The graphics card question

[James]

So I've finally gotten my good PC back from the brink of death and now it's time to replace the fried graphics card. So, keeping in mind I've only got an AGP slot (at least it's 8x) and a 430 watt power supply, what's recommended?

I've been trying to research the problem and been overwhelmed with numbers and little in the way of clear answers. If only I knew of a forum where people weren't shy on throwing out opinions...

James

[cka]

agp is pretty much a dead technology, so your best bet is to pick up some cheap 7300GT for AGP or something

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143102 $120

if you don't necessarily need a graphics powerhouse pc, you could probably even dive into the geforce 6 series of cards and save even more money

[James]

I'd like this to be as strong as possible, although I'll admit that the only real requirement I have is that it runs Spore smoothly. I'm figuring if it can run Crysis, Spore will be no problem.

P4 3.4gzh
2 gigs ram
Crap video card waiting for a replacement
ASUS mobo that may also want replacing in order to fit in a PCI Express card.

James

[Opaque]

I'd like this to be as strong as possible

There's ATI 2600 cards for AGP.

I don't really know of anything stronger.

[James]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...GP+4X%2f8X

They go as strong as 9550, decorated with Xs and XTs in odd places. I've also found a nice comparison chart that, the longer you look at it, the more it might as well be made of random numbers-

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/131

James

[Opaque]

That 9550 is a lot of price for a bunch of old crap put together by a manufacturer no one has ever heard of; including the people who work there.

This is what you want:

http://www.pcconnection.com/ProductD...ci_sku=7960194

You could go for the 2900 if you want the absolute tops, but it's going to cost you. Seriously, everything that isn't the 2600 is going to be weaker even if it cost you more. Don't think that a higher number means newer, those 9550's are old and the 2600's came out like a month ago.

[Dyne]

i know offhand the 7800gt (or possibly 7600) was the last one nvidia made.

[Opaque]

Which while not bad cards, don't support DX10.

[Dyne]

Which while not bad cards, don't support DX10.

well of course. then again i wouldn't imagine he's even using Vista anyway so that's a moot point.

i've heard of visiontek (actually had their gforce 3 card) but i have never heard of the 2600.

also any agp card with 512 megs of ram is just a bullet point and will never offer any real world performance gains from a 256 meg card.

[Opaque]

The 2600 is really new, but it's incredibly strong for an AGP card and it'll do better DX9 than the Nvidia cards.

Keep in mind I wouldn't recommend ATI if this was PCI-e but when it comes to AGP they're running the market right now; which is like winning the special Olympics.