Help me choose a video card (AGP8x/4x)

Hello everyone.

My computer is nearing 6 years old now and I've been thinking about upgrading a little to give it some more kick.

You can see my motherboard at: http://www.msicomputer.com/product/detail_spec/645ultra.htm

My current video card is a very old RADEON 9000 pro 128mb.

I was wondering if anyone could point out some good agp 8x/4x cards that I could use to upgrade my system. I'd love to find something in the $50-100 price range if possible.

I also had a couple questions that I am still unsure of. I couldn't find clear concise answers on these on the web.

Will (almost) any agp 8x/4x run on my computer?
What should I look out for that may bottleneck my card? I currently have 2gigs of DDR333 ram and a Intel 4 2.0ghz (Northwood I think). I can also clock my cpu from 2.0 -> 2.3ghz (100mhz->115). The motherboard specs are above, so if there is something that may bottleneck the card on the motherboard you can check it out there.

Thanks for any help. There are about a billion cards in the market now and I really want to make sure I make the best purchase I can.

 

AGP is more-or-less an obsolete/expired platform, and very few quality cards are available in the AGP form factor. Check EBay. You're looking for a 256bit bus. Some good 256bit cards from days of old are the GeForce 6800s, 7800/7900; Radeon 1900/1950. I think Sapphire is making the ATi HD3850 in an AGP version, but it's way out of your price range. For the price you listed, EBay and a used card is your best bet, but in a year or less, the card you're going to buy will be out-of-date to the point of being almost useless for gaming since most newer games will not support the older cards and the older drivers that these older cards use. IMHO, your money is best saved until you can buy some new gear. Back in early 2008 I was in the same spot you are now: stuck iwht an aging platform, but not willing (or financially able) to take the leap into new, up-to-date gear, so I spent about $170 on the best AGP card I could find at the time (a brand new Radeon x1950 Pro; it rocked for what it was). But then I was still stuck with single channel DDR400, and a single core CPU. Had I not bought that video card, I would have been in a modern dual core system much sooner than I was. That $170 could have bought a new motherboard/CPU combo. So I ended up biting the bullet, buying all new gear, and selling the older stuff at a loss :cry

 

I got my Radeon HD 3850 for $114.99 from newegg. I'm pretty sure it's the best AGP performer out there.


Of course you won't see much improvement other than features because your CPU is going to be a big bottleneck. I'm running a 2.8GHz Northwood clocked at 3.31Ghz and it's still bottlenecking my card big time. Whether I run a game at it's lowest settings, or 8xAA and 4xAF I get nearly identical frame rates. I think for this card to shine you really need a processor clocked at 3.8GHz or higher.


Now I'm looking to upgrade my processor, and I'm probably going to end up spending ~$250 just to keep this thing alive. That $250 probably should have gone to a new mobo/CPU like dlb said. (of course then I would be looking at another ~$150 for a case, ~$150 for a powersupply, ~$100 for RAM, ~$150 for a pci-e videocard... it keeps adding up)