Graphics card replacement advice

Kannon

Hi,
Just looking for a bit of advice as i think my graphics card may be on its last legs. I have an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (probably about 8 years old at this stage). It seemed quite good in its day. However i'm now getting green and pink strips running across my screen and it's not the monitor because i tried a couple of different ones. So i think it must be the card.
Can anyone avise as to a cheap card to pick up which would be around the same if not better than my current card?
My pc is a dell, about 8 years old if thats any use.
Thanks.

cherryghost

fairly sure it's an AGP slot you have on your pc there then.

they're well out of date and modern manufacturers arent using that slot.

There are however a few moderately decent cards if you're not willing to buy a new PC altogether

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/1730741/art/sapphire-technology/radeon-hd-3650-512-mb-ddr.html

That's an entry card. Would play older games on high, newest games on medium-low at low resolutions.

Theres a step up from that, the 4650, but the prices on those are skyrocketing past 100 quid a pop


They're your choices really. I suggest you keep an eye out on adverts.ie too. AGP cards go now and again for about 20-30 quid for decent cards

TerrorFirmer

Yeah that 3650 is faster than the 9800Pro, that was a serious beast of a card back in the day though - the card to own.

If you're not actually playing games, you can still get AGP cards brand new for 30 euro (Fx5200/5500 class), and of course there's a fairly healthy amount of preowned AGP cards floating around out there.

Also, if you were playing older games, this would probably be faster than the 3650 - though the 3650 is probably better for newer titles and obviously HD - though I doubt you're doing either of those on an 8 year old machine.

cherryghost

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Yeah that 3650 is faster than the 9800Pro, that was a serious beast of a card back in the day though - the card to own.

If you're not actually playing games, you can still get AGP cards brand new for 30 euro (Fx5200/5500 class), and of course there's a fairly healthy amount of preowned AGP cards floating around out there.

Also, if you were playing older games, this would probably be faster than the 3650 - though the 3650 is probably better for newer titles and obviously HD - though I doubt you're doing either of those on an 8 year old machine.

I picked the 3650 with the thoughts of a sub-standard 8 year old PSU in mind :P

BostonB

Just out of curiosity. Whats the lowest/cheapest card you'd get for a AGP system for use with Windows 7 Aero, not gaming,

cherryghost

BostonB wrote: »

Just out of curiosity. Whats the lowest/cheapest card you'd get for a AGP system for use with Windows 7 Aero, not gaming,

in that case, any card made in the last 5 years will do. As terror said, the Fx5200/5500/6200 class will do exactly what you want

BostonB

Ok thx.

Kannon

ok thanks all thats great, much appreciated:)

PogMoThoin

cherryghost wrote: »

in that case, any card made in the last 5 years will do. As terror said, the Fx5200/5500/6200 class will do exactly what you want

Getting drivers for them might be the tough part, both Ati and Nvidia used Vista to loose support for older cards

cherryghost

true. a 6200 would be supported in most of them though, after that you'd be looking at modded drivers