Need new video card for PC
 

Poo. Started up the computer and the video was all messed up. Tried cleaning and reseated everything and no luck. Computer boots fine with no errors, no the issue must be with one of the RAMDACs or something.

Was running an old ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (128MB RAM). Happened to have a REALLY old Nvidia Geforce4 Ti 4400 that still works, so that's in here for now.

So, now looking for a new video card that's at least as good as the ATI card. Don't do too much gaming anymore, but would be nice to run some of the less GPU intensive newer games as well as what I already have. What's the best bang for the buck out right now? Looking to spend about $200 or less. Gotta be AGP (on an older Athlon64 socket 754 mobo).

Any ideas?

Finding a card that uses agp is hard enough these days. You can get some 7600 series nvidia cards in AGP form and they will kick the 9800 pro with out a problem. Will not be a big improvement in graphics performance but it should be able to do what you said you wanted too.

Thanks! Yeah, I know AGP is a dying breed. Gonna get a new machine fairly soon, but need something in the meantime, so don't wanna spend too much on a new card. I'll check that one out!

Looks like my options are:
ATI: 1650xt, 1650gt, 2600xt, 2600pro
Nvidia: 6800xt, 7600gs

Which one? Currently looking on Newegg.com in the AGP section, $100-$200 range...

Personal preference is 7600gs. I haven't had much experience with the ati cards since my 9800 a few years ago. I'd just make sure to go with a name brand manufacturer. I find the fans and caps on the name brand gear to be far better quality and last longer. I have had the heat sink and fan assemblies fall off a lot of cards recently and they have all been from the cheaper card manufacturers.

I have ended up back with gigabyte as my manufacturer of choice at the moment. After moving away from them to get better performance I have come back to them for the reliability and stability of their gear. Their software isn't the best and I would stick with nvidia/ati drivers rather then their custom ones.

I would go with either one of the ATI 2600's, but I always lean toward ATI.

Yeah, I hear ya about crappy products. My last ATI card was an actual ATI card and have had no problems up until now.

This is the search page I'm using to get my choices: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...GP+4X%2f8X

And I've been looking at Tom's Hardware guide for overall performance ratings: http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphi...=722&chart=318

The 2600's do look good compared to the single 7600 in the newegg search.

I'm liking this card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102718. Cheap and seem reasonable spec wise. Just be careful you don't overload your power supply with a new card. I've done it a few times. Also check it's not the power supply which has gone in the first place and not your video card. I've had that happen to me a few times too.

I personally stick with Nvidia chipsets. I have always used Nvidia and love it. My old Dell Inspiron 8100 laptops run the GeForce2 Go (first mobile Nvidia card!), my Inspiron 8600 laptop runs an Nvidia Geforce FX5650, and my Desktop runs an Nvidia Geforce 8800GTX (the thing is KILLER).

But yea...stick with Nvidia.

For me this is it - My logic is;

- APG is dying so don't spend too much money
- I've had ATI and NVIDIA - Its a preference thing but I prefer NVIDIA's drivers
- EVGA is like castle - they will warrantee it for EVERYTHING but physical damage - Overclock till it breaks is fine
- EVGA have a step up program if you decided to get a new rig within 90 days they will give you the cost of teh card towards a new card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130076

Sorry I checked the PC cupboard and sold it on fleabay for probably $50!

I agree on not spending too much on an agp card. You could just stick with what you have now until you need a new PC.

if it's AGP 6800GT or 6800 Ultra from Nvidia. you could get them pretty cheap off ebay dude.... I have one of those cards... get the one from leadtek if possible... nice huge heatsink...

doesn't matter what brand you get, the performance would be all similar... I wouldn't doubt it if FoxConn made them all.. :)

Brian, I have a old ATI around somewhere. I think its a 9600 Pro or a 9800. Not sure. Let me know if your interested in it.

That's one of the cards I was looking at. $115 is perfect and should be a definite improvement over the old 9800. It's been a while since I've been into knowing all the brands out there, but I remember Sapphire. I'll just need to also get a PCIe power adaptor cable... then again maybe not, I'll have to re-check my PS.

And I'm using an Antec TruePower 550w PS, so that shouldn't be a problem. But, just for giggles, I hooked up my fluke meter to the rails, set it to record min/max voltages, and ran the PC for a while. All the rails stayed to within about 5% of their rated values under load.

@BP-Revo: I've used cards from both chipsets and they both worked well for me. When I bought the ATI, it had the best picture quality at the expense of a few fps, so I got that. Before that card, I had a GeForce4 Ti 4400 (currently using), GeForce2 gts (still have and works, but doesn't have DVI), and an old ATI All-in-wonder Pro (back in the Pentium 266 days, so it's long gone now).

@phidailo: No, I don't intend on spending much. I will be getting a new one fairly soon, but it'll still be a while and I simply can't live with a GF4 card. :smile:

@Squee: Thanks, but I already ordered the Sapphire 2600xt. $115 plus $3 for the PCIe adaptor cable is pretty good I think.

a Geforce 4 is not so bad.... I had the Ti4800 as well... I still have a 3DFX Voodoo 5500 on of of my PCS.. hahaaa

I suppose not, but the reduced framerate is quite noticeable when I play Need for Speed - HP2 (one of my favs). It'll do until the new card comes in. And that 4400 is huge! I forgot how it's as long as the mobo is wide!

Hey Brian, I havent Looking into building pc's much so I cant really comment on the Videocard, although www.computerforum.com, has tons of info and im sure someone there can find a goodcard for you. Just a thought.

You should see my 8800...sometimes I swear I have a second mobo as my vid card... :lol:

@Pliska: I used to be a lot more heavily into building PCs and hardware, but this BL stuff kinda took over. One of my favorite forums was amdforums.com, but haven't posted in a couple years. I just figured there would be enough talent here to help me out. But I'm gonna bookmark that site for future reference.

@BP-Revo: Yeah, with the memory capacity, clock speeds, power requirements, and physical size of some of the faster ones, it might as well be another mobo! I swear it won't be long until dual PS's are needed; one for the GPU, the other for everything else.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/...p_card_for_115

You chose the right card :)

That's good to hear. Unless things have changed since that article was written, it looks like I'll have to use Omega drivers instead of ATI's, but no biggie...

I still haven't bought a multi meter. After all these years of needing one. I haven't bought one cause I have been waiting to have the cash to buy the fluke for the exact thing you just used it for. The other meters don't have the sampling rate to detect the min and maxes accurately.

Yeah, I really like my Fluke. It's an older model (about 7 years old) but still works great. I've used the min/max/average function a number of times and really like it. Just have to make sure that whatever you are monitoring changes will register on the meter because of the sampling rate (I don't know what it is). The true-RMS feature is neat too. It allows you to measure true RMS voltages of AC signals of a much wider frequency range and wave shape. Other meters assume the AC voltage you are measuring is typical household AC and lose accuracy when measuring anything other than 60Hz sine-waves.

Best part is that I got it for free! The place I used to work had it and one day the display kept flashing on and off. They thought it was broken so they were going to throw it away. I asked if I could have it and all it needed was a new battery! I did the honest thing and told them that the next day, but they already had went out and bought another meter, so I got to keep it! Yay!

I'd really like to get an oscilloscope of my own someday, but it has to be at least dual trace with digital storage and high frequency, and those are pricey.

The new vid card came in yesterday (yay)! Had to install Omega drivers since ATI drivers don't work when using the 2600xt and AGP.

My old Radeon 9800pro had large heatsinks, noisy fans, was rather large (took two slots), and cost about 400. The new one uses one slot, heatsink/fan is much smaller, is easily 2X-3X faster than the old one (judging by game play at high res and AA and AF turned on), the GPU/mem heat up less, has an HDTV output, and was about 4x less money. I'm very happy with this! Thanks to all for your recommendations!

Brian do you play bf2 at all?

No, not much of a fps type of guy. I like driving games mostly.

ARGG! I've had it with this stupid ATI 2600XT! The AGP version is hardly supported (it's all about PCIe now). Sure, I can get drivers that technically work, but nothing near the performance of the old ATI 9800 pro.

This computer is getting OOOOOLLLLLDDDD, so it is close to retirement anyway. But, might make a good kids PC since they don't play the graphics-heavy games. But, it should play the older games fine, so I'm in the market (once again) for a used ATI 9800 Pro that someone may have collecting dust in their basement. Let me know if you come across one cheap.

I think I have a 9600pro. My old machine is running x800xt now (whoo hoo).

Update to revive a dead thread:

Well, this "new" card is crapping out on me. Man, I am not liking ATI stuff.

The last few weeks, it's been doing this odd thing where the monitor acts like it is in sleep mode on a fresh boot. I have to put the PC to sleep, then rewake it for the monitor to come on. I borrowed the video card from my server box and it's definitely the card. Then last night, it went completely dead in the middle of surfing. I found a puffed cap so I replaced it with one I happened to have on hand, and the card works now, but is still doing the sleep thing. So, there's other stuff wrong with it.

This HD2600 has been a hassle from the start with its poor driver support. It's actually a PCIe card with an AGP bridge chip, so normal drivers don't work so well (and I've tried them all - even the hotfixes).

I am getting a new PC from the inlaws soon; they got it ~1 year ago, got a virus a couple times, got tired of that, so they just got a Mac. But until then, this is a PITA. Anyone still have any kind of AGP card in their junk boxes? I used to have a couple old spares to use, but they got wrecked in the flood last summer. At this point, anything that's AGP 4x/8x compatible will work, but don't want to spend a lot for something the kids will be inheriting soon.

I will have to take a look and see if I have anything AGP left anymore.

You know, I'd bet I have an AGP card or two laying around here somewhere.
I'll also take a look for ya.

I might have one to - I'll look tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks guys!

ATI finally came out with an actual working driver for this card 2 years after its release. I used to check every week or so but had given up about 2-3 months ago. Go figure. Anyway, I loaded it last night, but still does the sleepy thing. Problem must therefore be hardware related - probably something to do with letting it warm up before using any higher resolution than what BIOS/POST requires.

Sooo, has anyone checked into their junk box yet? :whistle:

OOPs, sorry Brian!

Looks like I have an old 3dfx voodoo 3500... good luck with drivers for that... drivers were poor even when they were still in business :lol:

Also couldn't find one..
Guess it's in one of the computers that we gave to family...

Sorry! :oops:

Brian, I have an All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro that you can have. You can also have the MB, mem and processor that matched up with it. PM if interested but I probably won't be able to ship out till Monday or Tuesday for earliest.

I have an all in wonder to if you need it

Its a Radeon 9200 256mb DDR TVO

please get out of the stone age and get a mobo with PCI-e:surprised:

I pitched my AGP cards a few months ago because I couldn't sell them...