Graphics cards

One other note: When using this card, I'll be wanting to run all my games in 1600x1200 (I run some games at 1920x1440, but those are older). Cards that do not perform well at higher resolutions are therefore out.

In looking so far I'm seeing 6800 GT and X800 Pro as the starting point for the performance I want.

Did you have any particular price range?

The only real advice I can say is, avoid the next gen ATIs like the plague (of which only the X1800 XL appears not to have been a paper launch, and all of which are PCIe anyway). Other than that, it's just a question of price/performance -- how much you're willing to pay and how much you want out of it.

Honestly, in the AGP arena there aren't that many options left anyway. You might look at some of the X850s, and that's about it.

Those are basically the two cards that meet your requirements. I'm not sure that there are better cards that support AGP

You might find this informative. It covers the latest generation of cards in decent detail at all price ranges.

There are two prices ranges, both in Canadian dollars

The lower is "replacement", where I'd prefer to be spending under $400 (under $300 would be great, but I don't see that happening without me just getting a 9800 equivilent).

In theory I would spend up to about $600 before taxes for a "new" card, but given that it would be AGP I'd prefer not to go that route (since it complicates a motherboard upgrade).

Frankly I was happy with the performance of my AiW 9800 Pro 128MB (I don't need to replace the AiW functionality, I've got a Plextor USB2 hardware encoding box now), but I don't want to spend $250-$300 on a pure replacement. What I'd like is a small upgrade, namely to a 256MB card with slightly better performance that will allow me to play BattleField 2 at 1600x1200 with texture detail set to high (the 128MB 9800 doesn't have the memory to do it).

So basically I'm not looking for a next generation card. I'm looking for a "first generation" PCI-E era card with better performance then the 9800 Pro that has managed to come down in price. That means I'm probably looking at the X800 Pro, X800 XT or GeForce 6800 GT. Perhaps the best question is, does anyone have any benchmarks of these cards running BF2 at 1600x1200?

Perhaps a good question to ask:

As I head into less bleeding edge, possibly not Ati cards, I get into buying from 3rd parties (Leadtec, Gigabyte, Sapphire, XFX). Any comments about which of these brands are good? Which ones to avoid?

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Perhaps the best question is, does anyone have any benchmarks of these cards running BF2 at 1600x1200?

My PCI-E 256MB 6600 non-GT can do that with high texture detail reliably in the demo at least (don't have the final), and I can buy the AGP version of that card for $167AUD ($150CAD) currently.

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As I head into less bleeding edge, possibly not Ati cards, I get into buying from 3rd parties (Leadtec, Gigabyte, Sapphire, XFX). Any comments about which of these brands are good? Which ones to avoid?

Well I think all nVidia cards are from 3rd party manufacturers, but the Leadtek cards are generally regarded as better than most others. In reality, I think it rarely makes any real difference.

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Original post by Extrarius Those are basically the two cards that meet your requirements. I'm not sure that there are better cards that support AGP You might find this informative. It covers the latest generation of cards in decent detail at all price ranges.

That article suggests the 800XL is actually better then the X800 Pro, which looking at some other benchmarks seems to be the case. Anyone else covered XL vs Pro?

I don't know about good stores in canada, but newegg sells 6600 GT 256MB AGP for $189 USD (approx 222 CAD). It would be a slight upgrade, but if you can find it for a similar price it'd probably be good for a relatively inexpensive replacement.

This ati store clearance might be of interest to you.

Back 1.5 months ago, they had the X800 XT PE on sale for $315 including tax. I had to cancel caz I had to change my mind about buying a new system. :(

edit: AGP Reviews

Maybe this too 6800 but I would pick X800 over this. The X800 smokes 6800 most of the time except for Doom 3.

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Original post by Michalson Perhaps a good question to ask: As I head into less bleeding edge, possibly not Ati cards, I get into buying from 3rd parties (Leadtec, Gigabyte, Sapphire, XFX). Any comments about which of these brands are good? Which ones to avoid?

If you're buying nVidia, Asus and BFG are good. Sapphire and XFX are pretty good from what I've heard, and I can't tell you about any of the others. I've seen some terrible PC motherboards come out of Gigabyte so I'd be wary of them on first blush.

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I've seen some terrible PC motherboards come out of Gigabyte so I'd be wary of them on first blush.

Their newer boards all seem rock-solid. I was weary about ATI for a long time after encountering the Rage II as well. Things change.

Personally, I'd go with a 6800GT, I've had my card for about a year now, and I've had nothing but joy from using it. Great performance, reletively cheap these days. Just... Good [smile].

I'd get the 6800GT - I've not been overly impressed by the X800 to be honest.

I know the 6800GT to be an absolute beauty, however.

Another vote for the 6800GT. I currently have one from AOpen (standard reference design) and it pretty much runs every game I throw at it at decent speeds. Reviews here, here, here and here.

It looks like I'll be buying tommorow. While a lot of people have suggested the 6800 GT, price wise it looks like I'm going to be going with a Sapphire X800 Pro, which I can get for $305 CAD (the cheapest 6800 GT is XFX $365 CAD).

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Original post by Michalson Perhaps a good question to ask: As I head into less bleeding edge, possibly not Ati cards, I get into buying from 3rd parties (Leadtec, Gigabyte, Sapphire, XFX). Any comments about which of these brands are good? Which ones to avoid?

All of them are quite good, as are Asus, MSI, BFG and maybe some others I missed.
Personally I like Gigabyte video cards and motherboards, quite cheap and usually many add-ons and features (I got Doom 3 with the 6600GT).

Well, i would buy 6800 because it's SM3.0, not like ATI counterpart X800/850(2.1a ?)
If I were not interested in shader programming, i would buy 6800 anyway :)

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