan sits next to me cooling my comp. Advice would really be appreciated, thanks.

*Edit*
I'm not sure what newegg was doing but it seems the radeon cards have about equal prices as the nvidia cards and they have s-video as well. So add x850XT PE to the 300 price vs the nvidia 7800.

[BigTree]

Look into a 6800 GS. Some come with an extra set of unlockable pipes and they can almost be clocked to 7800 gt speeds if i remember correctly.

[BigTree]

If you check out Chevro1et he has a 6800 gs clocked to 435/1200.

[VortexTk]

Well I have a question now. I was reading some other posts and someone mentioned PCI-E cards being cheaper. After looking into cards and motherboards, I find I'd only spend like 270$ on a new motherboard AND something like an x850XT. I thought the cards would be similarly priced(I.E. 300$) with an added 100-120 from the motherboard which was going to be too much for me. I guess I answered my original question then, I should upgrade the motherboard and get a pci-e card?

[chevro1et]

If you can, go for the mobo upgrade + pci_e. I wish I had a s939 cpu so I could upgrade with the ASRock DualSATA mobo (has agp AND pci-e slots) and upgrade my vid card later down the road.

[jadakada]

Well I dont know what mobo-vidcard combo you got but usually its not worth the upgrade if you can spend 200-300, if you had say 500 then it would be worth it but uneless that mobo-vidcard combo can outperform a 300 dollar agp card( namely the 7800 GS) then it doesnt seem worth it. Can you link the products you are thinking about buying, If they are good deals I might do the same and retract what I just said =p.

[VortexTk]

Sure thing, I'll link them.
Haven't bought anything yet. Have to wait for my paycheck friday because I replaced my monitor/mp3 player/ other things in Feb which kind of depleted my bank roll =P

Now for motherboard, I looked at asus 939's with PCI-E and none of them seem expensive. Even others, I only really see up to the 120$ range at max. But as video cards go, this is the 7800 GS for agp:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150129
300 bucks.

As far as PCI-E goes...
X850XT
6800 GS
X800GTO2
X1600XT
X800XL

Well nevermind linking. These are all 150-200 which would fit with the mobo and stay in my 300$ price range. I'm not quite sure how well they stack up against the 7800 GS, I've been out of the graphics card loop for like a year and that's pretty much all it takes lol. I thought the 180 PCI-E cards were the same as the 300 AGP ones, I guess not. So you think I should just get a 7800?

[don256us]

My son just got an AGP version of the 6800GS. When he unlocked the extra pipes, he got artifacts. Similar to your other post. He was still able to unlock the extra vertex shader. His 9800PRO was getting 3DMark score of about 2700. Now he has scores of about 5200. It's a great card for the $$$.

[jadakada]

well I know that a 7800GS is better then all the cards listed, but then again you would get a pci-express board along with a vid card if you went that rout. I don't know, I always look at pci-express motherboards and I can never find a cheap one that will support my cpu and all my ram sticks(I have 4).

[VortexTk]

Well, I've only got 1 stick of 512 ram. The next thing on my list was to buy another very good stick of 512, eventually selling my old 512 to a friend and obtaining another of the new 512. However, after having these problems with my graphics card...bleh. My ram may not have great timings and I may only have 512 of it, but it runs perfectly where I can't say the same about my card.

Ok well, I'm thinking of staying with agp for now. I mean, only 512mb of ram and an older 64bit processor, I really don't need the 7800. I remember when the 6800's came out, the gt/ultra blew the radeon 9800's out of the water so I should be plenty happy with a 6800 GS.
So...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130264

Look good?

[don256us]

That's the very same card my son got. He really likes it. 3DMark 2005 score of about 5200 with the extra vertex shader unlocked.