I want to buy a new nVidia AGP card. What should I get?

[diablo75]

Actually I'm going to ask my girlfriend for a video card for Christmas, but I want to do some research first. I'm looking closely at the GeForce 7600 GS's. Anyone have any issues with these cards? Perhaps going with ATI might be better for the mone? I'd like to keep the price under $100. However, I have to say I've been partial to nVidia for quite a long time and have enjoyed a better experience with them, especially when it came to Ubuntu. Though it seems that most issues that existed a couple years ago are not a problem now. Just wanted to get a feel for what others think.

[Perfect Storm]

If you need to run games on linux I would stick with nvidia still.

[magmon]

I have an ATI, and I hate it. Many of my favorite games from my old, 512 meg 60 gig HDD computer would not run because of it. I would go with the alternative.

[mips]

With AGP you are not going to get anything better than a 7x00 nvidia card.

I would suggest you get a 7600GT, should be able to find one for your budget. 7800GT series cards are also available so maybe do a search for these as they will yiels the best performance.

[Jack78]

Get a new computer with PCIe, much better value for money :p

[diablo75]

Get a new computer with PCIe, much better value for money :p

Eh, later down the road. I've got the mobo waiting to be used, but would prefer to wait till I have at least 500 bucks or more to throw down on all the rest of what I'd need to build it.

[forrestcupp]

Get a new computer with PCIe, much better value for money :p

Lol. So it's a better value to spend the money on a new computer and a new PCIe video card to replace the crud that the computer comes with than it is to just buy this nVidia 7600GS AGP card (http://www.barebonekit.net/itemdesc.asp?ic=VC256ASUN7600GS) for $45?
:D

[Dr. C]

nVidia 7800 GS AGP 8x 512 RAM

[erasrhed42]

I've been very happy with my 7600 GS with 8.04. However, I've held off jumping to 8.10 after seeing a known issue in the 8.10 release notes http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/810 about nVidia "legacy" video support and not supporting 3D acceleration. I'm not sure how much of a concern this would actually be though. How badly do I need my compiz? :) Need to research more.

[diablo75]

nVidia 7800 GS AGP 8x 512 RAM

I would be shocked if anyone could find one on the web that costs less than 100 bucks. It seems like all the cards I've found anywhere take a giant leap in price when going from 7600 to 7800 or better.

Something else I've been wondering about is RAM speed version RAM size. The only cards I can find that have DDR3 memory seem to only come in sizes up to 256MB, while the older DDR2 RAM hits 512MB and proprotionatly cost a little less. Part of me things, "Well, I might take a hit in frame rate because of that, but it would probably make up for it with better texture quality." Am I right? Is it really that much of a big deal? Some people seem to consider DDR2 a "bottleneck" compared to DDR3...

Edit: I just saw a 7950GT with 512MB of DDR3 graphics memory and am on the verge of getting a little too excited. Too bad it costs 90 dollars more than what I'm willing to spend.

[mips]

Eh, later down the road. I've got the mobo waiting to be used, but would prefer to wait till I have at least 500 bucks or more to throw down on all the rest of what I'd need to build it.

If that is the case I would not bother spending $$$ on a gfx card you cannot use later on in that system. Rather not buy anything and save the money towards your $500 goal ;)

[sunoccard]

I secound the vote away from AGP, it's gone by now, that's the fact of it, if you insist on it i suggest a 7800 512 GDDR that's the best i can say

[forrestcupp]

Something else I've been wondering about is RAM speed version RAM size.

I'm not sure about video cards, but a while back I studied system RAM speed vs. RAM size. What I found out is that RAM size always trumps speed. It's better to have more slower RAM than less faster RAM.

I would assume it would work out the same with video cards, but I can't guarantee that.

[diablo75]

I ended up settling for this:

http://images.tigerdirect.com/skuimages/large/E145-9504-main-la.jpg

A GeForce 9500 with 1GB of RAM.

That's right. I caved and decided to build me a better computer instead of waste money on an old one. :)

I CAN'T WAIT FOR THIS HARDWARE TO SHOW UP! :D

[mips]

A GeForce 9500 with 1GB of RAM.

If you can I would suggest you get a 9600, their is a big performance difference. But that card will also suffice.

[Lightstar]

That 9500 should be good, what brand did you get? There seems to be alot of companies making nvidia based cards.

Of course 9600 will be better, there's always better, but it's best to not buy the top cards since they're over priced.

Could always go for a nvidia quatro fx 5800 with:
-4gb memory.
-Massive memory bandwidth of up to 102GB per second
-Fill rates that exceed 52 billion texels per second and geometry performance of 300 million triangles per second

haha actually ignore that last card, it's around $3500

One can dream though.

[mips]

haha actually ignore that last card, it's around $3500

One can dream though.

What do you expect to do with that card? I can tell you now that it will suck at gaming.

[diablo75]

If you can I would suggest you get a 9600, their is a big performance difference. But that card will also suffice.

I managed to exchange out the 9500 for this 9600 before it shipped:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4128445&Sku=P450-9616

It's only got 768 MB of ram, but jeez, that's still three times as much as any amount of video RAM I've ever had before. I imagine I'll be quite pleased!

[mips]

I managed to exchange out the 9500 for this 9600 before it shipped:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4128445&Sku=P450-9616

It's only got 768 MB of ram, but jeez, that's still three times as much as any amount of video RAM I've ever had before. I imagine I'll be quite pleased!

Hey, that's a nice card. XFX is a very good brand and apparently their customer service is excellent.

See the difference in performance to the cards you were thinking about purchasing beforehand:
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=583&card2=563 7600GS vs 9600GSO
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=574&card2=563 9500GT vs 9600GSO

In the process you also saved yourself some money which is cool.


Enjoy!

[forrestcupp]

I managed to exchange out the 9500 for this 9600 before it shipped:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4128445&Sku=P450-9616

It's only got 768 MB of ram, but jeez, that's still three times as much as any amount of video RAM I've ever had before. I imagine I'll be quite pleased!

You did the right thing. There is a huge performance difference between the 9500 & 9600. The 9500 is pretty much the low end card.

[gletob]

That 9500 should be good, what brand did you get? There seems to be alot of companies making nvidia based cards.

Of course 9600 will be better, there's always better, but it's best to not buy the top cards since they're over priced.

Could always go for a nvidia quatro fx 5800 with:
-4gb memory.
-Massive memory bandwidth of up to 102GB per second
-Fill rates that exceed 52 billion texels per second and geometry performance of 300 million triangles per second

haha actually ignore that last card, it's around $3500

One can dream though.

Workstation card.

Unless your an extreme folder @ home then I wouldn't recommend it

[jimrz]

I've been very happy with my 7600 GS with 8.04. However, I've held off jumping to 8.10 after seeing a known issue in the 8.10 release notes http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/810 about nVidia "legacy" video support and not supporting 3D acceleration. I'm not sure how much of a concern this would actually be though. How badly do I need my compiz? :) Need to research more.

I also have the 7600 GS on 8.04 and been quite happy with it. No need to worry about "legacy" support on this card yet, it will still use the latest "glx" driver in the 8.10 repos (according to Synaptic on my laptop running 8.10).