Different fella with the AGP bug...

[Chixofnix]

hey all, I see there's another thread with an aging AGP system, but as my situation is a little different I figured this justifies a separate discussion:

I'm one of those "forward thinkers" who a while back ended up selecting a motherboard with both AGP and PCIe (Asrock Dual SATA2 (http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2524))...

My current 6800GS (AGP) is aging well, and I rarely upgrade before something breaks, but it seems with the holidays fast approaching I might consider an upgrade... what I have noticed is that there are still more powerful options like the radeon 3850, 512mb within the AGP family (I clearly recall everyone singing this slot was so dead years ago!), but of course the whole PCIe world is open to me as well... with that 3850 chiming in around $125 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102730) before any sale/coupon, I'm wondering whether I should pursue this option or if I might find even greater returns in the PCIe direction?

I've got a dual-core 3800+ X2, and measurements don't show my CPU maxing out often so I'm guessing my videocard is my current bottleneck....

any thoughts?

PS here's a snapshot of where my current card and the 3850 stand on tom's "tier system" (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2064-7.html) (new to me - I haven't visited that site in a while):

[OldSkool]

Oh wow, that is AGP......I guess they came out with both flavors.

Edit - I you can do both AGP and PCI-e why not upgrade to a PCI-e since you are upgrading anyway?

[Chixofnix]

Oh wow, that is AGP......I guess they came out with both flavors.

Edit - I you can do both AGP and PCI-e why not upgrade to a PCI-e since you are upgrading anyway?

Well I guess I'm looking for the fast answer: if you look at this chart, can anyone quickly see if ~$125 (the same amount as a 3850 AGP) will get me into a higher "tier" of performance if I pursue the PCIe route?

I am totally open to either technology... just not sure which (PCIe/AGP) will give me the best bang:buck ratio (tho i know in recent history it has been PCIe) - My homework on the AGP side seems to find that the 3850 is about as good as its gonna get*, and the price tag seems very reasonable to me.

EDIT: (* ... though that's what they said about the 6800GS some years ago!)

[moocow]

Try and go with a 3870, I had that board but the Intel version and there were problems if you tried to use anything higher than a 3870 on the PCI-E. You can get one for $79.99 Amir (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131095) from the egg.

[Chixofnix]

Try and go with a 3870, I had that board but the Intel version and there were problems if you tried to use anything higher than a 3870 on the PCI-E. You can get one for $79.99 Amir (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131095) from the egg.

Bummer!

Sounds like i need to re-examine my motherboard's capabilities? Do you know if that issue extends to the socket 939 AMD boards?

PS: I'd love a link to further reading on that issue as I'm having trouble finding it