Buying a new card which one though?

FlyByU · Feb 28, 2008, 04:27 AM

Ok I am in the market for a new nVidia video card most likely will buy it from newegg.com and I want it to play Medieval2 totalwar. I have an 8x AGP slot and XP Home SP2 looking for a 256mb-512mb card that will run the above game.
The Price Range is up to $150 so I'm not sure which one to get.
Here are a few I am looking at let me know what you know about this card and if it will work with the updated drivers nVidia has.

EVGA GeForce 7300GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 8X Video Card

GIGABYTE GeForce 7600GS 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 8X Video Card

ASUS GeForce 7600GS 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 4X/8X Video Card

Just a few I am looking at for now. Will buy in the next 24 hours so all advise will be appreciated

Reason I am switching to nVidia is because of ATI/AMD's new policy of no support for AGP, XP OS, and DX9. I am tired of the garbage they have been calling drivers which have made most of my games unplayable.

My advice is to stay away from ATI AGP cards. Don’t waste money on ATI anymore. I was with ATI for about 7 years now and 4 cards but they have lost me as a customer now. I post about ATI video cards at every forum I can to warn people to stay away from ATI/AGP cards.

BlueMak · Feb 28, 2008, 06:06 AM

Take a look at this
Radeon x1950pro AGP 512MB equivalent...

FlyByU · Feb 28, 2008, 08:08 AM

After reading that thread it seems AGP users are stuck with ATI which means ATI is doing there best to push everyone onto a Vista and PCIE.

Zelig · Feb 28, 2008, 09:10 AM

Best bet for a new AGP card is to get your hands on an HD3850.

Honestly though, I'd probably just save my money and get a new system.

tullnd · Feb 28, 2008, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlyByU

After reading that thread it seems AGP users are stuck with ATI which means ATI is doing there best to push everyone onto a Vista and PCIE.

That would be technological progress that's pushing it, not ATI.

I'm not sure how it's ATI's fault that AGP is being passed over. New games already push GPU's to exceed the limitations of the AGP bus. Not significantly, but they can. The industry selected a successor(PCI Express). Heck, I think it showed up in late 2004. So over 3.5 years that it's been on the scene. Eventually AGP has to be passed by. Plenty of companies make basic AGP cards...as few people will be purchasing "high end" AGP cards, since most of those systems will be on average, probably 3-5 years old.

Of course there will be a crossover period where you can have a solid system on both formats...but let's be honest, there aren't many AGP configured systems left that are considered "up to date" in the PC world. ATI can't justify producing AGP solutions of higher end cards if there's not enough customer base to support it. And there isn't.

As for support of XP...I don't see how they're discontinuing that. Future driver optimizations? Probably not... but those drivers have been in development for some time now and the bulk of the customers have no significant issues. There will be updates to address any compatibility issues that come up, I'm sure. I've yet to see where ATI is abandoning XP. I would absolutely LOVE to see some concrete evidence of where you obtained this information. Especially since you're so committed to spreading the word everywhere you go.

I just recently switched to nVidia, but it had nothing to do with ATI's support of any OS or any other complaints about their support of what is now, "legacy" hardware.

FlyByU · Feb 28, 2008, 10:42 PM

Well then they should not be making AGP cards if they don’t want to support them, and my old PC can still handle any game out on market today. However, ATI has made a new AGP VC and then do not make drivers for it to work with games I have played before. So anyone with some sense can put 2 and 2 together and see what is happening. Anyway there are more AGP slots and XP machines out there then Vista and PCIE machines about 50 to 1 or more. Not everyone buys the latest garbage to just brag I have the latest garbage. There is not a game out that an AGP card cannot handle if it has a driver that will allow it to be played. I blame ATI for not being the company it use to be. Maybe it is because of the merge of ATI/AMD that has made them so bad of late. As for facts you ask well no support for AGP, and it will continue until they get more complaints and sales fall then they will maybe wake up. The transfer over to Vista and PCIE for most people is going to be at least another 5 years so why push us to that when it is still a buggy OS.

BlueMak · Feb 29, 2008, 02:21 AM

Just because you don't want to or can't upgrade to a newer system, doesn't mean PCIE is garbage.
I also seriously doubt the AGP to PCIE ratio is 50 to 1. PCIE is out for few years now, it is not something new. Attacking something because you don't have it, doesn't make you look too good.

FlyByU · Feb 29, 2008, 05:26 AM

I don’t need it that’s why I don’t have it. Like I said before I don’t like getting push to new things that don’t work. The biggest thing is why make AGP cards if you are not going to support them.
Also if I could get the 6.11 drivers to work with my HD2600 that would solve a ton of my and others problems with AGP and video cards.
Its all garbage give it 5 more years and there will be new Garbage.

My nephew has Vista and a PCIE card and my AGP does about as good +- 5-15FPS on all the games we have and play against each other on so IMO it is not that great of an advance over AGP. So you are trying to defend the "new tech" when it is no that much better then the old. So how does that make you look?

BlueMak · Feb 29, 2008, 06:45 AM

Well, as long as you are not bitter. You might as well abandon PC gaming.
I agree that if they make AGP cards they should support them.
But calling PCIE cards garbage because you don't buy a new system, it is just lame.