Best Graphics Card for my System

Currently I have a kinda crappy system. Sort of got ripped off at BestBuy(of all places) The deal's specs said I was getting a 2.6Ghz processor, but in actuality I was getting a 2.16Ghz. Big difference for those of us that are really skeptical about what we buy, especially when we are big gamers, am I right? Anway here's what I'm running now:

Processor Brand AMD
Processor Class: Athlon XP
Processor Speed: 2.167 GHz
*edit*Current Memory: 1024 MB
Hard Drive Capacity: 160 GB
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Graphics: No longer on-board. A while back I bought an ATI Radeon x700 Pro AGP. I can only take AGP.


So basically what I want to know is what is the best card currently that I can get for my computer, that's
1) AGP
2) Better than x700 Pro
3) Under $300

Any help would be awesome on this. I'm really trying to get more outta my gaming and I also do some picture and video editing. I use Photoshop CS2 and when I'm dealing with video, it's in .flm form and can be really sluggish on anything that's more than a few minutes long. You might be saying, well go get a Mac, I say NO!!! Sorry, I've just recently had people tell me I should go for that if I want to continue video editing. Well again, thanks in advance for any help you might be able to give me.

 

Anyone? I kinda want to get this card before I go off to college and that'll be in a few weeks.

 

hmm how come u ddnt return the computer for the wrong cpu, maybe if u argue for it, u just might get a 2.6ghz! anyways to answer ur question, get a 6800 agp for about 200 dollars!

 

What mobo do you have?? When you say $300 it will be assumed you mean US!

A BFG Tech BFGR78256GSOC Geforce 7800GS for $299:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143046

This will surpass your x700.

 

If your current AMD XP cpu is running at a clock speed of 2166Mhz, then it looks like its a Barton 3000. AMD will sell a cpu as 3000 but whose clock speed is lower.

My newest rig is running an AMD A64 3200 but its stock clock speed is only 2000Mhz.

In respect of a VGA upgrade, the cpu in your rig will undoubtedly be the bottleneck in your system. The most balanced VGA would be a 6800 128Mb ram ie n/u, these can now be bought on ebay for about $100-$120. With the n/u you can also open up the remaining pp & vp (from 12 & 5 to 16 & 6) and achieve speeds loosely approaching GT level.

Your current cpu will certainly be a bottleneck with a 7800gs but at the end of the day if you remain on the agp standard for a while you can then transplant all you current hardware to a newer agp board supporting the A64 line up and go on to dual core. These newer cpus will be more compatible with the 7800gs card.

Good Luck

 

Thanks everyone for the help. It seems no one is an ATI fan. Was sort of looking at the x1600 which is the last AGP ATI seems to have released. But I will definitely check out the 7800GS. My on board graphics was Nvidia, and didn't have a problem with it while I used it. Just needed to upgrade. Thanks for all the info. This should be good enough for me to go out and buy the card. Thanks a lot.

 

If you are going to consider ATI you would be better looking at x800xt or x850 series. They are 256-bit and generally faster or better than the x1600xt and the only reason you should get the x1600xt (128-bit) is because it will do "Crossfire" which is not relevant in your case.

Heres a reasonable x800xt (500/500) for $178.99:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102492

Or an x850PRO with a link for BIOS mods;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814142073

http://www.google.com/search?sitesearch=techpowerup.com&q=x850