AGP Video Card

Greetings every one. Question? I have an old pc, that has win xp. With a intel pentium III cpu 1200 mhz. 1.20 ghz. 768 mb of ram. I am looking for a agp video card. That does not cost to much. Maybe an 128 or a 256. I was looking at theses cards on newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...814130210#spec

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130233

Any other ideas.

Thanks
Mr.Bill

With a PC that old I would update the computer rather than the video card. Agp cards are mostly for gamers and that needs a faster PC.

Thanks CCROMEO. I have a new pc but this one I use for testing software before I install on my main pc. Also I let my Grand Children play around with this one when they come over my house. Also it still works good. So any ideas.

Thanks
Me.Bill

I think Nvidia and ATI made some good AGP cards, might want to check Ebay and places for a good used one. I have a X800xt in my sisters machine which is my leftover parts and it's a pretty good card for a oldere AGP one.
There probably still are some new lesser AGP cards around, plus the top end used ones.

Hello Mr. Bill

I understand your idea using your old PC for testing purposes... But if I were you I'd not invest too much money into this old system. Both cards you liked should be fine. If you use with your old PC also a DVI capable LCD I'd look for a video board with DVI.

eBay may also be a choice to get a cheap (used) card for low money.

At least your old PC is 2 or 3 generation (Pentium 4, Dual Core Systems, Core2Duo...) behind the current technology. I'd guess the system is ~5 years old, and that is a kind of stoneage in PC technology.

You could also think about a new cheap PC as 2nd system. Here at my location (Germany) in the electronic markets it is possible to get enty level PCs arount 299-399€ and you have full warranty and this machines are much faster than you 1.2GHz PIII.

Mr.Bill,
sounds like your "testing" PC is about the same age as my PC.
I assume your m/b only supports up to AGP2.0, like mine? (4X)
I have a card with the FX5200 chipset and its just fine.
either of the cards you posted should be fine for your intended use of the PC.
(I let my 3-year old daughter play with mine to her hearts content.)
the one with the FX6200 has a DVI port, if you hook up a small LCD to the PC.
But the "cheap" AGP cards are becoming more and more difficult to find.

Thanks every one. I don't mind sending about $30.00 to $35.00. I will also look at ebay.

Peace
Mr.Bill

I just replaced one here with a FX 5500 and its really good.

Hi, Chef., Where did you get the FX 5500 video card? And how much was it?

Thanks
Mr.Bill

See http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...me=AGP+4X%2f8X to find 44 AGP cards. I've had good luck with cards with ATI chipsets, but I've read goo comments on nViidia too. I prefer to choose products that have at least 4 of 5 stars or better customer review ratings and have been satisfied with products that meet that criteria.

It might be a bit over kill for that old of a computer, and its kind of at the top of your budget (starting at 35$ plus shipping at newegg anyway), but if you want to get the best bang for the buck, get a 128 bit 9550 and overclock it. The 9550 is actually a crippled 9600 (its the same gpu core as the 9600 but they slowed down the clock speed and locked it in the drivers so it couldn't be overclocked). The 9600's ran at 400MHz or 500MHz while the 9550 is slowed down to 250MHz. The core was designed to run at 9600 speeds and is pretty much guaranteed to over clock a LOT. You are not really overclocking, but rather removing the under clock. I cannot remember what version, but my 3d mark scores went from about 2500 to about 4000 if I recall right. I have it running at 433MHz right now (it would go up to 465MHz without crashing but was a little buggy).
I can help you set it up for overclocking (it quite easy).
Make absolute sure that it is a 128 bit memory version though. I also have a 64 bit version (found out too late after I bought it), and while the core will still massively overclock, the memory bottle necks it so much on the 64 bit version, that you get little or no performance increase.
Mine is this card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102428
but there are cheaper ones that should still overclock well.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102428

Thanks ripit. I took a look at it. It is out of stock. But I don't want to pay $59.99 + $8.97 s&h. Due to fact that it is an old pc. I just use for testing software. And let the grand children play around with it.

Mr.Bill

I was referring to you perhaps getting the second one (for 35$ plus shipping). I only gave the first link as reference as that is the card I own (same cards but different brands). The ati built cards tend to be more expensive (I'm guessing because other companies would get pissed if the ati built card was under cutting their prices with their cards). ITs actually 80$ if you but direct from ati.

If you decide its the card you want, you should be able to shop around and find one cheap (doesn't have to be built by ati, just make certain its the 128 bit version). In fact, I was looking to see who had good prices, and stumbled on an ati built one at tiger direct for 30$

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...3243&CatId=933

Fyi the only reason I got the ati built one is I got it on clearance cheap (about 25$ at circuit city If I recall right and that was a while back when it was worth more). The ati one at tiger direct is also 256MB of memory (the 35$ HIS one on newegg is only 128MB of memory). That ati one at tiger direct might be a deal to jump on fast if you decide you want a 9550 (the price is very cheap so it might be a sale or a closeout prices and for a limited time).

Thanks again ripit. I understand what you was saying now. I think I will get the one from tiger direct. Also a big thanks on your weekly ads.

Peace
Mr.Bill

Here is some info if you do get one and want to up the clock speeds. You can actually flash a 9600 bios to it and make it run as a 9600. You can also just run it as a 9550 and overclock it (safer and faster from what I know unless you successfully get it to run a 9600 pro bios) Here is what I don't like about that though. Here are the different 9600's and their speeds.
http://ati.amd.com/products/radeon96...o/compare.html

you could flash it to a 9600, but your core clock would only be 325MHz (you can get a lot more out of it), and the memory would be running at 200MHz (you can get a little more out of it).
You can test with ati tool and see if your memory can get up to 300MHz, but I seriously doubt it can. The 9600 pro runs the core at 400MHz and the memory at 300MHz. The 9600 pro bios is supposed to run faster memory timings and higher memory voltage (higher voltage will let the memory run faster), but if your memory cannot take the voltage and speed, you could fry it. You could of course just run ati tool and see if the memory will go any where near that fast with the standard 9550 bios to test the feasibility of running a 9600 pro bios).
Also, with bios flashing, you basically have to find drivers for another 9600 card that will work with your card, and its kind of a crapshoot what will work (it might take a little experimenting, and the risk of a bad bios flash, killing the card).

I'm just mentioning bios flashing as it is an option. Here is the safe way to do it as far as I am concerned. Fyi this way does not void your warranty (cross flashing the bios to a 9600 does).

Download modded drivers and install them (you can actually just download the whole catalist package from ati and replace the driver file with the one that is modded to unlock overclocking). download and run ati tool and it will automatically find your maximum core and memory speeds. Sometimes it will just crash when it get too fast. If it does, just watch it and see what speeds it crashes at, back the speed off a little and then run the test for artifacts for a while. Once you know your max speeds, back them off a little and save those speed settings. Then go into the settings and set ati tool to run at startup, change to those clock speeds, and shut down. From then on, when windows starts, ati tool will run, change the clock speeds (they always start at the 250/200 default speeds), and shut itself down. You will basically just see ati tool open for a fraction of a second while windows is starting, and it will keep the faster settings till you restart (at ati tool cranks them up again when you restart).

Let me know if you get the card and I can give you links to the drivers etc. and help out a little. You can find it all at techpower up but its kind of hard to find the right downloads, instructions etc. Here are a couple of links you can glance at though.

bios mod
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/...ng/vidcard/107
faq for bios mod and overclocking
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=2716

On a side note, my card originally maxed out at a little over 400MHz core, 260MHz memory. I ran it at about 400Mhz core and about 250 MHz memory. With better cooling that I recently installed on the gpu (optional but it will give you a bit more speed) the core got up to almost 470MHz and with no cooling the memory was about the same 240-250. I'm currently running it at 422/233 though. I had other work to do on the computer and didn't want to waste any time with stability testing, so for now I just backed it off a decent amount. I'm going to put ramsinks on the memory to see if I can get higher. The cooling is optional though so of course for your purposed you can just use stock cooling and ne memory heat sinks and still get plenty of over clock and power for a computer like that.

Thanks ripit. I ordered the card from tiger direct. Should get it some time next week. I'll let you know when I get it. Great job ripit.

Thanks
Mr. Bill

Sorry, just read it now.
I hope you will be lucky with your buy.