Recommendations for a decent video card?

[TheStrongMan]

So...the PNY 6600GT I bought about two years ago is on it's last legs. I don't do much gaming on the PC, but the games that I do play (WoW, DoW:DC, and Supreme Commander) lock-up almost immediately after I start playing and the video card starts doing its thing.

I'm looking for a decent/cheap video card to replace the 6600GT. I'd like to see some kind of upgrade, but here's the thing...I can't upgrade to a mobo with PCI Express yet.

So my question is, what options out there are as good or better than the 6600GT that I can use with an AGP board?

I suppose I could just replace it with another 6600GT...but where would be the fun in that? =p

[Sensuifu]

Radeon x1950 or geforce 7900GS.

[Skywise]

Radeon x1950 or geforce 7900GS.

I'd have to echo that. The 7900GS is slightly faster in some tests, but tend to cost a lot more so not really worth it IMO.

[TheStrongMan]

Thanks guys...I'm leaning more towards the x1950pro.

If anything, this search has shown that I should've upgraded to a PCI-e mobo by now. Those AGP video cards are anywhere from $20-$60 more expensive then their PCI-e counterparts. :sd:

[Skywise]

Look at it this way - if that video card upgrade makes you able to keep your system for another year, when you finally DO upgrade to a pci-e setup all the other components will get major upgrades at the same time. You'd pretty much have to replace your entire system if you switch anyway, so it might as well be to something a year from now, than what you can get now. You'll get much more for your money then if you do it now.

[Kellory]

Those AGP video cards are anywhere from $20-$60 more expensive then their PCI-e counterparts. :sd:

Yes and no.

You can get a eVGA 7600 GeForce with 256 ram (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130076) for about 100 bucks. Which isnt bad. Much more than that, however, and you might as well upgrade the motherboard, processor, and get an 8600 card.

The 7900 series isnt that great anymore really, and I dont generally recommend it. The 8600 series costs less generally and has about the same benchmarks as well as being DX10 compatible. The only downside is that it has no AGP flavor, so isnt applicable in your case. But a 7600 series will do almost as well, for sometimes half the price of a 7900.

Personally I'd suggest saving up and waiting it out and just building a new computer. The Quad cores have dropped down in price significantly, and the dual cores are pretty cheap these days too. Indeed, your motherboard may be more expensive (or as expensive) as your processor depending on how cheap you go on it. And ram is dirt cheap. The only expensive part is the graphics card (8800 is the way to go for gaming), but even the 8600 will give good service for a year or two.

But if you do upgrade the card now, you probably are not going to get more than about a year's life out of it.

[Skywise]

Right, but a year from now can make all the difference.

[Kellory]

Right, but a year from now can make all the difference.

True that. The new wave of processors, not to mention video cards, will be out by then. It'll be interesting to see if ATI has anything to counter the 8800 series.

So yeah, I wouldnt recommend spending more than a hundred bucks or so to upgrade an AGP card. Better I think to save that money towards building/buying a new system down the road. No doubt we'll see further price breaks on even the 8800 series cards in a year.

If you can wait that long. :D

[Sensuifu]

Right, but a year from now can make all the difference.

personally, I'd wait. The thing is, if the video card croaks on the games he wants to play now and if he doesn't need hardware needed to play the games of tomorrow, then the x1950 seems like the right choice. If you wait and upgrade everything else in the future, you've probably only saved $50 that would have otherwise gone to the purchase of the new card. Unless a higher-end card like a 8800 ultra or the upcoming 8900 series is planned for purchase...then I'd definitely wait.