Need video card suggestions for older motherboard, NO PCI Express

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 6:30 am

My Radeon 9800 pro is now several years old. I was hoping to replace it a few months back but realized that it required a PCI Express slot that my motherboard doesn't have. My PC still runs great so I have no need to replace the motherboard just to upgrade a videocard.

I recently DL'd Far Cry 2 and even though I upgraded my video drivers, all I get is a black screen when I try running it so I think a new card is in order.

Suggestions? They can't all use PCI express slots now can they?

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 9:01 am

Well you can still find some AGP cards, but most of them are not high-end gaming cards by today's standards. ATI is really the only company still making them.

Here's a list of AGP cards on Newegg sorted from most expensive to least expensive: http://shrunklink.com/bgei

Your only real choices are the Radeon 3850 or the Radeon 2800XT which will be a major improvement over your 9800. Avoid the x1950 Pro. It's a good card, but it's a BEAST and the other two cards use a newer GPU.

According to this article, the 3850 and the 2800XT are comparable in performance (especially if you have a single core CPU) but the 2800XT is cheaper: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ati ... 939-8.html

You also need to make sure you have an adequate PSU for this card. You really need two 12 volt rails with a minimum of 15 amps each (more would be better).

Now I do have a LAN rig here with a video card in it from this same class (it's an NVidia 7950 which is comparable to an x1950 Pro). Runs everything adequately well including COD4. Not full eye candy, but not turned down all the way either. I specifically upgraded from a 9800 Pro to that card on my old AMD64 4000+ rig and it made a big difference in FEAR and Team Fortress 2.

fords8 · Post by **fords8** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 9:08 am

Yeah, they still have AGP cards.
One of the higher end ones I see is the VisionTek Radeon 3850 512MB GDDR3 AGP (Dual DVI-I, HDTV/TV-Out) . This will set you back under 200.00.
Or you could grab a Visiontek Radeon HD 2600XT Graphics Card for under 150.00.
Or if you can find one, the Asus AH3650 SILENT 512MB is about 100.00.

Make sure you read about these cards before buying. Make sure your setup is up to handling one of them.

Hope this helps!

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 9:24 am

Well, NM, I you guys beat me to the punch.

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 7:37 pm

Well, go figure, I just saw this. Pretty good price for this card.

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=AT-3850AGP&c=fr

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 8:02 pm

Sweet!
Nabbed one.
Thanks normalicy for finding that deal and thanks for the rest of you for all the tips and ideas. I'm glad that I don't need to do another major PC upgrade just to swap video cards.

ZYFER · Post by **ZYFER** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 8:26 pm

Basing on Newegg, by the way, only 59 AGP cards to choose from, Radeon ones are listed as most expensive. I wouldn't expect to find some great the next upgrade around.

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 1:46 pm

Glad I could help. That should get you through games for a couple more years if you're not to picky about having everything on high.

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 9:58 pm

Got the card friday and installed it today. No problems and I can now play newer games like Far Cry 2 and the Left 4 Dead demo.

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 2:25 am

Good to hear. That card should last you a fair while. I'm not aware of any games more intense than Crysis coming out yet & that card will do Crysis at medium settings just fine.