[blitzkrieg1110]

well ill probably have enough money in about a month for a decent video card (finally) and i need some suggestions.

Here are the cards im thinking about (all need to be agp and plz dont say "why dont you upgrade to pci-e?!"):
AIW x800xt (non pe) agp
x850xt (non pe) agp
x800xl agp
6800gt (most likely leadtek if i got this)

what would you guys recommend and why. also, what is a decent psu that can run those vid cards and the rest of the stuff in my system (would like to not spend TOO much on a psu although i know it is important). thanks guys.

[Vrykyl]

for the money id recomend either the 6800gt or the x800xl.... the x850xt and x800xt dont offer much greater performance (unless you really want the AIW features) but generally cost more. The x800xl performs about the same as the 6800gt, but imo with better image quality, but on the other hand the 6800gt's can be overclocked quite nicely (tho the xl's can too) and more importantly with so many folks going pci-e many AGP gt's can be had for cheap

[Flip-Mode]

The X800XL is the current bang for the $ card, its par with the 6800GT and costs alot less.
Its less then 300$ on NewEgg.

[infinitevalence]

I would strongly urge you not to spend $200+ on a dead interface, the next gen of motherboards are not going to support AGP so there is little to no point in investing in a high-end video card if you cant use it in your next computer. Buy a used 9800Pro or XT, it will give you an improvement over what you have now, not much but some, and save your money for an upgrade to an A64 939 and PCI-E mobo.

[felinusz]

Originally Posted by infinitevalence

I would strongly urge you not to spend $200+ on a dead interface, the next gen of motherboards are not going to support AGP so there is little to no point in investing in a high-end video card if you cant use it in your next computer. Buy a used 9800Pro or XT, it will give you an improvement over what you have now, not much but some, and save your money for an upgrade to an A64 939 and PCI-E mobo.

I very strongly agree with your comments infinitevalence. AGP is a dead upgrade path, a high end AGP video card is not a future proof purchase. A 9800 Pro is more than enough for any of today's games - if you game at 1024x768 you will even be able to run most games at decent detail levels, with eye candy enabled.


blitzkrieg1110, if you are certain that you want to buy a high-end AGP video card, I would choose the X800 XT over the X800 XL. The X800 XL, while a good budget performance card at stock, is not the best overclocker by any means due to an infantile core process.

The X800 XT both outperforms the XL at stock speeds, and is known to be an excellent overclocking video card. It has the same 16 pipelines, but higher stock clockspeeds, and a good chance of coming with more overclockable 1.667ns memory.

Here are some newegg links:
Brand New Retail Box AIW X800 XT ($389, witha $50 mail in rebate making it $339): HERE
Powercolor X800 XT Refurb ($367): HERE
Brand new OEM Sapphire X800 XT ($392): HERE

[blitzkrieg1110]

i dont see how its a "dead" upgrade path when i wont be upgrading my cpu for instance.....only my vid card. so how is it dead when to me an x850xt would perform the same on my system whether it was an pci-e card or not. u see what im saying? after this gen of card i will probably go pci-e but not now.....i dont have the know how to change mobos/cpus nor do i have the cash to buy everything anew. now you see my problem......

[infinitevalence]

Thats why you should by something cheap to tide you over because its going to be that much longer till you upgrade. The reason its dead is that you WILL NOT beable to use your video card when you do upgrade, that means you spend $400 now and then in 1.5 years you spend another 400-500 on yet another video card when you could keep the one you have and wait until your ready to go to pci-e and only spend 400-500 once rather than twice.

[blitzkrieg1110]

what about those dual pci-e and agp mobos that are starting to surface......cant i buy one of those when im ready? also, do you guys know any good psus for decent prices that will handle any of those cards i posted?

EDIT: wouldnt something like this: http://www.gen-x-pc.com/MB_ECS915P.htm work and pretty much solve everything you guys were saying?

[Flip-Mode]

It would but its a ECS board...
You also got a MSI NEO3 that has both AGP and PCI-E but you need to check compatibilty list on the MSI site, there is also a BioStar board but again its BioStar...
You did notice that the ECS board is Intel right?

[blitzkrieg1110]

Originally Posted by Flip-Mode

It would but its a ECS board...
You also got a MSI NEO3 that has both AGP and PCI-E but you need to check compatibilty list on the MSI site, there is also a BioStar board but again its BioStar...
You did notice that the ECS board is Intel right?

ya i did, im just saying that this stuff is out there.......so did you say there was one with both agp and pci-e and was for socket 754. lol just forget about it......by the time i want to upgrade to pci-e ill want to get a new proc and a new video card anyways. just tell me which card you guys would pick above and why. thanks for the responses so far guys

EDIT: the only card in my list that appeared on msi neo3 compatability list was the leadtek 6800gt......none of the x800s appeared on there. o well like i said, if i buy a new gfx card in agp now....it will last me a few years until i will completely switch everything over to pci-e (seeing as my proc will be outdated then just like my gfx card). also something interesting: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=904489