Spec me an AGP graphics card please

They make noise, too.

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Sooty
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Spec me an AGP graphics card please

Post by Sooty » Wed Oct 06, 2010 12:14 pm

I’ve not much of a clue about graphics cards, so I need help.

I want to upgrade from a Matrox 550 card, currently on this mobo: ASUS A8V Deluxe, so it can take a TFT display: Dell UltraSharp 2209WA. At the same time this PC will be upgraded from XP-Pro to W7 os. PC is for office use. No gaming. It must have zero problems with 6 to 8 firefox tabs open. Card must be passive cooling.

Went to check out the MS’s system requirements for W7, and for some reason they don’t advise on the minimum memory required for the graphics card.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... quirements

# DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
# Some games and programs might require a graphics card compatible with DirectX 10 or higher for optimal performance

Found this card: GIGABYTE GeForce 6200 GV-N62256DP2-RH which has good reviews on NewEgg.

Obviously low wattage is important for a quiet pc. Any recommendations, or is the above Gigabyte the best choice?

Lawrence Lee
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Post by Lawrence Lee » Wed Oct 06, 2010 1:22 pm

You can pretty much use any card if you just want Win7 to run, but a more recent model would be better if you want Aero Glass, hardware acceleration for HD/Flash video, and/or better driver support. As for video memory, it doesn't really matter - most cards these days come with at least 128MB which is more than enough.

I would look at a Radeon HD 3450:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102862

Sooty
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Location: UK

Post by Sooty » Fri Oct 08, 2010 11:21 am

Thanks Lawrence. I see that has DirectX 10.1, which might make it more future-proof, but it appears not to be available in the UK. New Egg isn’t in the UK, I just linked to them because their buyer feedback makes it easy to work out the good from the bad. This is the UK Sapphire AGP line-up: http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentatio ... 0101&gid=4

But you’re saying I can’t go too wrong with spec, so maybe I’ll go with that Gigabyte.

SebRad
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Post by SebRad » Sat Oct 09, 2010 4:19 am

Hi, the Nvidia 6200 is pretty old now, I think the ATI card is newer and should be better supported. Video / flash acceleration will only become more important and I think the ATI card is a better bet.

How about: Sapphire 3450 passive.

Regards, Seb

Sooty
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Location: UK

Post by Sooty » Mon Oct 11, 2010 7:21 am

Thanks Seb. I'll go with that one then. I think you found the best price too. 8) I guess it's discontinued, which is why it's not on their site.

Mats
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Post by Mats » Mon Oct 11, 2010 4:24 pm

I know that you're not going to change motherboard, but I just want to show you this:
Asrock 939A785GMH/128M, socket 939, AMD 785G + SB710 Chipset, SATA II, eSATA, HDMI, DVI, VGA, PCIe x16.. pretty cool! :D
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?M ... 128M&s=939

It could be an alternative to a new graphics card, depending on if you want any of the motherboards features, with less power draw.
http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop ... ID=B269120

Hazelrah
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Re: Spec me an AGP graphics card please

Post by Hazelrah » Wed Oct 20, 2010 1:48 am

Nvidia stopped making AGP cards somewhere around the 7-series. Unfortunately, this was right before they started implementing HD video acceleration in their video cards.

ATI is the only choice for new AGP cards, but these are basically PCIe cards with some kind of AGP adapter on them. The drivers are quite unpredictable and results vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. If you get a card that requires an extra PCIe power connector and your PSU doesn't have one, that is another hassle since you will need an adapter.

If you don't need to play any HD videos (including Youtube, movie trailers, etc.) then I would go with the older Nvidia card or an older ATI card when they were still making native AGP cards (I think around the Radeon X series).

If you need HD acceleration, then the newer ATI cards are your only option. Acceleration on all of the pre-HD 4xxx cards is somewhat crippled. All of the AGP cards cost more than their PCIe counterpart.

AFAIK, video memory is not very important except when playing games.

Jay_S
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Re:

Post by Jay_S » Wed Oct 20, 2010 8:05 pm

Mats wrote:I know that you're not going to change motherboard, but I just want to show you this:
Asrock 939A785GMH/128M, socket 939, AMD 785G + SB710 Chipset, SATA II, eSATA, HDMI, DVI, VGA, PCIe x16.. pretty cool! :D
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?M ... 128M&s=939
Groovy! Leave it to Asrock... Not available in USA, but from amazon UK the price isn't too bad for something so strange...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ASRock-939A785G ... B002ZCRTN2

Mats
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Location: Sweden

Re: Re:

Post by Mats » Wed Oct 20, 2010 10:13 pm

Jay_S wrote:Groovy! Leave it to Asrock... Not available in USA, but from amazon UK the price isn't too bad for something so strange...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ASRock-939A785G ... B002ZCRTN2
I guess you missed my link above, a bit cheaper..

silentplummet
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Joined: Wed Feb 28, 2007 4:55 pm

Re: Spec me an AGP graphics card please

Post by silentplummet » Fri Oct 22, 2010 4:48 am

What will become of your Matrox?

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