VCard Recommendations...

[ameilius]

i have a GeForce FX 5200 - 128mb ram

i wanna upgrade it a bit... now im almost positive my mobo doesnt support 8x agp - so with that in mind, and not trying to spend a ton of money... .whats a good choice?

im running a 2.4ghz p4 - 768 mb 3200ddr ram

games i play are like WoW (world of warcraft) - COD 2 (call of duty 2)

links or exact part names would be appreciated

[Kiwi]

Even WoW benefits from a "relatively high end" (upper mid-level, or lower top level) VGA such as the 6800GS ( $200 + / - ).

Your current FX 5200 is almost as useless as an Intel IGP is, but a 9200 is roughly as bad, and an MX is of course, actually as poor as that IGP. If you can't spend $110-120 for a new card, go shopping for something used. Anything from $90 or so, and down, just isn't enough better than the awful FX, to justify taking the access panel off.

So: how much was it you planned to spend?

P.S. The likelihood that a system new enough for a 2.4 GHz P4 missed the jump from 4X to 8X seems remote. You can download AIDA32 from Major Geeks and see if your MB isn't actually 8X, of course, to be certain. You may have been thinking of the last "Might- have- been" AGP incremental improvement that got mostly lost when the MB makers (and VGA makers) rushed into PCI-e.

[ameilius]

i wanna stay under 200 - does that help? - MAYBE 250 if its really worth it with my current system...... being that its 4x agp

[jfk]

Probably the best bang for the buck looking at it from a cost/performance benefit. Only a little over your $200 budget. There is another one there that is only $189 after rebate, but $229 up front.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130002

You'll take a slight hit with the 4X instead of 8X AGP slot, but not huge.

[Kiwi]

On a first pass through Price Grabber, it didn't look like the 256 MB versions of the Vanilla 6800 were still in widely available supply. I ran across this one for $176, but it's only got 128 MB's of RAM on board.

http://store.yahoo.com/directron/pvt40knd.html

One of the gaming magazines did some simple divisions of FPS speeds vs. MSRP's and labelled the Geforce 6600 GT the champ when it comes to FPS' per dollar (that was when that card was listed at about $165, whereas lately you can find it in the $130-135 range if you shop around, but almost all of the 6600GT's have had only 128 MB of VRAM, which is matched to their 128 Bit memory bandwidth (the 6800 GPU's have 256 Bit memory bandwidth).

I think that the 6800 GS might unseat it, but no way to be sure, the way that the on-sale discounts and the rebates come and go.

[Kiwi]

I wasn't paying enough attention when I answered. But that's NOT a comment aimed at "jfk's" reply, at all.

[ameilius]

awesome guys = thanks

im gonna check on my mobo agp slot when i get home

[glc]

I would believe only 4x - if it's an Intel 845 series chipset that's all it has. There are 400, 533, and 800 FSB 2.4 GHz P4's and the 845E supported the first 2.

[Kiwi]

I was thinking it was AGP "Pro" that never really got off the ground before PCI-e supplanted it. If AGP 8X took until mid-2003 to be implemented (the standard had been promulgated a lot sooner, just not put into effect yet), and PCI-e arrived in early 2005, that's 18 months, isn't it? And the Intel 845 would be what? Replaced after mid 2002?

[ameilius]

i didnt get home to check - but ill update you guys asap

[glc]

Intel was slow getting out of the box with AGP8X - Via and SiS had 8X first. The first 8X Intel chipset was the short-lived E7205 Granite Bay workstation chipset, which was also Intel's first dual channel DDR chipset. The 800 FSB 865/875 chipsets came shortly afterwards.

[ameilius]

my luck - i def have 4x

so with that in mind - whats my best bet for $200ish, and 4x agp?

[glc]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130002

[ameilius]

Originally Posted by glc http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130002

awesome.... now whats "SLI" ready mean?

[glc]

Ready to operate with another identical card - dual video cards. You can't do that with AGP.

[ameilius]

ah ok

[Kiwi]

Originally Posted by glc Intel was slow getting out of the box with AGP8X - Via and SiS had 8X first. The first 8X Intel chipset was the short-lived E7205 Granite Bay workstation chipset, which was also Intel's first dual channel DDR chipset. The 800 FSB 865/875 chipsets came shortly afterwards.

When I went looking, I found that nVidia was making claims to 8X with their first FX GPU's, from November, 2002, and all of their NF2 chipsets started off with AGP 8X capability, they claimed. That gave 8X two years of life, anyway. AGP "Pro" seems to have fallen through the cracks when it came to the searches I did for nVidia vs. that standard.

[jfk]

Originally Posted by glc http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130002

Hmm, that looks strangely like one I posted earlier.

[Hi Ho]

AGP 8x cards are backwards compatible with 4x slots. You don't need to buy a 4x card. I'm running a 6600GT (8x) in my older motherboard (4x) and it works fine.

I recommend a 6600 GT or 6800 GS depending on your budget. Either will far outperform your FX5200.