[Lunatique]

I'm still using a FX5200, and it's just not cutting it for current-gen games anymore. I need a new video card that can do current-gen games (F.E.A.R., Half-Life 2--with everything turned up to max quality at about 1280X1024) flawlessly, but ideally under $200. Any recommendations? Oh, and I need an AGP one, not PCI Express.

[Awetopsy]

The highest AGP card money can buy right now AFAIK is the NVidia Geforce 7800 GS CO. I just bought one last month and MAAAAAn does it fly. I went from playing Ghost recon Advanced warfighter at 800x600 10 frames per second to 1280x1024 (everything maxed) at over 30fps consistently...

Its a $400(cdn) card though.

My system specs are
Pentium 4 3.2 GHZ Hyper Threading
1Gb RAM
^^ That card
IDE 7200rpm drives.
...and some other sweet stuff.

I know its a bit more expensive but if you dont wanna upgrade your whole mobo/cpu/ram its the best card money can buy in an AGP flavour.

Half Life 2 runs like butter on it.
FEAR runs crazy nice on it.
GR:AW runs flawlessly.
TombRaider Legend runs beautiful.

The only game that makes it slow down is Oblivion in large outdoor areas with lots of trees and grass. thats all.

[Lunatique]

I'm looking at the AGP versions of:

HIS Radeon X1600PRO 512MB

and

DIAMOND Radeon X1600PRO 512MB

They seem to be the most powerful in the sub-$200 range. Don't know which one to pick though.

[B0b]

6600GT is faster than the X1600Pro..

[Lunatique]

But the 512 MB will help the card last longer down the line, no? If there are 512 MB 6600GT cards out there, they are probably above my $200 budget?

[B0b]

512MB card on old tech isn't worth it, you'll need a faster sys to really make use of all that RAM (unless you want to do CAD modeling with some truely massive textures)

RAM won't allow you to shift more pollys RAM is for Textures and Res..

for gaming you want to be looking higher than $200 for a future proof card..

to run FEAR and HL2 flawlesly @ 1280x1024 you want to update your whole sys, its not just down to your Video Card - how much RAM do you have? i can run HL2 @ 1280x960 on my XP2800 with 1GB RAM and 9700 Pro (with HDR off) and stay above 30fps

i run BF2 @ 1024x768 with certian things on high and the rest on med..

LOMAC chunders @ 1024 with everything on Med, mirrors off and heat haze off. but its flyable in a hawg

[Tzan]

Generally I look for a $300 card that I want to last for a while.

[Lunatique]

My system is

P4 2.8
2 GB RAM

I won't be doing much 3D. I mostly do 2D and music production. The card is really for gaming, since that's what's prompting the upgrade.

I read some reviews and discussions online, and the X1600 Pro seems to get by pretty well in the under $200 range in tests against other cards that are supposedly faster. It performs better in some games, worse in some.

I really don't know, since I hate shopping for video cards as I can never figure out what all the abbreviation means, and what the tech speak really relates to in terms of real life performance.

[B0b]

my games card guru said can you spend anymore? i said no - he said "6600GT over X1600Pro"

[Impaler]

cough cough buy a console cough cough ahem 400 bucks is better spent on an xbox 360 (or wii) that will last you 5 years instead of 14 months coughcough cough hack wheeze choke
_________________
QED, sort of.

[B0b]

yeah but playing with a ghey controller is no match for mouse / keyboard combo as those PS2 CS players found out when they were haxed by PC players who pwned their asses

[Lunatique]

[gLitterbug]

Word B0b, I'm very curious as to how well FPS play with the Wii controller though. But aiming with analog sticks is something I refuse.

[Giant Hamster]

[Lunatique]

Fuck. Guess I'm doomed to playing with everything set to medium quality then. Goddamn PCI Express trend. Well, at least I'll be able to play instead of watching a slide show. Strangely enough, I remember playing the FEAR demo just fine on my FX5200. I must've had everything turned to low and running at laughable resolution. That game without all the cool shadows is like having sex without the sense of touch though.

[B0b]

PCI-Express is a good thing in some ways and totally sux in others.. current games top the bandwidth of 4x AGP most of the time the GPU is waiting for the RAM and CPU and HDD to catch up!

if you want to upgrade go 6600..

[Yarik]

You'd have to rephrase that

more like.. "Having sex without ability to see."


lmao. I don't think not having shadows is THAT bad.

[Nilwort]

After buying a Geforce 4 ti4600, I vowed that I would never pay massive amounts of money for another video card. The card lasted a while, but Oblivion convinced me to upgrade. I researched some ATI video cards (I've always bought Nvidia cards) and found one that was cheap and had a lot of bang for the buck. I ended up buying this one. I've had no problems with it aside from having to mess around with the drivers to get monitor refresh rates to be forced correctly. The card ships with 12 pixel pipelines, but you can download a bios hack that enables 16. Very nice.

This one has a higher memory clock speed, but is more expensive...

[Tzan]

Hmm I'm surprised that the GF 6800 card is only $150
I run mine with all the settings maxed.