video-card information please.

[Omag 2.0]

Hi all!

Currently i own a asus Geforce Ti4200 - 64 Mb graphics-card. It's still quite good, but tends to stutter in dense area's or using detailed planes ( meljet - posky airbus 340 - ...)

I was wondering what card could give me a better performance with my current system ( specs in signature and mobo specs following). I wouldn't spend more than

[Jared]

I'm not sure what to recommend, but I do know that youcan go with an 8X AGP card without any hassle, most if not all cards are backward compatible in that respect.  

Also when buying or building a new system in the future you will be able to use the card to its fullest extent though if I remember correct there really is no difference between 4X and 8X AGP to the naked eye...;-)

[Zaphod]

Hi Omag.

I'm in the same place. Looking to upgrade my graphics card. I think I'm right in saying not all AGP cards will work with all Mother boards. My Mobo's AGP is rates at 4xAGP and I'm looking at an ATI Radeon 9600xt 256mb, which according to the specs will run at 8x and 4x AGP, whilst I can't find any info about the 9800 pro running at anything other than 8XAGP.
It's worth checking out the manufacturors sites as well as the verious suppliers. ATI chipset cards are available from many suppliers (connect 3D, Crucial, Sapphire to name just three).

Hope this helps.
(It's a Graphics minefield out there!)
Zaphod.

[the_autopilot]

AGP 8x and 4x are cross compatible.

BTW, it would be nice if you gave us your comp specs and not your mobo specs as the comp specs are much more helpful.

Putting a AGP 8x card into 4x will bottleneck its performence a  bit, but most games don't use anythign near the bandwidth AGP 8x can handle.

There are 3 types of interfaces for cards:
Pci-e, no reason to get this unless you want SLI (very few people do) and.or your mobo can handle it
AGP 8x, this is the standard, no game out there that can use all the bandwidth provided by this interface
AGP 4x, slower, but still gets the job done.
PCI, avoid this interface for vid cards.

When you look a vid cards spec, it will say if its one of the above.

I recommend getting the 6600 GT AGP for both of you. It is a decent card supporting directx 9x. Its also pretty cheap slightly higher than a 9600 xt, but worth it.

[Omag 2.0]

My specs are in my signature Autopilot. I only wasn't sure what to look for to examine if my mobo supports the newer cards.

[BDS]

Not trying to hijack, but curious about a comment made. Why is PCI so bad for video cards? I was always under the impression that agp was older technology and on the way out, and it seems like most of the higher end cards are pci.

Just curious, I claim to no nothing. Thanks.

Sean.

[the_autopilot]

Not trying to hijack, but curious about a comment made. Why is PCI so bad for video cards? I was always under the impression that agp was older technology and on the way out, and it seems like most of the higher end cards are pci.

Just curious, I claim to no nothing. Thanks.

Sean.

Your refering to PCI-express when you say the higher end cards use it. Its the newest interface. Its so new that no app today can take advantage of it though.

AGP 8x is currently the standard. Currently, high-end and low-end cards use this interface. This is the interface thats being phased out by PCI-express.

PCI (with NO express) is older than AGP and is strictly reserved for very low end cards. Unless you mobo does not support AGP (or PCI-e), avoid this interface. It has extremely low bandwidth and no good cards are made for it.